Chinese is badly taught. First learn the kangxi radicals,

then the pictograms and ideograms
then the combined concept characters 会意字
only then start in on the pictophonetic characters. 
it’s also a good idea to
know the six methods for forming characters
to understand that character components may be reused for different purposes (visual, phonetic, semantic)
that characters since Song may use more than one method. Song script often transformed pictograms so they could be seen as ideograms as well. This is why 上 appears so often e.g. 虎 7 as in seven sharp teeth on high
knowing proper stroke order helps to remember the characters
also understand the characters are simplified and standardized stick figures which are seen from the top, side, or above
character components are sometimes rotated 90 degrees 病 e.g.