Ploughing on with the 1958 Teach Yourself Japanese exercises

Now up to Lesson 7, which I think is as far as I got last time I tried to work my way through the book.  Am assiduously doing all of the exercises, which involves a lot of writing in romaji, and I do wonder whether it's worth the effort given that I want to start on the written language as soon as I finish this.  But I'll stick with it for the moment.

I had occasion the other day to look up stuff connected with IUPAC chemical nomenclature, and at the moment the English to Japanese exercises feel very much like the old A-level Chemistry task where one was given the structure of an organic compound and had to give the correct name for it.  First identify the backbone of the molecule, then identify all the odd methyl and alcohol and suchlike groups stuck to the backbone, then construct a name that slots all of the radicals correctly onto it.  Certainly in the early stages, the Teach Yourself Japanese exercises feel like this: identify everything that will have to go into your answer, then glue it together in what you think is the correct order.