You know those radicals, kanji, and vocabulary that give you trouble in your reviews?
Newly learned items.
Kanji that look like other kanji.
Vocabulary with similar meanings.
Transitive / Intransitive verbs.
Exceptional readings.
That one vocabulary word that for whatever reason doesn’t fit with how your brain works. At all.
I could probably go on for a bit.
To help with those, and more, we’ve added an “Extra Study” mode on WaniKani. These are separate review sets covering specific groups of items that don’t count toward—or against—your regular Lessons and Reviews. They are, well, a way to get in some extra study.
As of right now, we’ve added two Extra Study groups that you can use:
- Recent Lessons: As the name suggests, these are Lessons you completed recently. I’m stating the obvious here, but things you’ve just learned are things you’re most likely to forget. The memory has barely formed, after all. Review these items a few extra times after learning them in Lessons and you’ll find yourself recalling them better in Reviews.
- Recent Mistakes: Recent mistakes is populated by the items you recently got incorrect in your Reviews. You can now easily spend a little extra time with them so you remember them in your next Reviews session. I’d recommend running through this group as soon as you finish a review session (assuming you get anything wrong).
We think Recent Lessons and Recent Mistakes will help you to memorize those trouble-items more effectively. In some cases, even prevent them. Spending a little time in Extra Study should help you to spend less overall time in your Reviews. At the very least, you may be able to take care of some of those leeches.
We also see the potential for some other “Extra Study” item groups (ones we haven’t added, yet). You may see more Extra Study options in the future, though we think these two are going to be the most useful for most of you right now.
Please try it out and let us know what you think. And if you find any bugs or problems, please email us at hello@wanikani.com and we’ll take care of them.
よろしく from all of us
Q. Won’t this mess up the SRS?
A. I don’t believe so. SRS is more about time management as it is about memorization. Studying the same things a whole bunch will lead to memorization, too. Spaced repetition is just a much more time-efficient way of doing it. It lets you study each item less often, so you can spend your time studying more in the same amount of time. But, there are always some radicals, kanji, and vocabulary that will especially benefit from extra study. That’s what this is focused on. We think it’s a good balance between studying more and being smart about how much time you spend doing it.
Q. Do I have to do these extra reviews?
A. Nope. You can still progress through WaniKani without touching the Extra Study options.
Q. Do I need to pay more to access Extra Study?
A. No, it is a part of your subscription. Free users will also have access to any unlocked items they have, levels 1-3.
Q. How often should I do Extra Study reviews?
A. That’s up to you. We don’t think it should take up a disproportionate amount of your study time. Use it if you feel like it’s helping, but if you’re doing well in your reviews already, you may not necessarily need it. There will be times when extra study will be helpful, and other times where it won’t. Using “Recent Mistakes” after a review session sounds helpful, for example. Or running through Recent Lessons after learning new items.
Q. Can I customize Extra Study sessions?
A. Not at this time, but we hope to add more Extra Study item groups in the future.
Q. I use a script that does this, why should I use WK’s built-in version?
A. Use whatever helps you to make more progress. I don’t care as long as you’re getting better at Japanese.