I got burnt out after passing N3 and kinda didn’t touch Wanikani for like 3 months. I was on level43. I rewound to level 40 and got my 500 reviews down to about 100 or so, and then down to 70, but the remaining ones are all leeches. I am already using the reorder omega script. Does anyone have tips on getting this number down to zero and what strategy I should use? Should I use vacation mode…? I need help
just get em wrong an embarrassing number of times
Getting them wrong an embarrassing number of times, like Alonzo-xyz recommends, is what I usually do with leeches,but if you arent as lazy as me there is always the extra study widget you could try. It has an option for reviewing recent mistakes.
What I do currently is have the continue until correct mode on, and then if I get it wrong I get it wrong. (Well, anything that’s apprentice 1 to 3 I retry and look at the answers to keep those levels clearer).
But as said, retrying them until they decide to stick in your mind is my go-to. If at first you succeed, you can’t learn from your mistakes!
I couldn’t disagree more with the suggestions to fail them over and over again.
This really will get to short term memory. The brain needs to realate/understand not be stuffed until it sticks.
I have a few specific words that just won’t stick and if you fail them too often, you just have to properly concentrate and restudy them and it is often not possible in the flow of a review session, and you’ll absolutely get that study time back during the reviews after. Now with 70 leeches, it would take a significant dedicated time I imagine you don’t have given the amount.
For these kind of items specifically what I do is I cheat just a little my progression by marking them as known if I failed the review to get them to an intermediary stage anyway (around aprentice4 I guess), so they don’t overwhelm my sessions for no reason, then study them properly aside.
I do that with the option in tsurukame, but there are plugins as well if you prefer wanikani desktop version.
I think however it is extremely important to only use this option for this specific case exclusively and not turn it into an habit or you’d just ruin your learning.
But for 70 leeches I would absolutely do that, and allocate some study time outside of the review sessions to correct them progressively rather than stress about it and endlessly fail them.
Put them into a https://jpdb.io deck with an example sentence for each, take the time to either make your own sentence or be sure that the one you go with resonate with you.
This may seems a lot of work but I assure you it’s one of the paths with the less amount of overall effort.
There might be a better way, but focused EN → JP/sentence quiz may help. It doesn’t have to be SRS. But at least make sure you can recall/build sentences from the concept.
Or if those leeches don’t worth remembering that hard, it may worth cheating to passed/seen.
I wouldn’t try to force all 70 back into memory by repeating them in one big session. I would first separate them into smaller groups: words you confuse with each other, readings that never stick, and words where the meaning still feels vague.
For each group, take only five or ten items and give them a stronger hook outside the normal review flow: one memorable sentence, a visual difference from the word you confuse it with, or a personal association. Then let WaniKani test them normally again rather than drilling them repeatedly on the same day.
I built a small app called BentoCards for exactly this kind of stubborn vocabulary. You can paste in just the leeches that refuse to stick and turn them into visual mnemonic cards with sentences and common traps. I’d still use WaniKani as the main SRS and treat this as extra study for the worst items.