Hi, so recently I’ve noticed that my accuracy for session with large review items (>50) often fall below 80 percent or so. Normally, I would expect accuracy rate to be above 80 percent
I always try to make sure reviews down to 0 everyday (about 210 reviews/day). It also seems a bit stressful.
Basically I feel like my day is consumed by wanikani (commute to work, do wani on bus, at luch do wani, late day work over do wani on bus again, dinner, then wani, then sleep. repeat)
Any tip or trick? I don’t think I would quit (again), but it seems I should not try to pretend that this is not a problem so I share it here.
I really appreciate any help. Thank you for your time.
Decrease your workload. Pause lessons for a week or two to get your daily reviews lower, and then perhaps level up more slowly by doing fewer lessons each day.
By your level you know enough kanji to be consuming native material. Make sure you’re doing that, even if you have to slow down in WaniKani to find the time.
As the other poster said, doing only reviews for a couple weeks or so can work wonders. Then ease back in to the lessons slowly. Don’t jump straight back in all stressy with too much haste because you feel like you need to catch up.
As for WaniKani taking up a lot of your time. Well, you’re learning a new language. It’s a HUGE commitment and you should expect it to consume a great amount of your time. Even if it’s not fun sometimes, keep reminding yourself that this is your passion and you’re dedicated. And for God’s sake have some arrogance. Pat yourself on the back. Tell yourself how awesome you are for having got so far, which, at your level, you definitely have.
Lastly, as the other comment said, start consuming native material if you haven’t. You’re at a level where you can read quite a large percentage of the kanji you will encounter. Time spent on WaniKani becomes less and less valuable as you get higher level because you’re learning Kanji you won’t see much. This means you can take it easy and spend time doing more valuable things, like reading and listening practice.
Agreed with above comments that you should take a bit of a pause. I started getting around 70% during this time, but I noticed that it’s because of new words/kanji that are similaI to something I learned in the past. Maybe try to look into them more, structure and see them at the same time if that’s bugging you.
I would also probably add some leeches/trouble words to other srs systems, but if you want to lower the amount of reviews, that’s probably not the right choice. Maybe do some selft study with the quiz. But if you feel consumed by WK, then do it at your pace and listen to your brain and your body, don’t burn out with this. Consume native material that you want to consume and love and enjoy your journey
But, I think the decrease in accuracy is partially affected by the increase in sheer number of higher SRS level items. The more items I get up to master/enlighten, the more I have that I’m likely to have forgotten. Plus the more items I unlock, the more items I have to get mixed up. Plus. things are just getting more complex.
Accuracy is a factor of SRS levels. (In theory) the more items you’re reviewing at higher SRS levels, the higher your accuracy should be. That means that the more Apprentice items you have, the lower your accuracy is likely to be. The solution to that is slowing down and decreasing how many lessons you do until you hit a target accuracy.
90%+ is probably too slow, 80% is good, 70% is acceptable, and 60% is probably too fast.
I personally target 75%, so I don’t see your accuracy as an issue, but slowing down is the solution if you intend to target 80%
I’m on the same boat as you. My accuracy, especially lately, has been quite low. I’ve been using Wanikani for over a year now and I haven’t skipped a day because if I did the reviews would pile up even more and so would my accuracy and I would end up giving up completely. So I keep going. Also keep in mind that Wanikani does not end when you reach Level 60 so imo as long as you Burn those items eventually it doesn’t matter all that much if you get them wrong a couple of times. It’s all part of the learning process. That’s how I like to see it (or else I would have gone crazy with all those typo mistakes lol).
The only rule I have right now for myself is my Apprentice items list to not be over 250 (it’s an arbitary number but it works for me currently and it helps me not get too overwhelmed). So I may delay some lessons for 1-2 days if they would bring my Apprentice number above that but it’s also not that much of a big delay that makes me feel like I’m wasting time on a Level.
When I have more than 100 reviews I do them in sets of 10 . As soon as the review starts, hit the wrap up button. Finish that batch then repeat until done.
This could improve your accuracy.
Thank you guys for your helpful advice. I sum up what I’ve got so far and my thought:
Pause for a while (only try to do review and pace myself. I feel like my accuracy would go down if I just try to finish the review session, not focusing on what I’m reviewing)
Read native materials (I have JLPT N2 so probably I think I’m not quite bad at reading (but still suck). Yeah recently I didn’t read much which imo largely decreases my motivation for learning Kanji)
Keep low Apprentice item (currently I’m having 100 Apprentices and I try to keep it at about this number before taking new lessons)
Do wani review in batch: Yeah, I set my current Flaming Durtle app to have 20 reviews/session and often have higher accuracy in the day. On the contrary, taking all reviews in one sitting at home (using PC) would be likely to decrease my accuracy.
about using Kaniwani/other script to review: well probably I couldn’t cause I’m having more than enough reviews already everyday with wani. these are scripts I’m using
For some time my accuracy, at least for the past 7-8 levels, has ranged from 60 to 70%. No more than that. I have come to terms with it. I am not concerned anymore, I realize I am learning a new language, like someone mentioned above, and it takes time and effort. I am trying to avoid doing my reviews as a mandatory task and, instead, just trying to enjoy it because I see Japanese as a challenge.
I also need to start reading more in Japanese, losing that fear of “not knowing what I am reading” when, in reality, I do know. As a teacher I can tell you that not all trees or flowers grow at the same pace. It happens the same with the learning and acquiring process of a new language.
My accuracy is below 80 most of the time already I am constantly messing up synonyms with the actually meaning of the word… putting painful when it agonizing or live when its lively
I find the less I care about percentages the better.
Instead of doing large reviews in a set batch size, I’d recommend keep going until you start missing a bunch, and then hit wrap up. I’ve noticed that once you miss the first couple, you start doing worse and worse, so it is useful to take a short break at that point. On the other hand, if you have a great streak going, there’s no reason to end your review session prematurely.
In my experience, it actually tends to go the opposite way. Apart from Apprentice 1, which is really bad for me, accuracy is actually highest for the Apprentice items and drops significantly for Guru reviews.
I’m on the same boat, I used to do my reviews with accuracy playing between 85-95% before Hell levels but then it dropped drastically to 75-80% by 35s. What I realized is most of the words now are those I don’t really encounter in manga or in spoken Japanese (like 放射能 for example, unless you’re talking to a science geek friend or 連邦) or even the words usually written in kana (よろしく vs 宜しく) A lot of kanji too looks similar so when I do it during commute, I tend to make mistakes since I cannot concentrate a lot. What I found very problematic too is when the radical and kanji names are different which I also make mistake often. Right now I really prefer just to read native material than do WK, but WK still helped me a lot so far so I try not to mind my mistakes and just move on.
I don’t think I have ever heard of the synonym feature. Unless you are talking about the synonyms provided with each word. Am I able to add my own synonyms?
I’m only on level 27 and I’m having the exact same problem as you are… I honestly feel like I’m going insane haha I agree with everyone saying that you should cut back on the reviews for awhile and use that time to read/listen to native material instead.
I am constantly messing up synonyms with the actually meaning of the word… putting painful when it agonizing or live when its lively 