Advice for us low-levels?

I have like 5 machines I use to do WK, it’s pretty annoying having to install the scripts on each one.

First world problems… >.>

EDIT: So I’ve fought it again and again, but it keeps coming up… I’ll succumb and install the reorder scripts…

I try do WaniKani not more than 2 times per day, but I target the time using Ultimate Timeline (and sometimes the iOS app, 携帯ワニカニ).

However, I do AnkiDroid like 6-10 times per day. → I don’t worry about the Userscript.

It’s not so much that kanji become more difficult, even though they do occasionally have a lot of strokes like 警 or 懸.

What’s harder is when they have vague meanings, rather than easy concrete ones. Or when they are only different in small ways from other ones you know.

照 - illuminate
昭 - shining
招 - beckon
紹 - invite
召 - call
沼 - bog

Here you can see the combo of similar meanings AND similar appearances.

Though, lol, “bog” feels like the odd man out.

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Obviously the illumination shines off the bog fog beckoning you to come near!

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If you have known or have heard the vocab, it should be easier anyways.

照明
昭和
招く
紹介
召し上がる
沼(ぬま)

This is also why I believe in using a dictionary and see the examples / collocations; and sometimes – thesaurus.

This. I don’t know what it it is with the whole “You have to go fast, and level up in the fastest way possible, and stay consistent etc”. I joined here and went in with that mantra, even though I really appreciate the reorder scripts and timeline to get all the radicals and kanjis out of the way so I can have a lot of focus on the vocab! It’s also nice to be able to do a lower stack of vocabs at the time instead of sitting through 100+ items at the get-go at every level.

But on the other hand, I got a bit obsessed with going as fast as I could since I saw people that could level up in 6 days (or maybe even less sometimes), but suddenly I just felt overwhelmed with items since I had trouble learning a lot of vocabs, and that began to show when my apprentice items skyrocketed and I still had a lot of lessons to do. So, don’t go as fast as you can just because there are people out there that can handle it (Maybe they know a lot more Japanese in the first place, or even a lot more words that will help them remember the vocabs a lot easier, or they do it because they are gonna have a test soon etc.)

Just go with the pace that you feel suits you, and don’t care about anyone else. This is not a competition, the only competition you have is with yourself. I went in with a “I can keep this up as fast as them!” but in the end, it just hurt me because I didn’t have the requirerements to do so. So I settled down a bit, and stayed a little while longer just so I could practice on the vocabs that I was weak on - and at the same time lower my apprentice count before getting on with the new lessons, and then level up.

So, take it in the pace that you feel you can handle or your motivation will drop like a rock (it did for me for a while, until I realized that I have to step it down a notch).

Also as said, the leeches were one of the problem for me too when it come to the speed I went for at first. So try and put more study into the once that you can see is “falling behind” in comparison to the rest. This is something I neglected at first, but is slowly picking up, and it works a lot better to keep the apprentice count lower. I would suggest using the WK Statistics to see which items that are falling behind :slight_smile:

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oh I’ve found the solution for that. God Bless Google Chrome Sign in. It literally installs everything you have when you sign in to your account. Scripts in any computer I log into

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I think the priority is the Apprentice pile, not the pace.

If you have too many Apprentice, the secondary option is indeed to reset the level… Danger Zone.

Accuracy is not to be sacrificed.

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Some of my advice (which I use myself) might be a bit… err… controversial for the most puritans around here. However, here’s my list:

1- Install scripts. Reorder, timeline, and ignore are the must ones for me.

2- When you have radicals or kanji from your CURRENT level (timeline will let you know!), reorder to do them first. This will help you level faster.

3- Leveling consistently will help you remain motivated, because you’ll learn kanji faster. Assuming you’re learning them, of course. Don’t just ignore when you get kanji wrong. In my case, I allow myself to fail on all new kanji up until the point where I unlock the second batch (ie, when I get all radicals to Guru. I cheat on radicals a lot, because they become rather useless after level six or so and their definitions are too strict and at times absurd.) Afterwards I ignore to push the next level, but if I forget or get a kanji wrong that isn’t from the current level I allow it to go back down to apprentice if necessary. I’m not here to cheat myself, just the system.

4- Use the ignore button freely. WK has many definitions that are far too close for comfort, and the system is rather strict with them. So it has words for friend, ally, aide, buddy, companion, all of them different but meaning roughly the same. Don’t worry if you can’t tell them apart, just ignore if you got the gist of it right and move on. You’ll get the hang of their nuances later on as you see them within context, assuming you continue on studying Japanese.

5- Ignoring readings can help too. I do this one mostly with 人, which can be read ジン or ニン without a set rule - ie, which reading is used when is basically arbitrary. Native Japanese speakers can tell because they know the language much better than you or I, I can’t tell a good chunk of the time and there are tens of words using that kanji on WK. No need to keep them on my Apprentice list just because I failed what’s basically a coin flip in most cases. Once again, I can learn which is read how once I start using them in context (For example, I know that when we speak of nationalities we use ジン, because I’ve actually used said words in classes or while studying).

6- Identify your leeches. Those are the words you just can’t get right no matter what.

7- Adding leeches to other systems (anki, for example) can help a lot. WK will show you an item at best once every four hours. Anki can show it to you 10 times an hour if necessary to drill that thing into your head.

8- However, when you identify leeches also identify if said leeches are going to be necessary for you at all. Sometimes we have words we just won’t need, ever, and forcing ourselves to learn a contrived meaning for a word that we know we’re not likely to ever use, or at least not likely to use soon enough to matter, is a bit absurd. If you know a word will be useless to you, ignore it. Move on. Don’t allow a pile of fifty leeches with alike meanings, arbitrary readings or limited use to fester on your apprentice list. Just let them go. You won’t find that many useless words in WK, but there will be some. Just learn to discern what you’ll need or not, and hold onto the important part.

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For me, the biggest difference was spending more time up front on lessons. When you go through each group of 5 items, don’t go straight to the quiz. Click the ‘I need more time’ button, and just cycle through those five items until you can recite them all without hesitation. That makes a huge difference on accuracy, and your reviews will go faster for the rest of your days on WK.

The second biggest difference for me was always reciting reading-then-meaning during study and reviews, no matter which one the question is asking for. The brain has a powerful instinct for memorizing things that occur (a) together, and (b) in a consistent sequence. In fact, those two factors are it’s most fundamental learning mechanism at the lowest level.

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I do something similar, using this sheet. Sometimes I start a day in advance. I’ll level up today at 6PM and plan to start my next sheet in the afternoon.

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I agree with many of the things said above.
As far as scripts go, I use the fast forward, reorder, and ignore for the sake of efficiency and pretty much exclusively use the Wanikani iOS app for reviews.

  • Fast forward has been particularly great when the reviews pile up and I’m doing ~200+ a day
  • Ignore is clutch for my (many) typos and meaning synonyms. Missing a guru because a typo was infuriating when I first started!
  • I turn off reorder when reviews are at a manageable level (i.e. I think I can get through all of them in one sitting).
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If you are here to learn Japanese:

-Don’t worry about speed. Everyone goes at their own pace. Just ensure you are learning.
-Many smaller reviews are better than one long review session. This is more faithful to the learning system. Also more manageable I think.
-Don’t do new lessons unless you have done all your reviews. Otherwise it is easy to get buried.
-Keep your apprentice count low, like under 100. The reason everyone tells you this is because a huge apprentice count means a huge number of reviews. A consistent level-up ensures a good pace for learning.
-After level 6-8, start reading. Go to NHK Easy or get some manga. When you start seeing and recognizing kanji in the wild, it helps to remember them and you can also see yourself getting better as you increase levels.

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All the “MUST” scripts are extremely dangerous if not used very responsibly. For the ignore script this is self explanatory. As for the reorder scripts: there have been many many cases where people were overwhelmed with the workload they thrust upon themselves by leveling up quickly by using the 2 reorder scripts. The result was that they either stopped using wanikani altogether because of burnouts, or that they stopped doing vocabulary lessons and reviews, because they are not necessary to level up. But in the end you don’t gain much in terms of usable language from kanji, and nothing at all from radicals, the vocabulary is what you will eventually need, not to mention that you learn a lot of kanji readings from vocabulary, and not the kanji itself.

These scripts can be very helpful if used responsibly, but it’s a very slippery slope.

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As for me, If it wasnt for the scripts I would have already given up WK.

-Ignore is a must for me. English is not my native language, so sometimes I remember the meaning, but not the exactly word WK wants. It was extremely frustrating before I started using this script.

-The review reorder doubled my productivity. Before, I used to take twice (sometimes triple) the time I take now to do all my reviews.

-The lesson reorder also maximize my productivity so I can focus on things that matters. I never had a problem with a huge stack of lessons. I usually keep them at 0.

In my personal opinion, if a person`s lacks the discipline to use a script, I would bet that it lacks the discipline to finish WK. Of course, there are exceptions. But if someone is willing to cheat using a script, it will also cheat looking up for the kanji meaning/reading.

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First of all, you are still at a relatively low level. You workload is still has a lot of room to grow, and these scripts get more dangerous and tempting to misuse the higher the workload gets. I’m not saying that you will misuse them, but saying “they are safe and a MUST to use” from your experiences as a lvl 21 is an advice one should take with a grain of salt. I don’t know your actual workload, but i personally was starting to limit my lessons more and more as i reached higher levels to prevent my workload from going above 250 reviews a day in average.

Why would the reorder script double or triple your review speed? Unless it also shows you reading and meaning back to back, then i’d understand it, but that would mean the speed gain is achieved by simply making reviews easier, and thus less meaningful. Productivity is not simply measured by the number of reviews you can complete in a given amount of time, but by how much you actually make your brain work and remember stuff in that time.

And why would lesson reorder maximize your productivity, if you keep your lessons at 0 anyway?

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Probably in the sense I described. You can do the lessons that matter right away, then leisurely do the rest throughout the week. Even if you used to have no issue doing them all quickly, it makes the level up review sessions easier to manage.

I like this approach best

Maybe in the future I will have to hold progress for a bit, so I can keep up a good pace and I wont disagree with you in this point. Right now, Im confortable with 200 reviews/day. 250 would be my limit aswell. More than this, I woudnt be able to keep up with my memrise vocab courses and grammar courses and this wouldnt be a smart idea. The workload is really okay at lvl 8 where the guy who asked advice stands. So why not suggest him what helped me a lot?

-Review double my productivity because when I memorize a Kanji I memorize both meaning and reading at the same time, so its easier to input both in a sequence and drop the review count by one. If they arent in a sequence, I take much more time do do them. Also, at least for me its 3 times more boring the proper way, so I used to slack much more. Thats how I doubled my productivity. As for my retention, it definately fell a little bit. From what I saw, not more than 5%. I dont need to learn 100% because the SRS will do the rest of the work. Also if you are studying japanese, you shoudnt only use WK. Even if I dont learn all the nuances of a Kanji, I will see it in the textbook or a native material. I dont need to pressure myself to get 100% all the time. If a Kanji/vocab is useful, Im going to see it in other materials.

-Lesson order maximize my productivity because I dont need to keep them at 0 from day one. I usually keep them at 0 at day 2 or 3. This way I can level up faster and unlock more items. By productivity, I mean learning more radical/kanji/vocab. The first time I used WK last year it took me 15 days to level up from 2 to 3. I gave up because I thought it was really boring and didnt realize how WK worked, gave up at lvl 3. This January, I came back at lvl 4 and been keeping a nice pace so far. Scripts might not work for everybody, but I can say the same about using “Vanilla WK”. “Vanilla WK” didnt work for me, and I wish I knew about how WK and scripts worked last year. Maybe I wouldnt have given up at that time.

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Wow, quite a few people who really wanted to chug through wanikani. I personally took it really easy in that case. I never did more than 15 lessons a day and did not reorder them so I always had a mix of kanji, radicals(till a point), and vocab. I found this method much easier to really pick up and internalize a lot of the kanji especially since the vocab came along with it rather than a 2-3 days later. Without reordering I also didn’t level up in the shortest possible time, this made sure my vocabulary didn’t have a huge backlog, while also keeping it in close proximity to the kanji that unlocked it. I still finished all 60 levels in less than 2 years, so I’m not sure I really lost that much time as compared to (I think) the 1.5 years or so that you could speed through the whole thing if you levelled up as soon as possible.

Definitely +1 to remembering the existence of vacation mode. And you have to keep up whatever rhythm you are comfortable with. Once you fall down the slippery slope of skipping days, you are quickly going to get overwhelmed at higher levels. I have a friend who did just that and he’s now given up stuck somewhere around level 28. I’ve suggested that he reset himself to a lower level and give it another shot. Let’s see if he comes back.

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