Hey guys!
So today has been a hard day, and reviews and lessons were dragging on. I took a look at when I started my WK adventure, hmm turns out this month is my 6th on WK!
slowly this made me realise, Half a year of doing my reviews every day and normally 5-10 lessons has got me where?
Level 7, out of 60… it’s a painful sentence to say out loud, but oh well. best I can do is just keep going I guess, but this is a hard day 
I hope you my friends are having a better one than me <3
At that pace, it will only take you 5 years to get there, while it took me 6 and some change (plus the time before WK). Also, it’s a short amount of time compared to how long it took me to learn Japanese (almost 15 years until the point where I didn’t feel the need to study anymore)
So, don’t worry, it’s a fine pace. I would, however, invest in a lifetime subscription when the discount is live (around christmas), as it’s way cheaper than monthly or yearly in the long run.
I think that the best pace is your own pace y’know?
It’s hard when you feel like you’re not going at the pace you see other people go or feel like you should go. But at least for me I know if I expect myself to do too much too quick I’ll get discouraged or frustrated and then give up for years and lose out on that time. Whereas if I make progress, however fast or slow, its still progress. Way more progress than when I give up.
Or at least that’s my two cents. Because its kind of funny but I was literally just thinking about that a moment ago.
You’re on level 7, which means that you have learned at least 208 kanji. Do you know how many kanji Japanese schoolchildren learn? In first grade, they learn 80 kanji. That is an average of 7 kanji per month. So you’re already far ahead of Japanese schoolchildren.
It’s better to go ‘too’ slow than to go too fast!
When I first started about five months ago, I wanted to rush through the levels as quickly as possible. I got to level 12 in under four months and thought I was making good progress. But then I had a few days (and only a few days!) where I wasn’t able to keep up with reviews, and they started racking up FAST! Even once I was able to do a lot of reviews again, I wasn’t able to get below 300 before they started piling up again. I kept getting things wrong because I was trying to learn too much and the SRS wasn’t able to work as it should. I felt like giving up.
Instead, I reset it back a few levels, and then a few more (from level 12 to level 6). Now I’m on level 7 again and am taking it at a MUCH better pace. I’m focusing on actually learning the vocabulary from each level instead of prioritising the kanji I need to advance to the next level. I’m making sure I never have over 100 items in the ‘apprentice’ category. It’s taking a lot longer to progress from level to level, but my review pile is more manageable and I’m actually learning more Japanese than when I was prioritising speed.
So I’d say no, you’re not moving too slowly at all. Even if other people are moving faster, that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with your speed if it works for you. And my own case should show that you can waste a lot more time by moving too fast than by taking it at your own pace.
Your pace is always the best pace 
It really depends on how people learn and it’s up to you anyway to share your progress with others or not.
“ALWAYS in your own pace” - a great unknown dude during gaming with him.
There is no point in feeling slow, if it’s the right pacing for you.
Some like it fast, some like it slow (yes I coincidentally thought the same thing while writing this).
All is fine as long as you’re staying on track and giving it your best.
Rember that learning Japanese is a marathon and no 100m sprint.
遅いのは良い
I just checked my stats, and I started in February, and am on level 8; so going a little slower than you are overall. That feels like a good pace for me. It is sustainable, I’ve never missed a day, I am always able to zero my reviews by the end of the day, my accuracy is tolerable, and I have time for other study and the rest of my life!
I have found the 
Let’s Durtle the Scenic Route 
- WaniKani - WaniKani Community quite reassuring on that point. (Though I am slower even than many confessed durtlers!)
I’m only lvl2 and i already feel the need to focus on my pace and don’t force myself into doing the reviews and lessons all at once. Just try to learn from different sources : some WK, some grammar, some anime, some reading (i really like the posts about this i saw on this forum and can’t wait to be able to join the beginner group!), and don’t overdo anything.
I’ll have been doing this 4 years in December and I’m only on level 37. I have 3 months a year when I do no lessons at all because I’m busy at work, and the rest of the time I try to keep my apprentice items to no more than 60 because I know that’s my sweet spot. Better to take 8 years to reach the end than burn out and never reach it at all.
If you worry about your daily workload, you should take a look on the ultimate wanikani guide. link posted below. Tbh it’s much to read but it’s worth your time and absolutely interesting if you don’t know this thread already.
You think you are too slow or fast? Then there are many ways to check that yourself with scripts or even wkstats.com.
But always remember, you will get to the end someday if you do your reviews and lessons regularly. It doesn’t matter how much you do in detail. We all will reach lv 60 with enough passion to move on.
No worries. I’m on the slower side. I’m coming up on 2 years
People like to think they can choose the speed they learn in, but really it’s gonna happen in the speed it happens. I was doing 25 a day for a while, and I thought I could keep up with it, but then I had to reset 10 levels twice, because they weren’t sticking. So the speed was cut in half away. I’d say 15 a day is the max most brains can handle. Once you have master, enlightened and burns all piled up on each other, you brain is stretched.
I do 15 a day and I level up about 2-3 times a month, and it works for me. So you could consider increasing to 15 a day, but I wouldn’t go crazy with the speed either.
But if you like 5-10, just keep it up. One day you will be finished and you will be glad you did it, instead of putting it off for ten years like I did.
There is this nice わせい adjective in Japanese - マイペース
So if you’re doing it マイペースに, you’re doing fine 
I think the only thing that is important is to understand and have a realistic sense of how your speed will impact your overall learning.
One of the commenters said that they spent 15 years on studying Japanese. Given that timeframe, taking a bit longer to complete WK should be no issue at all.
It also heavily depends on how WK fits in with your overall learning journey, how much you’re doing outside of WK etc.
For me, I want to get through WK without rushing but also without spending years on it, as I feel that having completed WK is only the very first stage. On the other hand, I don’t read a ton (mostly Genki material so far) and I have basically no listening or speaking skills to speak of. Other people might want to immediately jump into reading or even speaking/listening more and in that case, WK is probably less of a “first step” and more of a constant companion. I can’t say which approach is better but probably both are doable.
The problem with going slow is that if WK is all you’re doing… and you’re going really slow… then after years of “studying Japanese” you still won’t actually be able to read, say or understand anything.
If you’re only doing 30 mins of studying a day it’s probably better to spend it on something else in my opinion. Unless you’re fine with just learning kanji and vocab without learning sentences/reading/listening/speaking etc.
Level 7 may not sound like much, but look at it this way. Level 7 is 91.14% of the n5 kanji and 52.41% of the n4 kanji. If you continue this pace in another six months you will be level 14 which is 98.73% of the n5 and 90.36% of the n4. That’s quite a lot, you are doing fine. Do some grammar along side that and you will get there eventually.
Don’t be discouraged because you see people doing all 60 levels in a year. I say this in a nice way and with all respect buuuut the people who do that are crazy. 
They sleep dream and eat kanji, they set alarms and wake up just to do reviews at 2am then go back to sleep. They do two to three hours of reviews a day along with grammar. Don’t… judge yourself to their standards.
Sheesh. A full month per level clearly indicates you are an absolute slacker, unworthy, and should be met with absolute disdain. Your only hope is to get your pace up to 4 days per level max and get to level 60 within 327.38 more days.
IS THAT A PLEDGE PIN ON YOUR UNIFORM?!!
… I’m KIDDING, of course! Like everyone else on this thread, I believe everyone has their own “optimal” pace and level 7 in six months is something to be proud of, not something to be embarrassed about. For what it’s worth, I didn’t feel like I’d figured out my optimal pace until I reached level 18 or so. It took quite a while to “get my sea legs”.
The basic algorithm isn’t hard to learn: do your reviews (almost) every day, back off on lessons when it starts to feel like a real slog, do more lessons when it starts to feel easy, and be patient.
What is hard is keeping it easy enough to stay motivated while still missing just enough to keep it challenging. The absolute number of reviews in your queue each day, and the percentage you answer correctly have the biggest effect on your motivation: it takes a LOT of reviews (much more than 6 months in my case) until you develop a feel for your personal “optimal” pace for lessons.
Enjoy the process and remember that even burning all 9000+ items on WK doesn’t mean you’re “finished”. It’s just a step on a never-ending journey.
Congrats to you Travis san on making it to your 6 month WK anniversary 
Move at whatever pace suits you the most. I am coming off a 80 day level 
As @BonusBread san eloquently put it in another thread,
WK is for burning reviews not yourself
I’d say, join us in the Skytree thread (you will see how normal/regular your pacing conundrum is on the forum 
)
Good luck 
If you are also studying grammar, this pace will work just fine. Once you can concentrate on this, you can speed it up if you feel comfortable to do so. Honestly, in the early stages of learning, tackling 5 kanji a day is taxing. Once you get more familiarity with grammar and just have more listening exposure, things get easier.
Either way, it looks like you’ll need to move at a pace that makes a lifetime account the best deal. Keep an eye on the site for possible new year’s discounts come late December into early January.