Right now I feel like I’m just sorta glancing over the lessons, then actually learning the material after failing the reviews a few times in a row.
Are there any tips for doing a better job of remembering the content the first time I see it?
3 Likes
I’ve started actually drawing out some of the mnemonics that are supplied, but there are a few kanji where i just have to bang my head against the SRS until it eventually sticks.
3 Likes
After I do the lessons, there’s a page where it shows everything overall in that lesson. I go through each one, and try to remember each radical/kanji/vocab, then start pointing at them randomly, until I know all of them. Then usually, they stick a little better than just seeing them 2 times before reviews.
7 Likes
You could also write out the kanji with the correct stroke order as you do it. A lot of studies show that writing things down (even just in the air with your finger), helps you memorize it better.
2 Likes
What @adeli said. On this page if you move the mouse over an item the meaning and reading will display in a popup. I go over each item and recite the meaning and readings. Then I check my answers by moving the mouse. If I have further questions, like a need to check out the mnemonics, I click on the item to open the item page.
If you leave that page you can go back to it by clicking on the lessons button. It will remain accessible until you do new lessons.
After all that I quiz myself with the Self Study Quiz script. If you install the Additional Filters script there will be a Recent Lessons filter added to Self Study. I use it to quiz myself on the lessons I have just learned.
4 Likes
Is it wrong to say that failing the reviews and waiting for SRS to stick is exactly my method? 
12 Likes
For this, I recommend kanji.sh, and it goes by level, so it is easily accessible. Usually I learn the stroke after I guru it, but after lessons would work too!
3 Likes
For the sake of your future self, please go through lessons slowly using the mnemonics. If you fail a review for an item that’s below guru, you need to review the mnemonic. As someone who used to use the same process as you, it comes back to bite you… big time.
5 Likes
Paying close attention to the mnemonics is probably your best bet. Give them something to stick to in your brain.
But if you’re like me and don’t like using them: I click the kanji+vocabulary for the level I’m on and go through trying to remember them a couple times a day. Only takes a few minutes at most, and usually by the time I level up they’ve stuck pretty well.
After that, I just let the SRS do the work for me.
1 Like
I agree with this 100%. I find myself rushing through lessons sometimes, not reading the mnemonics very well. Later on it becomes a HUGE issue. With vocabulary its bad enough, but remember getting stuck on kanji can slow down your level up speed, and lock you out of vocab lessons that use said kanji until you manage to guru it.
My brain would simply not remember the reading mnemonic for 写。It locked me out of vocabulary like “To be photographed” for way longer than I’d like to admit.
1 Like
I actually take a “proactive” approach to every lesson. I look up everything a day before everything unlocks, write down the kanji/stroke order as well so its sticks better, and I find/read ALOT of example sentences for new vocab… I fly through the actual lesson in a matter of minutes by doing this. Then between the first lesson and the first review, I spend about 15-20 minutes drilling the new material and saying everything out-loud. I do it this way because even though the mnemonics help me, I don’t want to have to rely on them during actual reviews since its slows everything down. By the time the first review comes along, I’m already recognizing everything without too much thinking involved. Then I leave the rest to the system’s spacing. Rinse and repeat.
Something that helps me tremendously is using other programs and study materials alongside WK. Everything I learn from each study tool gets reinforced by the other tools I use. I’m currently reading Yotsubato! which is relatively easy language, but it’s still an amazing feeling to come across vocabulary and kanji I’ve studied and know what’s going on. Which only reinforces what I learn even more.
1 Like
Like the others said. Stick with mnemonics also.i repeat the meaning/reading couple times outloud
1 Like
This is how I did it, and it went fine 
. In the beginning I used the mnemonics, but later I just blazed through lessons, and let the reviews take care of it. The initial lesson is always there to make sure you learned them correctly.
EDIT: Compared to vocab, on the kanji I did sometimes put some extra effort usually somewhere during the day to avoid failing apprentice reviews, if I was really keen on leveling (not right before reviews, of course).
4 Likes
I’m doing the same, and like @morteasd said, it’s been working so far. Your level up time will be a bit slower, but I prefer to use the first few apprentice levels to weed out the ones I need to spend more time on.
2 Likes
Yeah, me too. I don’t think it’s necessary to spend all that much time on the lessons. Especially the vocab I just steamroll through! 
I only spend real time on the items I fail the first review on.
I do however spend time taking notes during the kanji lessons. I especially look at the example words, as it’s a preview of stuff you’ll learn once you guru kanji, but also a way to connect new knowledge with old knowledge as you see the combos kanji make for vocab.
And there are several new kanji you’ll encounter on the same level, that will form a new vocab item together. Like kyoudai: = brothers: so you have big brother first, then little brother. boom, you now know the readings for big brother and little brother, because together they are brothers: kyou+dai
So, that’s also a way to make readings stick! ^^
3 Likes
Aye, if I can guess the meaning correctly I’ll just move on to the next one. The only ones I read through are with rendaku or weirdness like 湿気 reading しっけ instead of しっき like I would have guessed.
1 Like
Exactly. You should be able to read the vocab fine if you have gurud the kanji (and not cheated your way through! ^^; )
So, I’m only really careful around rendaku and weird readings.
For them, I do spend some time just repeating the word in my mind. Because oddities will always require you to do some repetition learning for it to stick. The rest the SRS will help you with.
1 Like
For the radicals and kanji, I do find it’s either stuck or it hasn’t and the only way to really know is to wait for the first/second review. If I fail them then I start trying to ‘reinforce’ the nemonic a bit (I have a whole extended universe in my head about [Nin]tendo doing the work of evil; thanks Wanikani 
)
For the vocabulary, though, I find it a useful exercise to read every context sentence out loud and then listen back. There are two userscripts that make this more useful, the one that highlights kanji you should know and the other that gives you a text-to-speech button).
Open jisho.org and copy all the additional meanings of the item which you find suitable for you.
Create own mnemonics. Though lvl 4 is such an early stage that I am not sure you can do it properly, without damaging what WK did and will do. Personally even when I find WK’s mnemonic plausible, I usually try to process it through my line of logic and restructurize it so it has better % of sync. with my brain. So you can try that.
Also digging into some wiki about word’s history and stuff may help. Either way, the more actual work you do at the lesson page, the better. Just staring at the item won’t help.
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.