At Lvl 56- 1500+ Reviews😬

WaniKani Requesting Help
#8

Thank you very much for the tips, @Rihn! :slightly_smiling_face:

For the first time since my use of WK, I accessed WKStats, and found out that I have apprentice items in nearly every level (with only a few in the lowers levels, increasing to several dozen in the higher levels).

I find myself a bit hesitant to download the scripts, due to a mixture of unfamiliarity and paranoia revolving around them (I just learned that scripts exist). Simultaneously, I don’t know if they are downloadable on mobile devices or not, as some attempts have resulted in errors.

Perhaps it would be wise for me to reset to level 47 (where the apprentices first appear en masse), and retry things at a slower rate.

4 Likes
#9

I just worked through this myself, albeit it at level 10 with 900 reviews. I just started doing ~200 per day until the number got to a maintainable level then started doing 5-15 new reviews per day depending on how I was feeling. At first your accuracy will be low after coming back from a while gone and it will feel overwhelming, but with time you’ll get that 1500 down to a maintainable amount and burn some!

1 Like
#10

For iOS at least, scripts won’t work because you need an extension, which isn’t possible on iOS. And on all honesty, not using scripts is like walking in the desert rather than having a full team of chefs and support to get you there. I’d be nothing without my own scripts but each to his own and if you can, please get a few of the essential ones (can’t link them at the moment but there’s a few threads on scripts and such).

1 Like
#11

Scripts don’t work on mobile devices I believe. There’s a couple of unofficial mobile apps that include certain script like functions depending on your device. You can find them here.
The New And Improved List Of API and Third Party Apps
Take a look and see which one best suits you.
I think Tsurukame (IOS) and Flaming Durtles (Android) are the most commonly used ones.

If level 47 is the start of where most of the levels are in apprentice then you should probably reset to there. I’d say if 50% or higher of the level is at apprentice then that should be where you go back to.

2 Likes
#12

The hazard of doing ~200 per day all at once is that if those cards are at the same level, they’ll all come back at the exact same time. Doing 200 today means you’re likely doing 200 this time next week. I’m in a situation where I went on “vacation” 3 1/2 years ago at level 56, with a review count of 550, and because I barely remember a single one of those items, it’s ballooned to 650 over two days, and is on track to hit a thousand by the weekend.

My long-term strategy I think is to do maybe 60 a day, and possibly use a reorder script so that I actually get a chance to remember them – SRS doesn’t work if the R gets delayed a week or a month.

1 Like
#13

I’ve come back from ~3000 reviews twice now, and feel like I have an approach that works.

For one I would say to not reset if at all possible. It will just throw away months of progress on items that you do know.

Other than that, for sure take no more new lessons until you get your Apprentice count down to under 100.

Then pick a date you want your review count to be down to 0. Let’s arbitrarily say July 1, 36 days from now. And just aim to chip away at the review pile incrementally every day. 1500 items / 36 days = 42 per day. Just aim to have that number down at least 42 every day. Of course that will involve more than precisely 42 reviews and more things come up, but it’s a sustainable pace and you will whittle it down in small chunks. It’s far more manageable than trying to do all 1500 at once.

This stands out to me - that’s a long time. 100 cards, two “sides” per card, 3600 seconds in an hour
 that’s 18 seconds per answer. Can you try to get that down? Push yourself a little faster. If you don’t know something you don’t know it - perfectly fine to just get it wrong and move on.

The more you push yourself like that, IMO the better it will be in command of the language; the goal is to have instant recall. I started pushing my pace a little more every day and now ~100 cards takes me ~15 minutes.

In doing so that makes all of this less daunting as well, increasing your throughput and not taking up as much of the day.

5 Likes
#14

I think the most important thing to do right now is to stop doing new lessons until you are back in control. 5 might not sound like much, but in your situation you are just making things worse.

As you are probably realizing now, a card is not learned when you add it as a lesson. It will continue to come back for months. Some are easily learned and reach burn in about 6 months. Others will haunt you and continue to appear for much longer while your brain tries to learn them.

My point is: Reaching level 60 is not the end, so stop trying to rush there. Just do your reviews at whatever pace you are comfortable with. If run out of reviews and have more time to dedicate, do a few lessons, but don’t over do it. The number of out standing daily reviews don’t really matter. In the end, it’s the time you put in that will teach you Japanese, so just keep doing them and you will attain your goals.

2 Likes
#15

Level 47 isn’t too far off from where you are now, and it will solve a big part of the problem. Ultimately the decision is yours though.
As for scripts, I don’t use any, but the people in the script threads can walk you through installing them if you want.

1 Like
#16

I am now using WK Stats & Jakeipuu, as some of you recommended.

However, I am a bit conflicted on whether to reset a few levels, or just stay where I am & keep trying. Both paths have their pros & cons, naturally. :thinking: Perhaps I’ll stay where I’m at for a bit of time, then see if conditions have improved.

I seem to be receiving 75-100 review items daily, so I would likely need to be doing at least that to make any progress at chipping away at my review stack.

As many of you advised, I shall indeed refrain from taking on more lessons until I am in a better position.

Perhaps the key reason why I have been taking so long at sifting through my review is because I listen to podcasts or audiobooks at the same time. I think this is having a negative effect on my speed, trying to multitask. So, I will also abstain from doing such while I chip away at my review stack.

I’ll try to, as many of you recommended, take things a bit steadier from now on, less “full-speed ahead”.

Again, thank you for the advice & encouragement thus far, I think it’s all going to help me in the long run. :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like
#17

ahh, that would certainly make things much more difficult! i often listen to audiobooks while doing other things, like cleaning or crafts. but as soon as the other thing involves language (reading, talking) the audiobook becomes a major interference. if i have music while doing reviews it’s stuff which isn’t focused on text.

1 Like
#18

Scripts work perfectly on mobile, too. I refuse to do this on my pc haha but since the latest firefox update (unless it’s working again) it only works on Kiwi browser (at least on Android). You can install the scripts the same way you’d do it on pc, too. The guide is quite good here.

1 Like
#19

I had no idea it got that bad, wow. I always thought the stories of people saying it went up to 500 reviews were rarities, not the inevitable.

edit: I see a lot of advice here advising how to pull yourself out of this rut, but how do you stop from getting this many reviews in the first place?

1 Like
#20

It seems that I am receiving mixed signals about whether or not scripts work on mobile. I am using an IOS, which @wanumu claims doesn’t allow scripts. :thinking:

As for not falling into this rut, @Yryrdz, a possible tip is keeping you amount of apprentice items under 100 (something I only learned of recently). Otherwise, you may end up like me: swamped with sifting through hundreds of apprentice items daily, upon with everything else. Hopefully that helps. :slightly_smiling_face::+1:

2 Likes
#21
  1. Do your reviews every day.
  2. Don’t do so many lessons that you are unable to complete step one.

Basically, the lessons control the amount of reviews that you’re going to get. If you only do 5 lessons a day, you’re going to have much fewer reviews each day then someone doing 20 lessons a day. Doing a steady number a day instead of doing lessons in huge batches also makes it easier to keep up with the review workload, as you come to expect to spend roughly the same amount of time on reviews each day (instead of randomly getting surprised with large batches of reviews), and can plan your study schedule around that. For some people, keeping your amount of apprentice items under 100 is enough, but for me, that’s still too many reviews, so I tend to go at a pace that’s a little more than half that speed (I do 10-13 lessons a day generally, which lets me level up about every 14-15 days, with apprentice items in the 40-60 range).

The main problem seems to be people taking a few days off from doing WK without turning on vacation mode, and then things snowball from there. It gets harder and harder to catch back up the more you let your reviews accumulate, which further makes it harder to motivate yourself to get back in the swing of things.

If you’re worried, I’d focus on always making sure you do your reviews each day (and turning on vacation mode if you have to miss a few days), and adjusting the amount of lessons you’re doing so that you have time to complete your reviews each day. If you do these things, you should be able to avoid coming back to unmanageably large review piles.

3 Likes
#22

It seems like what both you and @fallynleaf seems to be good general advice, so I’ll try to keep my Apprentice items around 100. I’m actually at 150 right now (i didn’t know I could check this.) and things seem manageable, so I’ll see where that takes me. I’ve been doing my lessons and reviews asap so I’ll just have to take it from there.

Thanks.

3 Likes
#23

Of course, glad I could be of some help, & may the turtles burn ever in your favor! :fire::turtle::fire:
Thank you @fallynleaf for also providing some (albeit much more thorough) tips! These are things I certainly wish I was aware of when I first started WK. :slightly_smiling_face::+1:

1 Like
#24

IOS doesn’t allow scripting with any browser, so that part is true. However, if you don’t mind using an app, Tsurukame provides a lot of the functionality of several scripts so you may want to give it a try.

The best way to use vacation mode is listed in the Ultimate Guide:

The gist is to stop lessons about a week or two beforehand to clear out your apprentice queue. Then you’ll only have Guru and above items when you start vacation. That provides a much better way to work with the SRS.

5 Likes
#25

If you have a busy life schedule, you could use the Juken app on IOS so you don’t have the time consuming task of typing over 3000 inputs on a phone and just swipe for yes/no
I would just be brutally honest whether you know it or make an executive decision whether you want to practice it more or not. You could probably knock this pile down in one sitting.

I don’t think review number matters than much; technically we all start with at minimum of 75k reviews just for L60 for a brilliant run and alot more than that for mortals + to respectively burn it down. So maybe we need ~ a million reviews across SRS platforms for a respectable base unless you just want to read. We just don’t see the number otherwise we might curl up in a ball and cry.

I’d only care about accuracy; take a good hard look at the one you missed
maybe just a momentary lapse but you can get it next time easily. Otherwise, if you are truly bombing you have to review radical/kanji bases. I don’t agree with resetting, SRS is built for mistakes
if you thrive with a high percentage it’s sort of a waste of time IMO. Good luck!

1 Like
#26

Thank you for clearing up the confusion about scripts on IOS, @alo!

Upon Jakeipuu, I am also looking into, as several of you have recommended: Tsurukame; and, as @s1212z reccomended: Juken.

I was oddly unaware of the existence of these apps beforehand, so thank you all for bringing them up! They should make the journey from here on much easier. :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like
#27

To the best of my knowledge, they don’t work on iOS web browsers because Apple doesn’t want 3rd party things running or something. I only use the Chrome app on my iPhone for Wanikani by the way, I don’t know if they work on Safari or any Wanikani apps.