So I activated vacation mode on… april 2018. Right after getting to level 30 (don’t judge me, I already feel bad enough).
I was studying hard and the time, with Genki I & II on the side, and other resources like NHK Easy and a bit of reading.
Reviews were getting quite demanding and harder to do while working and managing my private life. Back then I bought the lifetime subscription and I wasn’t too worry to take some time, but it was room for failure.
Today I’d like to come back to studying but I’m afraid a lot of my +1200 burned items are in fact wiped out from my brain. And even if I overcame all the waiting reviews, I fear a lot would in fact be forgotten.
There are also a lot of user scripts that can help you review items, burnt or not. These two should be of great help for you.
In the end, you might wanna reset some levels even so. Only you can know how much you’ve retained from before your big pause. But, it’s worth trying out the alternatives first I think.
Maybe? Up to you tbh. Do you feel like you need to? As @anon9242278 said, there are other options to remind yourself of the stuff you did previously, but that doesn’t use SRS just to say, so you may find that harder to manage.
One thing I’d personally say though is not to reset to level 1 — unless you have literally forgotten everything of course, which I’m sure is not the case. Have a look through the kanji level indices and reset to a level just in front of where you feel comfortable with your knowledge.
I took a similar gap going from 2017 to 2021. Did a full reset from level 28 with no regrets. I’d agree with the comments that resetting to level 1 was unnecessary, but I didn’t regret doing it. The first two levels are on accelerated timers now and overall it felt like a great way to ease myself back into studying. Honestly speaking, I forgot a lot of stuff to the point that I think attempting a partial reset would have been more frustrating than worthwhile for me. Up to level 10ish was a breeze for me, but I still had to relearn things to get there.
If you’re the impatient type it would be better do a partial reset.
I reset from level 16 in December 2021. I am already back to where I left off (further actually). It has taken me about seven months to do what I did in like a year and a half. If you really want to reset, do it if you know you are going to be on the grind. You can always take a month or two to get back into everything and especially reviewing burns and doing reviews before you start leveling again.
