Balancing vocabulary and grammar learning

I think you should focus on WK and learn a bit of grammar. Then, add vocab once you get to where you wanted (in terms of JLPT level). Aim to clear N5 at first.

Here’s what I did. I did Bunpro first. Speed run it through N3. I didn’t need to know the vocab. I memorized the grammar points as they are only in hiragana. I now got to the point where I can read the whole sentences when my vocab caught up. At first, my review count was huge. But it is now manageable and only needs a couple of minutes to do the reviews. Now, I have more time to build vocab.

I wouldn’t recommend Bunpo. The exercises don’t test you enough. If you don’t have much time, try only doing BunPro besides WK; add 3 or fewer lessons per day. It should only take a couple of minutes.

Vocab building is another thing that would consume most of your time besides WK. For vocab, I use iKnow as it can easily be sync to WK level iKnow sorted by WK level. You can also download the core 6k deck if you use Anki.

I think because we do WK slow. WK has a terrible tendency to pile up reviews really fast due to punishing SRS-stage design compared to other SRS apps, not to mention annoying leeches added up to the pile. I do WK, iKnow, Bunpro, Anki, Clozemaster, a bit LingoDeer, and even Duolingo every day. On top of that, I still manage to do immersion. Can’t do any other thing if I do WK fast as it would consume most of my time.

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