For all you novices out there! I’ve been doing some experimenting to get a feel for how fast I should go.
This is my first time using scripts to reorder the lessons to get that sweet fast 7 days+ 12h lvl up. This is the result:
170 new lessons! Should I be scared here? Guess I’ll pace myself a little better next time!
Still, a good advantage of this method is unlocking the new Kanji as early as posssible, so you’ll never run out of stuff to study.
Fyi you need to do like 20 lessons a day to keep up with that level time. If you cant do that many, slow down because your lesson pile will only get bigger and bigger.
I am not in a rush to reach level 60, I am mostly focusing on getting everything right before moving on. I don’t know why everybody here is in a rush lol =P
and I like learning the vocabulary because that is my weakest point in Japanese, and I read online that many people are using scripts to skip vocabulary to level up faster, tsk tsk tsk xD
The idea of the reordering is to do the time critical items first and the vocab in-between, not skipping the vocab lessons altogether 
Indeed! I went too fast last year and ended up overwhelmed when work became too busy. I’m taking it slow with this reset, for example by taking a couple days to clear my apprentice log between levels.
I used to do that, too, but I don’t have enough time for lectures. I also noticed, that I often got unsure about vocabulary.
Then there were some family problems, stopped learning for a month and used the reset feature to go back 2 levels.
Now I use the reorder script, but to order vocabulary before kanji in reviews.
This makes sure if I don’t have enough time, that I actually learn the real words. That also means I have a good vocabulary knowledge of the current level before leveling up. Also nice to spread out new lessons a bit.
Radicals are still first everywhere since they take literally half the time to review and block everything else.
I hope you have a more pleasant experience this time, Try to focus on quality over quantity. Goodluck! =)
I’ve been trying to balance my progress by having around 40-50 apprentice items on, and once it goes below that, i will go through some lessons. No idea if that’s a good way or not. Are you guys using anything similar?
Limiting your apprentice count is a method I’ve often seen advised on the forum, and I use it myself. The limit itself is up to you, and depends on the pacing you aim for. Mine is 100.
I think it’s a good method because it means you limit the flow of reviews that will fall upon you a few months down the line, when those items come back as master or enlightened reviews.
The only “problem” I’m having with this method is that you can get stuck to vocabs for quite a while after you have went through the kanji. And because of that the lack of progressing the levels seems to de-motivate me 
Not sure if to pick up the pace or endure with slow and steady.
Btw, have you seen any calculations how long does it take to 60 with keeping your apprentice items on certain number?
Yeahhh I’ll keep that in mind! It’s totally doable but I must’ve screwed up somewhere. The numbers can’t be wrong.
Level 5 is notorious in how much items it has – it’s not just you, it’s partly level 5’s fault.
ETA: whoops, I didn’t realise you weren’t level 5. Yes, that’s definitely reorder script abuse. XD
I’ve seen estimates of how long things should take based on your pace, but I don’t think I’ve seen anything based on the apprentice count specifically.
I don’t wanna neglect the vocabulary too. I just need to find some balance here. It’s too tempting to level up fast but the point is learning right?
Protip: don’t rush. Instead, focus on learning as many useful ways to use each new vocabulary that you can. The words are useless if you don’t identify situations in advance where you might use them, so don’t skimp on it. Take your time and do it.
I DO MY 120 LESSIONS IN ONE SITTING LIKE A REAL 鉄人！I live on 100-200 apps. Also, the reason I go at ~full speed is because I want to put shit in my review pile asap, the SRS is going to take care that I repeat things I get wrong, anyway. So I still learn it well, despite going fast. The only drawback is a slightly heavier workload, but I have a lot of free time anyway, so.
Edit: Wow, the forum counter still shows me at lvl9, and I’m 2 days from lvl12.
Edit 2: And yeah 170 is a lot for a level-up. For me it was usually ~120.
This time I’ll just do the radicals first and spread out the kanji more. Lesson learned! If if do end up leveling up in 9-10 days I’ll be happy enough.
That sounds insane? But I guess I would be tempted to do that too just to see how it would turn out (if I did had the time).
Ps: I just hit lvl 7, and the forums are still at 5! So it is kind of buggy!!
I heard you can fixing it by logging in and out, but I can’t be arsed. It usually changes upon level-up (or sometimes not), so I’m waiting for the occasion when it does.
Edit: Yahari volume 14 just got announced for March, so even this is probably too slow! I wanna read volumes 12-14 so bad.
I’m studying with Genki 1 too, and it’s pretty cool when I find something that I’ve already learned through wanikani. But it’s still gonna take some time to get into other reading materials, even the Lvl 0 stuff… It’s a good advice though! Thanks
