Diary of a mad level 50'er

December 13:
Level: 58
Total time spent on Wanikani today: 109 minutes
Reviews in the last day: 401
Accuracy: 80.05% (321/401)

Current item counts:
Apprentice: 279
Guru: 1579
Master: 1276
Enlightened: 2884
Burned 2521

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I’m so ready to be level 60. So ready. I just got off of a bit of a break I took (it was about 7 days) to slash my apprentice count since I had over 300 apprentice items and was consistently getting over 350 reviews daily. I just got back into it a few days ago after getting that down to 75, and this level’s been pretty easy. If I can average between 4 and 5 days per level, I can be done by the end of January. My God am I ready. I know I’ll have to keep going to burn everything, but 300 reviews a day is emotionally taxing (I’m extremely distractible so I can get up to 250 minutes in a day). I have 2 finals tomorrow and I’m sitting here with 270 reviews in my queue at 2 am.

Sorry for the mini rant. I’m just… really tired.

And this is one of the distractions. I should be either doing reviews or studying, but here I am on a WK forum complaining. Don’t mind me. I just make bad decisions.

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I haven’t really looked into it but is it really possible to go from the 7 day level up to 5 day? I assume it’s because each level you get all the kanji, none of the radicals, all in one big dump? Or is there some other reason it takes less time?

270 reviews is brutal. I had one day with 240 because I was being stupid with doing ALL my lessons in a day when I first started out. Level 1-3 or4, no problem! Do that on level 8? Oooffff. Nope.

Good luck though! Almost there!

Many of the later levels are “fast levels”, which can be done twice as fast as normal due to less than 10% of the kanji depending on same-level radicals.

You can see the current list of fast levels here: Wanikani fast levels report

Funny you should mention that. I ran into the same problem around the same time (IIRC, I stopped around level 6).

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December 14:
Level: 58
Total time spent on Wanikani today: 108 minutes

Reviews in the last day: 482
Accuracy: 80.71% (389/482)

Current item counts:
Apprentice: 267
Guru: 1591
Master: 1256
Enlightened: 2914
Burned 2531

3 Likes

Different strokes for different folks I suppose, I’ve been consistently hitting all lessons the very same day (and even the very same hour) I’m done with reviews for a level. Sometimes you get to a 150 lessons a day, but when you do, there’s nothing else you can do but endure and keep going :thinking:

If it hadn’t been for the self-study script I’d be doomed, it’s a life saver. Sometimes I spend the extra hours on Thursdays after level up to repeat the newly learned items over

and over
and over again
but when I’m done with that, I fly through the reviews on Friday and I remember the vast majority of it that Sunday and the week after that too :blush:

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Alternatively, you could get an Anki deck with the WaniKani words. You’d have to start from scratch with the times, but it might be nicer on the wallet than paying for a longer subscription.

Could you post a link to this script you speak of? :slight_smile:

I’ve been consistently hitting all lessons the very same day (and even the very same hour) I’m done with reviews for a level

Dang!.. my hat off to you!

There is no way I could handle doing that. Know thyself and all that.

And I know, after 20 years of struggling and pretending to learn, I would quit going at that level. When I woke up to 100 reviews the first time, I was “this” close to just stopping to take a break. Knowing myself, I knew that if I did that, if I stopped even for a day, it was unlikely I would keep going. I would tell myself “just one more day,” and that would turn into 6 months. I would then come back; see how many reviews I have and just say… nope.

It is amazing and awesome you can maintain that level! Dedication takes many forms and you definitely have it!

I WILL see you at the top of the Level 60 mountain when I get there! You’ll just be there long before me :smiley:

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Could you post a link to this script you speak of? :slight_smile:

Pretty sure this is the one being discussed:

[Userscript] Self-Study Quiz - WaniKani / API And Third-Party Apps - WaniKani Community

Just remember there are prereqs to install to get scripts to work (Tamper Monkey and the WaniKani Open API thing; it’s detailed somewhere…)

Good luck!

1 Like

Thank you. Is its use just so you can study your kanji/vocab when they’re not available in reviews yet?

In case you don’t want to install any browser extensions, here’s a self study script that I’ve been using. I’ve been using it since around level 40 to do extra reviews of the new kanji after leveling up. It’s a slightly modified version of the Bish Bash Bosh script that another forum user here created.

Had a lot of leeches tonight, unfortunately. On the other hand, today was also the first time in two and a half weeks that I spent less than 90 minutes in a day, and the first in a week and a half where I spent less than 100.

December 15:
Level: 58
Total time spent on Wanikani today: 89 minutes

Reviews in the last day: 428
Accuracy: 79.21% (339/428)

Current item counts:
Apprentice: 277
Guru: 1577
Master: 1272
Enlightened: 2910
Burned 2547

3 Likes

Is its use just so you can study your kanji/vocab when they’re not available in reviews yet?

That’s it. I have completed the lessons but the kanji isn’t at an SRS level that has me reviewing it.

I also use it for studying Leeches. Leeches are evil.

Today was my last normal level up. I’m so close to the end.

December 16:
Level: 59
Total time spent on Wanikani today: 168 minutes
Reviews in the last day: 557
Accuracy: 84.20% (469/557)

Current item counts:
Apprentice: 286
Guru: 1589
Master: 1299
Enlightened: 2914
Burned 2559

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Life goals, must feel amazing to have the cake in sight just before Christmas! It’s a true Christmas miracle :grin:

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I missed a bunch of reviews today so the Apprentice count is creeping back up, though still far off its peak of 329 a week or two back.

December 17:
Level: 59
Total time spent on Wanikani today: 102 minutes
Reviews in the last day: 468
Accuracy: 77.99% (365/468)

Current item counts:
Apprentice: 287
Guru: 1585
Master: 1298
Enlightened: 2931
Burned 2570

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So close!

You’ve got this!

I just hope the hours at your computer don’t kill you before you hit 60!

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This has just served to make me scared of the 50s haha. The fast levels in the 40s, knowing that I have a break at 45 and 48 is already a lot to deal with.

In addition to not having breaks after 48, the big thing is the build up. The fast levels aren’t so bad for the first week or two. The problem is just the way it piles up over time and keeps piling up more and more.

It’s kind of crazy when I look back at my first post and see an apprentice count of only 167. My apprentice count nearly doubled between level 50 and 56, in the space of just three weeks. Admittedly, the later point was following an especially rough patch and my apprentice count has gone back down a bit since then (but still way higher than when I started).

3 Likes