Do lessons get easier after level 10?

I wouldn’t make that assumption on my own, but a kind e-mail from Koichi said the following: “I promise that when you get onto the other side of Level 10, things will begin to ease up.”

Not that I’m having a hard time, I’ve been doing quite well and enjoying the lessons so far, but it would be interesting to know how things look in later levels.

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In my experience - no ! Things were plain sailing for the first 10 levels - once the burn items started coming back, things got interesting. Late teens, and mid twenties were the stickiest levels for me so far.

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For me personally, it “eased up” in the sense that by level 10, I had my WK routine down and had gotten used to learning and reviewing every day. I had also gotten used to using mnemonics the WK way, and kanji in general. I had been exposed at that point to a lot of readings that you tend to encounter, and that made it easier to remember.

I feel like it eases up because of how your familiarity with WK and kanji-learning grow, not because the material gets easier.

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For me, vocabulary usually feels much easier than it did at those first levels. I can often guess the readings of vocabulary before I see it, and sometimes even the readings of kanji. Maybe because I got used to the sounds? It’s hard to pinpoint where it got easier though, because I think it came very gradually. I’m also able to handle a much higher review count each day now :slight_smile:
Not that the sheer numbler doesn’t feel overwhelming sometimes :sweat_smile:

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Nope

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lessons do. You start being able to guess readings even if you’ve never seen the kanji before so really all thats left is just the meaning

reviews though get way harder. Once you start burning things get ready for hundreds of reviews a day

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Thanks for the insight. It seems everybody has a different experience, I’ll have to wait and see for myself. I am optimistic that I’ll be able to keep up my current pace.

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I’m at the same point as you are but one thing I’ve noticed on wkstats.com is that the radicals are front loaded.

So after lesson 13 you’ll never have more than 8 radicals per lesson anymore, whereas in the first 6 lessons you always have between 20-34.

After lesson 42 you’ll never have more than 3 new radicals per lesson. So at least one thing definitely gets easier :slight_smile:

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Aw, I actually like radical lessons, they’re the ones I find easiest.

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source

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…maybe…

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Partly. As others have said, you get used to the flow of kanji that are appearing and can even sometimes guess the reading based on their most prominent radical. The thing I’ve found difficult about getting higher and higher in level is coming across kanji that are inherently similar to kanji I’ve already gotten through on lower levels.

水、氷、求 and 永 are causing me problems at the moment.

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I’ve already had a bit of trouble with 年/生 and 生/牛.

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It eases up in the sense that you get used to the routine/system by then. But the amount of effort stays the same or may even increase once you start burning items.
There’s also certain levels that are much harder than others, some levels will stick really well and others won’t.

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That Koichi - what a kidder!

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The routine gets easier. But the numbers increase. Kanji look more similar and complex, always exceptions. More unusual readings. And you get back a ton of older stuff.

The vocab does gets easier to deal with in my opinion, either with readings or meanings.

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Not sure if after level ten but they get way easier after you start using phonetic components that some kanji have. I strongly suggest anyone to install the semantic-phonetic-composition add on. During my lessons, it is one of the parts I pay the most attention.

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Why does the effort increase once you start burning items? I thought that meant they just don’t come back so you have fewer items.

You need to review them before burning, thus the additional reviews. Also you’ll probably not get them all right, thus they fall back in their SRS stage and end up as reviews again.

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Like @Kappa420 said, it’s simply hundreds of additional reviews that appear. Even though it’s content you should already know, it’s that much more effort.

That makes sense, thanks, and you @PlumeTone