Do people slow down the higher the level?

Hiya everyone.

My first post on here!

Question, I’m flying through the first levels. I started in December and I’m due to hit level 8 later this week. I’m supposedly on track to get to L60 by November at the fastest rate, which will mean doing all 60 levels in just under a year.

Having said that, for those that have gone to those levels do you slow down the higher you get, or can you coast through at the same speed with the same level of effort?

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I didn’t slow down because I’m a バカ, but I do recommend to at least consider it in my Guide:


The First 30 vs the Last 30 is just an example for the sake of comprehension, but you can follow the same line of thinking for other levels with the help of the Statistics site I linked.

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Your work load will shrink a bit when you get to higher levels, because a) you’re starting to burn things and b) there are fewer vocab on the highest levels. I didn’t slow down and in fact sped up when I reached level 46 (or whichever it is where you start to have short levels), which was probably a bad idea in hindsight :smiley:

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I guess my situation is a little different. I lived in Japan for a year in 1993 - went to school there as an exchange student. I’m using WK to relearn what I’ve forgotten, but also to take me past where I originally got to back then.

I’m finding that grammar wise I’m OK as it’s still stuck somewhere in the back of my brain, or it sounds or feels ‘right’ when I say it. But my biggest impediment to reading what I want to read is the Kanji, so WK was the answer.

I guess I’ll find out when I get there!

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Follow the usual rules :slight_smile:

  • If something is delaying your progress in the language, dedicate more time to it.
  • If you’re starting to feel overwhelmed, slow down.
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I slowed down around level 25 to spend more time reading. I definitely recommend slowing down around level 20 or 30 to do other stuff.

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I think this is great advice and I’m just around that point. For JLPT minded, level 35 for N3 95% is a milestone and think I may hover in that arena so I can put time into other areas once I get there (or so I say now). There is always the moth-to-a-flame nature of WK as it’s really fun to learn new items which is a bit addictive or even ritualistic. I see why many keep going forward or they can just handle the pace (or had a solid background before starting WK). For me, the daily review count can get reckless easily too and doesn’t fit into the balance of other study areas.

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This should give you an idea:

I’m usually pretty busy with work and stuff but I do try my best to keep up my weekly pace with WK, if that’s any indicator. I had to slow down a bit after 35 for 4 levels because things were starting to get intense. And then again after hitting 45 because levels started getting more condensed, if you don’t pace yourself here you will burn out very quickly (and even now I can still feel the pressure)

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I haven’t really slowed down too much, at the start I was just getting into the routine of studying, so my first few levels are slow, then I got into it.
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Last level took almost a month because I was on holidays in Japan and didn’t want to set it to holiday mode. The levels before took longer because I lost motivation after taking the JLPT.
It kinda just goes up and down occasionally, but now I’m in the last 30 levels, I don’t feel like slowing down - I feel like going the same pace.

Each slow down is usually due to a reason for me, I try to complete each level at a moderate pace where I don’t feel like I’m rushing. I feel it sticks better if I take it slower.

Not really in the same situation, but I also started using WK with a bunch of Japanese under my belt. I didn’t slow down at all and did the fast level at full speed too. The main problem is the amount of reviews you get per day. If you try to rush through them, you’ll make typos that increase further your load (and may delay you). If you type carefully and proofread what you type, it will take hours every day. (2.5h per day for me toward the end)

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I read “1933”

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Personally, I sped up the further I got. It became really easy to learn new kanji because I was just used to it. I also wanted to get kanji out of the way so I could focus more time on other things. I’m pretty bad at multitasking.

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