Do WaniKani become slower or am I missing something?

Hi there,

I just wanted to know, do WaniKani get slower after every level up or something?

In the first 3 levels I was having reviews quite often so I was very active and therefore I leveled up from 2-3 in only 4 days (I thought I was on fire).

Now after that I slowed down the pace a bit (almost the same pace I just don’t do reviews very late at night) and it took me double the time to level up to level 4…8 freaking days!!! Maybe there are moments that I skipped but I do the reviews everyday with almost the same percentage (80-100% unless some exceptions, once I had 47% I think lol).

If I don’t do the reviews exactly in time of course it’ll take longer to level up but this actually surprises me. I am currently level 4, 3 days in and I still didn’t guru the radicals. I noticed the reviews take longer as well, I only get few ones then I see 2-3 hours, yesterday I even saw "next review : about 10 hours :scream:

I thought leveling up in a week was being lazy LMAO, I guess doing reviews everyday isn’t enough, gotta abuse the system using the right time :smile:

Thanks in advance!

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The first one (or two) levels have faster srs times so it will “slow down”. but very soon (when you have added enough items) the review load gets substantial. I have accuracy in the low to mid ninetys and do two review sessions a day (one in the morning and one after work) and always have over 100 and sometimes as many as 250+ reviews per session. (one crappy level that I messed up on in exactly the “right” way, i woke up to 300+ reviews) Thats not counting lessons.
There is really good info in the FAQ that explains in very precise detail how the levels progress.

But short answer: If you never get a radical review wrong and don’t mess up at a “bad” time (missing too many of your second batch reviews) on your kanji reviews, and do every review set exactly when it becomes available, the fastest level up time is 6day + change (until you get past 50).

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I already read the FAQ + WaniKani Guide but I didn’t expect this. I was just surprised because neither my pace nor my percentage changed that much lol. I guess I am not as bad as I thought, thanks for the explanation!

From what I have read in the forums and my own experience, if you don’t use scripts and maintain a pretty healthy percentage (91-96) and zero out your reviews twice a day, and do all the kanji lessons as soon as they become available… you will have 8d10h-10d0h level times, depending on the precise ways you miss reviews.

If you want to max out the speed (6d20h ??? i think…i don’t do this so i don’t know), you need to use the reorder script and be very diligent with your review times.

But others @Ncastaneda have much better info than me on this strategy.

Oh, no. Your man for speed is here :wink:

Though personnaly I don’t really recommend a 7-8 day routine after some point (probably level 20). Specially if you haven’t already covered vocab and grammar at a similar level, since keeping a routine like that may hold you back with the time you can actually spend on immersion once that becomes a possibility.

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Okay! My goal isn’t necessarily to level up as soon as possible (after all I need to learn the Kanji very well that’s the main part), I just wanted to make sure that I am not missing something here. Thank you :smile:

Please do not worry about it getting slow. It ramps up for the first 6 months once you’ve gotten going, and before long you’ll have 200+ reviews every single day and 100 new lessons on every level up.

Ow…that’s scary!

Indeed, unlocking 100 lessons after leveling up will become the norm for you very soon (personally, I think my first “shock” was at level 5). 200 reviews is a decent number. This is just workload from WK. If you intend to have a strong foundation of the language, you need to speak with natives, practice writing, read news/books, learn grammar, learn vocab extra Wanikani, organize your study, spend time asking questions… Now imagine doing this while going full speed on Wanikani (as fast as the system allows you to). Just to give you a more extreme example, lvls 46+ can be done in 3 days and 10 hours. If you go full speed, you’ll start having to do 40 new lessons and 400+ reviews/day.

I wouldn’t worry about going full speed. Full speed is something that comes with a strong foundation of an habit. I could do it because WK was very much part of my routine (so that I could survive the hard times). It’s not just about surviving while it’s easy. People wanting to go fast usually focus on being fast, and we all know how that ended up to the rabbit. The turtle(s) got the better of it :slight_smile:

It’s better to focus on building a strong foundation and understand Wanikani. If you get that settled, the speed will come as a side effect.

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