# Early levels are painfully slow **URL:** \ **Category:** WaniKani\ **Created:** [February 8, 2022, 9:28am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703 "2022-02-08T09:28:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ng11](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@ng11](https://community.wanikani.com/u/ng11)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 9:28am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703/1 "2022-02-08T09:28:17Z")
Stuck on level 4 for almost 10 days??? If I had this experience during the trial I would never have paid for this service. Am I doing something wrong? I do reviews at least three times a day. ---
**Author:** ![Remun](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/remun/32/682399_2.png) [@Remun](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Remun)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 9:33am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703/2 "2022-02-08T09:33:49Z")
Dont Worry It will Just get more faster ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/original/4X/6/f/c/6fc1b78fece8b82c0f64422a79e1b07d6434e107.png) ---
**Author:** ![downtimes](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/downtimes/32/790700_2.png) [@downtimes](https://community.wanikani.com/u/downtimes)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 9:37am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703/3 "2022-02-08T09:37:28Z")
You need to guru at least 90% of the items of the current level before you advance to the next level. Otherwise you would be overwhelmed in the later levels. If you make many mistakes your time on a level can be prolonged by this requirement. Keep in mind though that learning japenes is a marathon and not a sprint so consistency is the most important aspect. Also, if you go full speed and keep the mistakes low enough you can finish WK in roughly a year. So it can become quite hard to keep up ---
**Author:** ![nootnootnoot](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/nootnootnoot/32/486591_2.png) [@nootnootnoot](https://community.wanikani.com/u/nootnootnoot)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 9:37am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703/4 "2022-02-08T09:37:36Z")
Levels 1 and 2 are accelerated to twice the normal speed. So if it took you, say, five days to complete level 2, it will probably take you about ten days to complete each level from now on. (There are a few “fast levels” that are exceptions to this rule, but you won’t see any of those until after level 40.) That being said, it’s definitely possible to complete level 4 in less than 10 days. I personally finished it in seven and a half days. One thing to check is your accuracy rate. You can find that out by generating an API token and entering it into [https://www.wkstats.com/](https://www.wkstats.com/). This may seem obvious, but the more reviews you get right, the faster you’ll progress through the levels. (My overall accuracy is currently about 90%.) You can improve your accuracy by spending a bit more time to review the mnemonic on each review you get wrong, and by coming up with your own mnemonics if something just isn’t sticking. ---
**Author:** ![cyanfolds](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/cyanfolds/32/474139_2.png) [@cyanfolds](https://community.wanikani.com/u/cyanfolds)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 9:41am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703/5 "2022-02-08T09:41:40Z")
If you do your radicals and kanji twice a day on 12 hour intervals (plus one more 4 hours after learning), you can complete a level in 7 days. But you have to answer every review correct. Levels 1 and 2’s speed were cut in half because you don’t have 20 levels of unmastered kanji behind you. It takes 6 months to completely “burn” a kanji ---
**Author:** ![IraIra](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/iraira/32/37883_2.png) [@IraIra](https://community.wanikani.com/u/IraIra)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 9:43am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703/6 "2022-02-08T09:43:39Z")
You’ve reached the point of WK where now you are at normal review speed as the first levels are accelerated. Levels when you are going VERY FAST will take about two weeks each on non-fast levels. This is actually a lot of work to do, it will likely overwhelm most users. ---
**Author:** ![ioric](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/ioric/32/459524_2.png) [@ioric](https://community.wanikani.com/u/ioric)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 10:05am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703/7 "2022-02-08T10:05:07Z")
> [@cyanfolds](#): > > It takes 3 months to completely “burn” a kanji Typo? It takes nearly 6 months total if you’re correct each time. ---
**Author:** ![cyanfolds](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/cyanfolds/32/474139_2.png) [@cyanfolds](https://community.wanikani.com/u/cyanfolds)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 10:08am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703/8 "2022-02-08T10:08:24Z")
My bad, you’re right ---
**Author:** ![WeebPotato](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/weebpotato/32/679291_2.png) [@WeebPotato](https://community.wanikani.com/u/WeebPotato)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 10:10am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703/9 "2022-02-08T10:10:46Z")
You didn’t mention what your average accuracy on reviews is, whether you did all lessons, etc. To get to the next level, you need to Guru (answer correctly in 4 subsequent review cycles) all your radicals and kanji from the current level. Kanji are split into 2 batches - batch 1 can be done straight away, batch 2 will depend on you Guruing your radicals. If you score on most of your reviews, a level takes at least 7 days (6.8+ or around that). ---
**Author:** ![ng11](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@ng11](https://community.wanikani.com/u/ng11)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 10:25am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703/10 "2022-02-08T10:25:58Z")
thanks for the replies, ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/original/4X/1/1/a/11aa92f7ef949b965b2e54619ebcd564b1189e4e.png) ok so my kanji reading isn’t so good. I’m just a little frustrated because I’m making typos going too fast or sometimes the words aren’t matching exactly (typing “a couple of days ago” instead of “a few days ago”) and there’s no undo. I find some of the radicals don’t click with me either. “leader” for example, I would just say “person” 🤷 “loiter” → “go” etc I found you can change that though but still causing me to slow down ☹ Yeah this is a little rant thread that doesn’t contribute anything so feel free to ignore lol ---
**Author:** ![Pizh](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/pizh/32/406093_2.png) [@Pizh](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Pizh)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 10:27am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703/11 "2022-02-08T10:27:10Z")
I said that a year ago but now わにかにさん。。。やだ。。。やめてくださいよ！！ ---
**Author:** ![downtimes](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/downtimes/32/790700_2.png) [@downtimes](https://community.wanikani.com/u/downtimes)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 10:33am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703/12 "2022-02-08T10:33:00Z")
You can add synonyms to items which will also be accepted as answers to work around radicals/kanjis for which you don’t agree with the ones provided by wanikani. Be advised though that the mnemonics are built with the Wanikani meanings in mind. For small typos/meanings that are nearly identical there is a userscript you can search for in the forum wihch provides you with an undo function. Be VERY careful though to not abuse this functionality because you can easily fool yourself into thinking you know an item even if you don’t. It can defintely help though in the rare cases where it is obviously just wrong by accident. ([[Userscript]: Double-Check (Version 2.x)](https://community.wanikani.com/t/userscript-double-check-version-2x/31456) for example there are others too) ---
**Author:** ![IraIra](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/iraira/32/37883_2.png) [@IraIra](https://community.wanikani.com/u/IraIra)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 10:51am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703/13 "2022-02-08T10:51:07Z")
There is an undo script for typos, but vocab don’t = levels… Kanji are the ones that make you level up, and radicals are part of it too for a moment but its the kanji ---
**Author:** ![KanKenMaster\_T](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@KanKenMaster\_T](https://community.wanikani.com/u/KanKenMaster_T)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 11:18am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703/14 "2022-02-08T11:18:54Z")
Stick with it, it gets…interesting. ---
**Author:** ![ioric](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/ioric/32/459524_2.png) [@ioric](https://community.wanikani.com/u/ioric)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 11:31am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703/15 "2022-02-08T11:31:46Z")
If you’re feeling iffy about WaniKani, then “read this few-thousand-word guide!” probably isn’t what you want to hear, but at least flicking through this might give you some insight that will be useful: > [@My Journey of 368 days (+ The Ultimate Guide for WK open\_book )](https://community.wanikani.com/t/my-journey-of-368-days-the-ultimate-guide-for-wk/31318/2): > > The Ultimate Guide to Wanikani tada Become the best version of your Wanikanian self. For newbies: Please read the [WaniKani User Guide](https://knowledge.wanikani.com/) first before reading this. WK’s User Guide teaches you the very basics. My Guide turns you from a newbie with basic knowledge to a master. However, first, you need the basics. This Guide is really longgggggggg. You can read it all in one go, but there’s no need to if you don’t want to. Think of it as the place to come to when in doubt/need of help. Thanks … For what it’s worth, I third the recommendation to use the double-check script. It’s an absolute lifesaver for typos. Also, I consider myself a fast WKer (but definitely not a speedrunner) and I level up around every 10-11 days. That’s just how long it takes. ---
**Author:** ![YRP\_Fugusu](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/yrp_fugusu/32/471134_2.png) [@YRP\_Fugusu](https://community.wanikani.com/u/YRP_Fugusu)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 12:00pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703/16 "2022-02-08T12:00:05Z")
Don’t be too hung up on the number of your level. Feel comfortable about you’re slowly learning more Japanese and it is slowly creeping into the darkest parts of your brain. The numbers can be satisfying, but they can also be counterproductive to learning. And congrats! We are the same level but you have a higher correct percentage than me 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Fryie](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/fryie/32/382210_2.png) [@Fryie](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Fryie)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 2:08pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703/17 "2022-02-08T14:08:21Z")
WK is generally “slow”, i.e. compared to another resource like RTK, it takes you very long to progress through Kanji. This is because you’re also learning readings and associated vocab. That said, the review load will pick up considerably after a couple of levels (and especially after a couple of months, when you start getting higher level reviews), so in terms of workload, it’s good not to have too much on your plate initially. If you keep getting delayed by silly mistakes such as typos (even when you clearly remembered the item), I recommend the double check script that others have mentioned in this thread. I believe that if you’re a responsible adult, you’ll be able to use it without “cheating” (because you only cheat yourself, so what’s the point). ---
**Author:** ![evandcs](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/evandcs/32/447480_2.png) [@evandcs](https://community.wanikani.com/u/evandcs)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 2:17pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703/18 "2022-02-08T14:17:18Z")
dont worry, soon you will be like this 😅 ![wk](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/original/4X/8/c/6/8c6c0eda026abbf2c1e8a6ca56a911ce480d39ba.png) and 120 apprentice items! I failed so much last night! I always keep below 90 ---
**Author:** ![Epona](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@Epona](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Epona)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 5:52pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703/19 "2022-02-08T17:52:29Z")
You think that’s bad. I’ve just leveled up after 126 days and I just bought the lifetime. Good luck to you. Don’t hurry _too_ much. Or one day you may find yourself overwhelmed 🙂 Though you might not, of course. ---
**Author:** ![carlostdev](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/carlostdev/32/274310_2.png) [@carlostdev](https://community.wanikani.com/u/carlostdev)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 6:10pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703/20 "2022-02-08T18:10:03Z")
Wait until you get into level 40+. Things get… interesting [Next page](https://community.wanikani.com/t/early-levels-are-painfully-slow/55703.md?page=2)