I’m new to this site, and so far I’m loving it. However, I feel like I’m progressing too slowly. I have to wait a ridiculously long time for the next review session (23 hours now), which I’m assuming is the only way to advance my radicals to “Guru” status. Am I missing something, or is this how it’s supposed to be?
Thanks in advance!
Yes, that’s how it’s supposed to be. Levels 1 and 2 are actually faster than normal, to ease the slowness a bit, and since everything accumulates it can get overwhelming after several levels. Here’s the FAQ. WaniKani Knowledge | What is WaniKani? How do I do this and that? What is life? Find the answers here.
Actually, since WK left Beta, level 3 has also been accelerated. You may not have noticed, but @Splat will still experience that.
I joined WK way after it left beta, as far as I know, and it was a normal 7 day 20 hours. Which of course is the old minimum. Now it’s 6 days 20 hours for most levels.
Mm… I think for levels 1-3 it used to be just the radicals accelerated.
At any rate, because of the recent(ish) shortening of Apprentice step 4 (review to get Guru) dropped a day, everything has technically been accelerated (even further) now.
So this must be why I’m still nervous about getting to those >50 lessons even at this low level.
Levels 1 and 2 have some kind of magical acceleration that isn’t related to any of the other level timings. I don’t know how it works, but level 3 is different in a way that is the same as it’s been since I joined, except that it got shortened by just one day like every other level. So it’s not special still, as far as I can tell.
Oh, well, I really thought I’d read that somewhere, after I’d already completed level 3 myself. (Somewhere in the realm of October 2015 to January 2016… although WK left Beta beginning of Sept 2015, if I recall correctly.) *shrugs*
I think the “magic” speed you’re referring to for levels 1 and 2 may actually be twice as fast (for radicals and kanji only, or radicals only?)… or it was something else, like 1 hour less for step 1 (3 hours instead of 4) and then I’m not sure from there. Hmm…
… In any case, it was a long time ago… And I didn’t get to experience that at all.
I apologize for attempting to refute what I thought was misinformation with (possibly) more misinformation of my own. [EDIT: Or confused half-truths… or something. Where’s @rfindley? He knows this stuff…]
Well, maybe it will intrigue Splat and turn him into a WK speed demon.
Hahaha… You’re trying to recruit him to the “Gotta Go Fast” side?
Here, have a Sonic:
I don’t really understand why the gaps need to be so extreme when I’m only being quizzed on 26 radicals. I can understand that in the later levels, but it feels too slow.
Everybody says that. Everybody. Except those that read that everybody says that, and thus deem it redundant to say, and just think it.
The reason it’s spaced like that, is because that’s when (according to research) you’re about to forget it. That’s how Spaced Repetition works. After that, you won’t be quizzed on those again for 2 whole days (or maybe faster, because the first level is accelerated).
When you’re at higher levels, this’ll be less of a problem, because you’ll have so many other items from lower levels coming back to be reviewed at the same time (they’re on even longer gaps: 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 4 months).
Around level 4 or 5 you’ll start to feel that it’s fast enough.
And WK tries to build on everything, so if they want to combine building with SRS waits, the first levels have to be slow by necessity. Unfortunately.
A website like Memrise, or a program like Anki, doesn’t throttle your progress, which means you can go faster, but it also means you’ll introduce new things to yourself before you’ve let the building blocks solidify.
Here @Splat, this is what the SRS looks like (although the one that says 3D is now actually 2 Days)…
I say this on every post I see about this topic but enjoy it while you can.
When I first started to read the forums around a year ago, I was appalled by how rude many of the people around here acted when new people said stuff like “it’s too slow”, or “I have this suggestion”. Now, when I see someone posting the same thing for the 1000th time instead of reading the FAQ or previous posts, I understand why they were so rude.
There should be a system that detects if there are words like “slow” or “slowly” in the post, and showed the previous 1000 posts about the same topic and asked “are you suuure you want to create another thread about it?”.
Discourse actually does do that!
But it’s algorithm is pretty messed up - when I’ve made completely new topics since the move, it’ll be like “isn’t your topic similar to these three topics?” all which have nothing to do with what I’m writing about. It’s flawed. But it’s there.
And people who make topics about things answered in the FAQ haven’t demonstrated a propensity to read what’s available to them 
I think it is too slow too. I get it later but in the beginning there are only radicals, witch are really easy to learn. Just meaning to learn and twenty radicals. Whole first week is just waiting. There are radicals like two, person, ground and stuff that are practically impossible to forget after you see them once. After first week it’s ok, but that doesn’t make the first week any less frustratingly stupid feeling experience.