So I got to level 60 (applause) and thought things would start to slow down, and I guess they have. But unfortunately it seems like I’ve converged on a sort of equilibrium and I wonder if I should move on from WaniKani.
See, my apprentice items are more or less locked at 100. That’s not because there are 100 leeches, but because generally I forget (or have confused with another word) a certain percentage of the words that I’m about to burn or enlighten or whatever and eventually these fall back down to apprentice. At one point I got it down to 70, but then it just goes up again. So it’s not leeches, just a predictable cycling of items in and out of apprentice. I could just cheat through everything but that’s actually more of a hassle than trying to recall from memory.
I’ve been doing this since last March and it has sort of taken over my life, a constant homework assignment. And I liked the structure that gave and the way it promoted goal setting. But now there is no goal left on WaniKani; the burn reviews for level 60 are in like December, and I’ll be doing something very different with my life by then, so going that long is out of the question. I’d kind of assumed things would slow down, but since they really aren’t (up to 200 reviews per day). I’m wondering if it’s time to quit. I’d much rather read… but WaniKani has become a habit (or an addiction if you want to put it that way) and it is hard to quit cold turkey.
I think looking at the apprentice is kinda wrong here. What is improving and should be improving is the burned number. At the end of the game there will be overall less enemy spawn. So it should get easier. Ofc it up to you if you decided if it is good to move on or not.
edit: nevermind, read too fast and haven’t see it is like this since March.
I don’t remember who wrote that but if you only have leeches, just leave them as is.
WK is not the platform for it anymore. Take a break. Consume content. Have fun and don’t worry about them.
I also lost interest in WaniKani after I reached lvl 60 and even the creators themselves encourage you to move on at some point. Burning all items really isn’t necessary and if you are not enjoying the process just create a new habit related to Japanese that is enjoyable and something that you look forward to doing.
See, when I reached level 60 in March as well, I also lost my main goal which was reaching 60. I decided that I would spend just a few more months solidifying the content from the last levels, but just last week I finally unsuscribed, meaning this is my last month.
At this point, unless you want to go for completion for whatever reason (not worth it IMO if not already lifetime) I think it’s best to drop it and continue with your efforts elsewhere. In my case, I’m trying to read much more, and having done WK I feel it’s much easier to learn new vocabulary. WK is great and I’m glad I’ve worked through it, but I think at this point it has reached the end of its utility to me, and it is no longer useful; it has servered its purpose.
If you enjoy the routine of coming back to a daily SRS routine, I’d say try other SRS services and work through the content you come accross. That’s what I’m doing anyway!
It’s definitely a good idea to make the transition to reading (and if you want to keep using SRS, self-curated vocabulary cards in a different platform).
It’s true that Wanikani will never end, and it should be largely replaced by books and other methods long before everything’s burned (and they stop adding stuff). It’s just up to you when (if ever) you’d prefer to stop and get closure vs. keeping up the habit for fun.
The rate does, at least, slow down over time. I hit level 60 about two years ago, and while I still get daily reviews (or until recently, reviews every few days thanks to the <100 items that weren’t added in the last few months), it’s more like 1-6 than 100-200 so at this point I don’t really feel like I have much of a reason to stop, even though I don’t gain much of anything from it and Anki has long taken over for me.
Stopping much sooner than that is probably prudent!
I reached level 60 on Jan 26 this year. My daily reviews have since decreased from 250-300 to about 100.
End of May I used the vacation mode for the first time (for 8 days) and was surprised how bad my success rate had become after this short break. You can see the break in my diagram, as the number of guru’ed items went up lately (only partly due to the new items):
Stopping right after reaching lvl60 feels weird to me, obviously the lvl60 kanji are not learnt yet. And may be it’s because I went to a slower pace (15 days per level), but the the workload reduced heavily a few month after (currently at ~30 review a day, so not much of a commitment).
Plus, my goal since the beginning has been to burn at least all kanji, so I’m not stopping soon.
