Got to level 4 then stopped for several months. Should I reset?

I started Wanikani back in September. I got to level 4 then put it on hold. I recently bought a one year subscription. I’m not sure if I should reset to start over or should I pick up from where I left off considering I only got to level 4 and I haven’t touched it since September.

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It really depends on how much you remember, I think. If you’re totally lost, then I would reset, but if you remember some things, it’s possible that all you need to do is review a little more to reinforce what you’ve learned.

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How many reviews are pending?
The first levels are very basic kanji and vocabularies, if you master them already, i would not spend 4 weeks to redo them from level 1.

Maybe do a long review session (at this point you probably have about 200 review items? That will be normal later on…) and see how much of it stuck. Decide based on that. You might be surprised how much you still know.

If you do reset, levels 1-3 take less than two weeks if you do your review timings correctly.

I have about 350 reviews pending. I tried doing about 20 of them and I didn’t know any of them :frowning:

I’d reset, level 4 isn’t that far in and because you already did these level you’ll be surely faster.

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I think it alright to miss some of them. It is part of system. It might take you some time to get back to it. But i believe you can

I would reset, I remember when I first started wanikani, I got level 2 or 3 and then stopped for 2 months because of university work. When I got back into wanikani, I had forgotten everything and I thought there was just no point in continuing, so I reset. Honestly you waste a little time now going back to 1, but it saves a lot of hassle when progressing forward as a lot of vocab and other kanji in higher levels will only build upon what you know. Best of luck with whatever choice you end up choosing!

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Don’t reset; let SRS take care of you.

I was level 30 or 31, then stopped studying Japanese altogether for a few years. Came back recently thinking learning Kanji would help me learn Korean vocab, saw they changed the radical mnemonics and was like “guess I should start fresh”.

I remember way more than I thought I did. I regret that decision :sweat_smile:

I’m on my second reset and I’m actually enjoying it a lot more this time around.

it’s level 4, reset or don’t, doesn’t make much of a difference :slight_smile:

I decided to reset. Thank you for your advice everyone! I appreciate it.

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If it makes you feel better, I reset from level 12 a few months ago after a 1+ year break.

With various SRS algorithms (not just this one), I’ve found that when I take a long break, once I get back I typically do okay if I don’t start from scratch.

This means a few long sessions with lots of missed items, but those missed items sort themselves out eventually. Meanwhile, I don’t waste effort relearning the stuff I already know. The stuff that I only sort of know will come back pretty quickly anyway.

For this particular task, you probably don’t need to bother wasting time relearning 一、ニ、et cetera.

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I was in a similar situation, also at level 4, and I stopped for a long time. Then I moved to Japan and had to decide about the reset. I did it and I recommend because although I did remembered a great deal (thanks turtles), that period felt like a boost for me to progress to other levels. I reached my previous point quite fast. I guess the other way I would have make mistakes in thinks “I was supposed to remember” and that would have made for a frustration in my learning experience.

It was also easy for me to pick up a pace, because I had hundreds of reviews and by restarting I just got a steady daily 1h study session that felt good.

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I left my opinion and then I realized you had already made your choice. I wish you good luck on your journey :).

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