How do you learn your WK lessons?

WaniKani Tips & Tricks
#1

This topic is for sharing your lesson learning habits. Do you do just the vanilla WK lessons? Or do you have some additional studying habits?

Here is my own habit. I used to do vanilla WK but I had too many Apprentice review failures to my taste. I decided to do some extra studying. The lesson summary page is a big help.

Lesson Summary

This page seems to be designed to support extra studying. It is displayed after each lesson session. The learned items are all lined up ready for studying. When I move the mouse pointer over an item The meaning and reading pop up. Each item icon is a clickable link to the item page. If I leave this page I can return to it by clicking on the lesson button. (As an aside the review summary page is similarly useful to study the items from failed reviews)

After each lesson session I go over each item, one by one, and say out loud the meaning, reading and mnemonics. Then I verify the meaning and reading by hovering the mouse over the item icon. If I fail to remember the mnemonic I go to the item page. When I am done I test my knowledge with the Self Study Quiz script. I use the recent lessons filter from the Open Framework Additional Filters script.

I have noticed a huge improvement in my Apprentice reviews accuracy since I adopted this procedure. The vast majority of items just fly through the apprentice stages right into guru.

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#2

I typically just do the normal lessons, but I do have a script installed that shows the phonetic-semantic origins of each kanji, which helps a lot for readings. I should try this method: It seems like such an easy self-check that could help a lot.

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#3

Scripts I use:

  • WK Pitch Info (useful for vocab, it shows you the pitch structure)
  • WK Lesson User Synonyms (lets me set my own synonyms in-lesson, so I don’t have to go back afterward)
  • WK Niai Similar Kanji (shows visually-similar kanji on lesson pages)
  • WK Hide Context Sentence (puts a spoiler on the translation, so I can try and piece it together first)

For vocab lessons I just write them out a few times, checking Jisho for stroke order if I need to. Sometimes I google the word to see it used in context, especially if there are similar words and I’m not sure about the nuances. I also repeat the word a few times, trying to emulate the pitch accent.

For kanji lessons, I’m a bit more structured. I write all of them down in a big table, where the first column is the kanji, second is the reading(s), third is the meaning. Then at the end of each lesson set of 5, before I take the quiz I cover up the reading and meaning columns and go down the list twice, the first time saying the reading and the second time saying the meaning. If I mess it up, I peek at the other columns and then start from the beginning and do it again until I get everything right. Then I take the quiz.

With each additional lesson set, the table just keeps getting longer and I make myself review all kanji I’ve done so far (still have to get all of them right). This makes sure that the kanji I learn first don’t get overshadowed by the newer ones. I’ve found it pretty helpful when doing big sets to keep on schedule.

I also practice writing each kanji a few times, and sometimes some vocab it’s used in, if I know the other kanji involved.

Maybe I should try using the self-study script at some point, but this usually works okay for me.

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#4

At this stage, I have no issues remembering what I’ve learned right after. It’s usually a few hours later, around the time of the first or second reviews, that I might forget. I have found the review summary useful, though, particular for incorrect answers! That aside, I am currently keeping a list of what I’m getting wrong, just so that they would be on my radar. Not sure how effective this is yet.

#5

This was precisely my problem when I did only the vanilla lessons. I remembered the lessons right after but when came the reviews I forgot some stuff. My learning procedure fixed this.

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#6

This is a really good tip, I usually just ignore the Lessons summary after I do all my lessons. I guess I never saw the potential of this page, thanks for pointing it out!

I currently do vanilla WK but that’s mostly because I don’t know how to use the scripts and now that the API is changing, I don’t really know if I should bother using them.

I also had a lot of Apprentice reviews at a point and just didn’t do any new lessons until I got some of the kanji burned.

#7

By all means use the scripts if some of them are of any use to you. Most scriptwriters have updated to API V2. This may be useful: Visual Guide on How To Install A Userscript.
See also The New And Improved List Of API And Third Party Apps which lists the userscripts.

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#8

I really liked the beginning pace of the first two levels, where the first review came after 2 hours so I was content with just the lessons. Unfortunately, the normal rate afterwards is 4 hours and I felt like that was too long in between for me to be comfortable. So, similar to what you do, I use the self-study quiz script w/ additional filters about 2 hours after the lesson (basically halfway between lesson and first review).

I think it’s really helped with my retention which has been good~. If I remember correctly, I’ve only gotten like 1, maybe 2 things wrong in Apprentice total since I’ve started doing that at level 4.

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#9

I was doing lessons and reviews as they came for level 3 and 4, then i got lazy and didnt do anything for 5 days after I reached level 5. I haven’t even started the radicals. Weirdly I can remember the readings and meanings at about 95% accuracy after these five days.

I just watch a bunch of japanese youtubers and if they happen to mention a vocab i’ve learnt, i’ll repeat it in my head and try to remember the context.