How do you make it out of Level 7?

WaniKani Requesting Help
#1

I dunno,…I keep doing my reviews,…I have my good moments and my bad moments,…but for some reason my progress has stayed the same despite hundreds of reviews. I have one lousy, rotten stinking radical, and about 18 Kanji left. But, despite giving correct reviews, my progress bars are frozen! Is it time to just crack open a bottle of 日本酒??

EDIT: I made it! I finally finished Level 7. I just wanted to thank everyone for their encouragement and helpful suggestions. It’s SO nice to know that you are not alone, and that what you are experiencing is pretty much what so many others have experienced. Thanks once again!

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#2

Don’t worry, such periods can happen; just keep doing your reviews and you’d get to the next level.
Also, which radical is it that you have so much trouble remembering?

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#3

You can try to use the Self Study script with this add-on to study leeches (items you get wrong a lot) or simply items you recently got wrong. You can also use it to drill new lessons to make sure the new material sticks.

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#4

7 to 8 took me forever. Close to two months. Basically, my problem was that I was not using mnemonics properly, and had been trying to rush through levels. 7 is when it caught up to me.

Make sure you are spending the time on each mnemonic. I think it is easy to get sloppy with them when you are trying to power through. Get an answer wrong? Go over the mnemonic again. Have leeches? Don’t answer for them until you’ve thought through the mnemonic, even if you “know” your answer is right.

8 is going much faster, but still slow.

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#5

Just so’s you know, the progress bars are merely a count of how many items you’ve gotten to Guru. It’s not a graduated measure of your precise position in the level, but simply a binary yes/no of “have you studied this item enough?”

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#6

All that matters to get to the next level is getting 90% of your kanji to guru. To get the second set of Kanji on a level, you have to get the first set of radicals to guru. The vocab reviews don’t have anything to do with it. Right now, I cheat on the Kanji / Radicals if I have to because I learn them before the level is done due to vocab really reinforcing them. My rule right now is, never cheat on vocab and if my apprentice count is around 100 or below when I hit the next level, i go forward. You don’t get the vocab words until you guru’d the kanji.

Missing a couple kanji and / or radicals can set you back days in terms of leveling.

I’m only on level 11, but the vocab from level 9 Kanji is just a cluster fuck of weird readings. That has been my worst so far.

I looked at your profile and noticed you’re level 7 with a ton burned which is pretty crazy to me, but more importantly your apprentice count is pretty low so you might want to consider trying something like what I do. You can pace it yourself even if you cheat, just don’t do the lessons until you’re ready to move on. It sounds like you’re ready to move on tho!

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#7

I’ve been there around your level. Do reviews everyday, you will make it!

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#8

Actually, it was “husband”, but now it’s burned into my memory. Thanks for the encouragement.

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#9

Wow, these scripts look pretty complicated for an analog guy stuck in a digital world. But I’ll take a serious look at them. Thanks.

#10

Thanks, man. It’s nice to know it’s not just me. It’s nice to know others have experienced the same thing. I almost feel human again.

#11

Thank you, I’ll keep this in mind.

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#12

Thank you for your advice. I will certainly consider your technique. I don’t think I’m looking forward to Level 9, though. Thanks for taking time out to reply!

#13

There’s always levels that are gonna be tough and you might think “Will I be here forever” but what’s important is removing yourself a little bit from the levels themselves. Really try to focus on learning the kanji, their meaning, how to use them in sentences.

Depending on the person, learning different kanji can take a really long time. It’s also important to remember that you’re probably reviewing the kanji for previous levels still, right? So it can be hard to get through the current level on top of that. Just try to stay focused on the current kanji, and not get caught up in what’s next. And if you really want to move on, there are plenty of other websites/books/resources to look into while you grind away on level 7 :smiley:

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#14

Thanks for the encouragement. What the hell,…eat, sleep, do reviews. Not a bad life.

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#15

Thank you for the encouragement. I will take what you say to heart.
It’s just reading what Koichi once wrote,…that it’s possible to advance ten levels within three months. I don’t know how people do this. But, I think you’re right, I’ll just focus on the Kanji themselves and not worry about leveling.

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#16

Yeah, there are definitely people who grind it out, and have amazing memory, and get to level 60 within a year or something crazy. Then there’s people like me who have been here since 2013 and still haven’t reached level 20. Everyone has their own pace haha

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#17

I’ve been there, also on level 7 funny enough, and can say from personal experience that there’s no better cure than just sitting down and doing it (which is probably obvious to you already but I thought I’d share something anecdotal)

If you’re looking for a lot of advice, check my post history (edit: here’s a link- Anyone else facing burnout?), I made a post very similar to yours and got a ton of useful feedback that probably applies to you too. Best of luck!

PS- you can reply to multiple people in one comment by using quotes, you can click and drag over someone’s comment and a little quote box will appear and insert that highlighted section into your comment, like this:

The forums will then treat your comment as a reply to whoever you have quoted (even if it’s more than one person) and you get the added benefit of not flooding a post with multiple comments that are all giving replies to a single person.

#18

How does one look at someone’s profile (not Community)? Asking for a friend…

#19

The levels after so far have been way easier to digest if that helps!

… so far :expressionless:

#20

There might be an easier way but what I always do is go to my profile

and replace electronbabies with their username at the end of the URL.

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