How NOT to get to level 60. My experience with WaniKani

Your situation echoes mine a lot. Except I got overwhelmed multiple times along the way and had long hiatuses after which I had to crawl back up through thousands of reviews. Now that I’m 60, the review pile is still big (not as big as yours though), and my level 60 lessons are still slowly, slowly decreasing (managed to do the kanji ones at least so :man_shrugging: ). It is indeed important to not go too fast, and work smart, not hard (I have the same accuracy problem due to lessons not being learned properly and over-reliance on the SRS).

Anyway, have fun after resetting :slight_smile: hope it works well for you.

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Thanks for sharing your experience, I’m actually starting to spend more time in the lesson and relly less on the SRS and it’s good to see your thought going in that sense :slight_smile:

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It’s thanks to your mistakes, and those of others, that I’ve already learned not to make those.
I started out doing all the lessons as soon as they came up, even if they were more than I could realistically remember. Though I must add that most of the earlier vocabulary was already known to me, which made it easier to rush, I suppose.

Now halfway through level 6, I feel I have found a suitable pace. I do 20 lessons per day max, so I can actually remember them. And I don’t let my apprentice items get above 200. I also use the self study script to review items that seem to become or already are, those dreadful leeches.

Even though I’m in it for the N2 test in July 2020 (and thus need a little speed) I don’t want to rush it. Because rushing leads to forgetting. I want to be good at my dream job once I finally pass that test. (I plan to become a translator, just no idea what specialty yet.)

So TLDR: Thanks for your mistakes, now I won’t have to make them :slight_smile:

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Ain’t that the truth!

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My condolences.

chiya_emoji

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noted. I’ve read all your long post. Thanks for sharing. And congrats on reaching lvl 60.

楽しみ。

:+1:

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A very reasonable pace. And you’ll be getting the cake pretty soon! 頑張れ!

I totally get it because this used to be my mindset at some point. But I realized getting extra work because of simple typos was even worse so I finally adopted the way of the scripts. Though I’ll confess that on a coupe occasions I did abuse the WK Override script to level up when I shouldn’t had. At the end is a matter of self-control and awareness of the consequences of misusing the scripts.
Regarding setup. Yes, it is an annoyance, which is one of the reasons I go really light on scripts. I have like 2 or 3 that I do really NEED, the others I can do without until I get to my main computer at home.

Not using vacation mode resulted in me spending two weeks to get the pile back from 800-1500 ish to zero after a weekend out of town, so I totally get it. But keep going! As you burn more turtles you’ll have less work to do.
Thanks for the good wishes!

This is a very good approach! If you keep going like this you’ll suffer less I’d say

Haha I missed you, good to know you’re still around

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Thank you for posting this! This noobie definitely appreciates the tips.

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Hey, right now I am at level 18 and my accuracy rate lately (since level 15 or so) has been at 84-87 percent or so. My question is: What should be considered a good accuracy rate for longterm success and avoiding a burnout eventually?

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Am I correct in assuming that as long as I do the lesson, WK is going push me through levels, regardless of the size of my apprentice pile, and assuming the volume of the pile stays consistent, it’ll be waiting for me after level 60? I know this question is super basic, but I’m looking for a reality based answer, and not a retreatment of SRS theory.

What are these user scripts? Where can I find more? Which ones do you find useful?

You will only get to the next level when you have reached Guru on at least 90% of the kanji of a single level. But of course if you just level up fast, many of those may lapse back to Apprentice again, causing the review pile to swell.

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I can’t give you an exact number, really. But essentially, if you gonna race for level 60 you should aim for perfection.
85-ish% seems a bit low to me, but as long as you keep your apprentice count around 150, the workload should stay manageable. Don’t do any lessons until you get the apprentice count to those numbers. This will, of course, slow you down. It all depends on your personal goals, at the end.

Yes, as long as you guru 90% the Kanji on a given level, WaniKani will let you proceed with the following level, no matter how large your apprentice count is. That is the only requirement. So it all comes to you on managing your workload.

I’d just add that going fast isn’t necessarily going to send tons of things back to apprentice, but making mistakes in reviews does.

You’ll want to check the compilation list. I’m still adding scripts to my workflow and will make a separate post explaining what works for me, maybe. WK Improve is a good start, in my opinion.

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Have you begun attempting/having finished Kaniwani? It’s such a terrific complement to Wanikani, but I’ve been kind of putting it off myself, as every time I try, I end up neglecting WK, as I’m just too lazy to go through with both at the same time.

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Oh, yeah, KaniWani.

Didn’t hear about it until I was around level 10 or so. Back then, it was still on a very alpha state and all my vocab went into the review pile, 1,000 items or so. I spent a couple whole days doing reviews and gave up, never looked back. I’m planning to start KW along with WK this second round, hopuefully I can build the habit to do both

I’m using KaniWani as a kind of back-burner myself, only reviewing Mastered items and higher, and on purpose keeping it at a slow pace: still 664 items in the Lessons there, and no rush to start with all of them anytime soon. My idea is that it would bring me back to vocabulary I might already have burned but forgotten on WK, sometime in the future…

So here is my two cents:

I don’t think 16 days per level is even remotely realistic unless you can afford to dedicate yourself to it.

Lesson limiter is pretty much a requirement for me because ~200 review per day is pretty much all I can realistically afford to do and still sleep, work and relax.

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I just downloaded the Heatmap script and oh, boy. You can’t say I didn’t try LOL
image

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I feel ya! I got to level 18, but left it so long that I pent most of my time failing reviews that i’d long since forgotten. I reset back to level one and feel far better for it, no rushing through this time!

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