Hi, I’m brand new and just leveled up for the first time. I realized that I could start learning level 2 radicals and unlock kanji and then vocab for level 2 even though I haven’t finished learning all the vocab in level 1.
I’ve been taking 10 lessons a day and the general workflow that feels right to me is learn all radicals → then kanji → then vocab → start over with the radicals for next level. It seems though that to be as efficient as possible I’d have to do radicals and kanji that I have available ASAP? is this right? If I don’t do that, will wanikani take way too long to get through. I don’t mind being inefficient I just want to make sure that it’s not so wildly inefficient that 2 years turns to 5 or something like that?
Yes if you want to go fast and not do too many reviews at once you need to always prioritize radicals and kanji. You can find more in-depth guides in these forums if you want.
More generally not finishing the vocab of a previous level before starting a new one is not bad in my experience, it spreads out the exposure to a given kanji on a longer period and reinforces it more.
Try not to have vocabulary lag too far behind however, if you’re level 7 and haven’t finished with level 4 vocab then something is probably wrong. You don’t want to accumulate a huge vocabulary backlog.
If you want a very in-depth explanation of the mechanics and how to “game” them, see:
Note that I absolutely don’t recommend to aim for a one-year level 60 speedrun, but going as fast as you’re comfortable early on is certainly very valuable. Those early kanji are extremely useful.
I mean really it depends on you. I would recommend picking a path and going that way for a while, once you level up a few times you will start getting a feel for how things are going and an adjust from there. Wanikani leveling up depends on how many Kanji you finish for that level. You need to get 90% of that levels Kanji to apprentice to level up to the next level. So if you only do Radicals first you will technically level up slower because leveling up depends on Kanji. (NOT a bad thing though)
That said I will also share how I do WaniKani so you have an idea on how some others may do it. I am speed running (to the extend that I can while living in Japan and balancing work and social life). That being said on average I level up every 8 days. My method is simple, but a little bit hardcore in terms of the amount of reviews I’m always doing.
I do all radicals, kanji, and vocab all in one go. So I will do around I think 85ish total new lessons at a time. I then focus on that for the next 4ish days until I get them to apprentice and move on to the second part of that level (This consists of the remaining Kanji and vocab). Rinse and repeat. As long as I maintain my apprentice items under 150, and so far I have, I will not slow down on leveling up. I say this because this is an important number to understand and manage to avoid review overload and to keep tabs on if you are actually retaining the information you are learning at the speed you are going.
Lastly, I think that radicals are super important. I say that very subjectively though. They help me a lot recall Kanji when I see them, for some people they may not be needed. Like I said at the start of this post I think moving at a set pace, taking everything very seriously is a good start. You will get a feel of what works for you and what does not. Then you can change your tactics and pace accordingly.
I think most things have probably already been said but I think this is a really good point. Radicals > kanji > vocab is the most optimal way to go if you’re looking to level up quick, but just be sure not to forget the vocab altogether.
Something to note though (which is also explained in detail in the post @simias linked) is that the interval between reviews is shorter during levels 1 and 2. Once you hit level 3, the interval increases a decent amount and stays that way for the remaining levels.
I underestimated this larger time gap. I’d been doing radicals, but then spending a day or two getting my vocab out of the way before doing the kanji. The issue was that when I did finally get around to the kanji, I then had no new lessons for a few days while I waited for the kanji to guru.
I’ve found that a better way of doing it (without also forgetting the vocab) is to do radicals immediately after levelling up, then the next day do the initial amount of unlocked kanji. In the few days after that I can then focus on the vocab before the remaining kanji unlock. Once that happens I’ll do the remaining kanji, then any leftover vocab while they also guru. Then it’s level up!
Of course, do whatever is comfortable for you. As you say, you don’t want to go so slow that it extends your learning time for no reason. But you also don’t want to go so fast you burn out either. I’m still in the early days and learning myself, but take some time to experiment as well to see what works for you
