How to deal with a stockpile of lessons?

Sooo… I currently have 340 lessons waiting patiently for me to go through them.

After taking a break while not having the “vacation mode on” I acquired quite some reviews as well, around 450. After some back and fourth in doing them and taking 1-2 day breaks (big mistake) I eventually got blessed with some self discipline and did over a hundred a day this previous week (thanks quarantine)

Even though I’m very happy about seeing that 0 on the reviews I still have all these lessons…
I am 2 kanji away from leveling up once more which I don’t really like the sound of atm. Since that lessons pile will probably reach around 500 or somewhere around that area.

So the current plan I have is saving those 2 kanji until I’ve done most, if not all the other vocab in there. So if anyone has any advice on how to deal with these and how many I should do at a time I would be most grateful. Thanks :slight_smile:

( I have around 100 apprentice items atm )

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I personally wouldn’t worry about the lessons number - I do 11 lessons each day, so sometimes the number is high (currently sitting at 173), and just before levelling up it gets quite low (I try to avoid completely running out).

If you do all your lessons at once, or in large chunks, they will come back as large reviews.

All that said, it depends on your study style, and if your schedule allows the ‘little and often’ approach. Best of luck however you choose to tackle it!

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A stockpile of lessons I wouldn’t worry about as much as a stockpile of reviews. Most of the time you are always going to have lessons to do unless you do all your lessons in one sitting which I dont recommend. If you want to have less lessons piling up I would recommend doing around 10 daily. For me this works well, I have around 50 lessons when I complete a level and 120 or so after leveling up

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I would start by disabling whatever reorder script you’re using that got you a backlog of lessons in the first place. Then just do a reasonable number of lessons each day and be okay with it taking a while to catch up.

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Just start chipping away at them, a bit at a time. 20 a day would be the maximum I recommend, unless you’re going to be super diligent in doing reviews all of the time throughout the day to keep the reviews from piling up in your 1 to 2 sessions. Also, try to do the lessons at a time when you know you can do their first review 4 hours later (for instance, I try to avoid doing lessons between 8 and 9 because then they come back at noon and that’s my lunch hour when, ironically, I do no WK, and then there’s a build-up when I come back at 1). For me this helps space them out a bit.

And I would say maybe change the reorder script to do lessons from the earliest level first. Then, once you’re at a comfortable spot in your lessons, do as seanblue says and disable it completely. Alternatively (or in conjunction with this), take a good look on how you’re studying that you reached this point; something isn’t working and it’s probably how you use the reorder script.

Best of luck! がんばれ!

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I got to level 12 yesterday, spent 9 days 1 hour on level 11. I have a similar problem. I have around 200 reviews, 155 lessons and 115 items in apprentice. I used vacation mode for 34 days in Jan and Feb, thus the correct percentage also got down slightly for the first two days after returning. I am trying the following to reduce the pile of lessons. Not sure if and how helps they help though.

  1. I didn’t completely turn off the reorder script, but as suggested by @BigEm, I try to complete the vocab lessons from previous levels. I am trying to do around 20 lessons a day and looks like this is doable.
  2. I usually don’t get to schedule my study time and it has been irregular. Now, since last week I try to schedule them around my most active hours (when I am not tired or lazy). I guess just being more aware that I can not postpone my lessons anymore. This helped in moving much of vocab to guru soon. They may all comeback in one chunk later though :thinking:
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Yea I used the a re-order scrip so the kanji would come first so I could get the thrill of leveling up faster. Not a good idea.

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Just pick away at them as you can, up to an Apprentice count you feel is manageable. Maybe that’s 100, maybe 125, maybe 150. Whatever it might be.

Looking at my re-order script, it has the flexibility to allow you to set only vocab to learn. You might try setting only vocab in the re-order script until you get them under control. Then you don’t really need to worry about saving those last 2 kanji or anything (I assume the kanji are already in the review pile). Just level up and then only do vocab, at whatever rate is comfortable, until you’re finished them.

Then get rid of the re-order script.

– I think my re-order script is called WaniKani Lesson Filter, by the way.

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The thing is, the default lesson order on WaniKani will always prioritize earlier levels anyway. So removing the reorder script now will still result in their old vocab lessons being done first. As long as they have their setting set that way of course.

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Oh I see. That is a much simpler solution then.

Actually I’ve experienced WK giving me vocab lessons from level 11 (for example), while I still had level 10 lessons not done in a session without scripts (on the phone). I have app order setting on recommended “ascended level than subject”. I think it might be due to the fact that I’ve used scripts to do level 11 radicals and kanji while still having level 10 vocab pending. Since it’s not possible in vanilla WK, their sorting algorithm gets confused (my attempt to explain, not proven fact).

So if you have pending lessons from very old levels, maybe finish those first? I always clear Level 10 before starting on Level 12 etc. And ignore “the pile of lessons” number, just do manageable number per day consistently, keeping an eye on apprentice count since it’s almost linear with daily review load.

All the best!

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