Absolutely! Thirded. I saved up and started with a lifetime sub, and it really takes the pressure off when you have a bad time and need a break.
Seconded. I don’t use it that often - I also much prefer typing on a real keyboard - but it’s one of the best apps I have on my phone.
How can we trust anything you say???
That being said, I bookmarked your post in case there’s something in there I may want to try. 
If it makes you feel any better, I started WaniKani a year ago (exactly) and the culmination of school work and family stress ended in me taking month-long breaks, which is why I am now ‘only’ level 6. You did that in roughly 5 months! If, like you say, you’re not in a hurry then it really doesn’t matter. I personally am in no rush, and am now just trying to not get overwhelmed. I respect everyone who reaches level 60 quickly, but I have accepted that snailing is the pace that works for me, with breaks and vacation mode and all. Best of luck to you, whether you wanna speed up or keep going the way you are now!
I’ve been stuck on level 15 for almost a whole year, it never gets better.
People make it to 60 in a year because they have raw natural talent for language.
Or because we spend a couple hours on WK daily alone and do 4-8 sessions of reviews daily without missing a day. When did you do 130 lessons in a single sitting? I did that yesterday, for me that is normal at this point, even if you could spread it out, but it doesn’t phase me. If you are willing to put in the time and do 300+ reviews daily, so can you.
I was just coming to the forums to say something similar! It takes hours a day to get through the reviews once you hit a certain level. I had to take a break while I was moving across the country and now I have to abuse vacation mode whenever I get hit with a wall of mastery reviews from my catch-up days. Life’s just too busy sometimes. I know a lot of the people who make it to level 60 in a year are in their first few semesters of college and have said they have a lot of spare time. That’s really not an option when you’re working and have family.
More so than this I think it’s a combination of having sufficient free time, a surplus of mental energy, and putting in a lot of effort. The term “talent” is often used in a way that just erases the hours upon hours upon hours of work people put into achieving things 
Like every one here do your work how you like it .
i m not doing wanikani as a speedrun even if a take 8 day per level , the biggest problem about this is the focus and time needed , about 20 new things per day , the key for me is to be constant , if not i know i m going to fail ^^ .
every body is capable to do wanikani as a speedrun , (i didn’t believe i was able to study like that ,my memory is a mess) it just take time , i m a student so i have more time to do so .
(i want to finish next year too , because i finish my master study ,i will be harder to study like that if i m working ^^ )
lol I keep my apprentice at 100 as suggested and clear over 100+ lessons every single day. I actually just did 180 this morning. So no, you just have a better memory.
I think you misunderstood a bit, that they’re saying “in a single session” under the general assumption of people doing multiple per day. Note they did say 300+ in a day.
The point is, while probably inadvertent, too much attention on “better memory” does sort of tend to minimize the hard work that goes into this. Note that while I don’t doubt overall differences in aptitude to SOME degree, memory is itself a thing that can be practiced and trained with better methods. The person you are talking to regularly posts about spending many hours a day, every day, doing things in Japanese. Like if I recall correctly genuinely 8+, which sure most people don’t have time for, but is also an extremely admirable level of commitment and work.
I’m not going to disagree with that completely. Having the luck of a natural talent for something definitely makes something a little easier, but talent alone never really amounts to much.
Making it to 60 in roughly a year isn’t just a matter of talent alone. Even if we’d assume someone had a 100% accuracy throughout every single review all the way to 60, they could still take anything between a year and 100 years to reach 60.
The hard work of learning with WK is (in my opinion, anyway) not just hammering the radicals, kanji and vocab into your memory (where a talent could be helpful, sure) but rather that if you really go fast, you’ll need to adjust your life to WK. Doing reviews just once a day won’t get you to max speed, neither will a more managable pace of just 5 lessons per day.
Ideally, you would have to do your reviews when they show up. How does a raw natural talent for languages help me with that? Not at all, really. It’s a decision that has to be made, whether someone is willing to sacrifice themselves to the crabigator to that degree or not. It’s probably better not to.
And even then, the really tricky part is keeping that up. Not slacking off for even a single day, or half a day. Making WK a routine to the point that you don’t even question anything anymore, but just do your reviews and are done with it. Not tiring of it, not giving up.
It’s pretty easy to chalk that perseverance and commitment up to “raw natural talent”, but really, that’s selling the effort that goes into it short.
That said, I want to point out that going slow isn’t a bad thing, and going fast isn’t a good thing. It’s pretty individual what speed someone learns at and dependant on way too many factors to make it worth comparing oneself to others. I don’t think it really matters when you reach your goal, but that you make it there.
Consistency is the key. Small steps often is what takes you to Level 60. I set the goal to complete the program in 2 years thinking that if it took someone a little over a year that 2 years would be a cake walk. I was very wrong and it was a grueling pace that I wouldn’t recommend for anyone. But if you are serious about making faster gains whether its in two years or ten, then read my post on Memory Palaces in order to increase your review accuracy and set a reasonable schedule of completing a Level…say…every ten days. That averages to roughly ten new lessons a day, a combination of radicals, kanji, and vocabulary that you must complete as well doing all your reviews for that day, spacing them out over breakfast, lunch, dinner, or whatever version is best for you. You don’t want massive dumps in your Lesson or your Review piles because the further along you go, the more overwhelming it will get, trust me. A level every ten days is 3 Levels a month, which is 36 Levels in a year. Savy? With life and whatnot 25 Levels in a year is usually more reasonable and finishing the program in roughly 3 years is a healthy goal for a part time learner. Also, keep in mind that people completing WaniKani in a little over a year or less than two years often have been studying Japanese for years before finding wanikani. (Personally my previous vocabulary knowledge is what sped me through the first quarter of wanikani no problem). Some of them have even passed the JLPT N3 and are looking for something really intensive. Just decide the level of intensity that is best for you and remember it’s all about the journey brother.
That’s where it’s at for me. I wanted to get to lvl 10 before I went into grammar…and I have (gone into it) a little. But I really want to focus on it more now. I don’t see the point of learning the kanji for expectation, or to realize, or beforehand, when I have trouble with, ‘I went swimming last Thursday.’ So I’m down to 6 words a day…at least until I can get my N5/4 grammar caught up. All the time I spent on reviews would definitely eat into time I now want to spend elsewhere.
Through level 6-10 at least. But it killed me. I have lots of respect for those who continue it out and finish in a year (and a half). Urrgghh…just too many words. So many reviews. So much time!
I meant reaching level 60 at max speed and not having an N5 grasp of grammar. It’s not something I’d have ever done, but to each their own.
Who did 60 in a year and not have N5 knowledge?
I’m not gonna call anyone out, but a few.
Edit: And they weren’t completely at max speed, but very close to it.
Don’t rush yourself or compare yourself to others is rule number 1 in any skill acquisition. There are some people that are just more adept for language (or any skill) than others. In the time I’ve studied some people have become an unbelievable level of fluent in the language, I am not that person but I still keep going because I know at some point I’ll get there. If you do decide to go faster I recommend doing just 5 additional lessons daily max. Otherwise you’re gonna burn out really fast.
Don’t rush. I’ve been slowly plugging away at WK (along with a bunch of other studying that usually takes priority) for almost 5 years now, and I am only on level 48. I took a lot of breaks. Vacation mode is my savior. Take your time. Finishing it in one year is TAXING and you might not remember everything after only a year.
The truth is probably about being controlled by the system (i.e. addiction) and realizing the technique. and I posted my technique above, but I don’t really recommend it - aim for 90+% accuracy.
Memory is indeed important, but learning a language needs more than that.
I would say, WaniKani has a nice leveling system, but let’s not be taken by system. Around 2-3 years would be probably be ideal. 5 years isn’t so bad. But I am not sure you will get there at all, if to finish in 10 years.
Though, long time and if you study well somehow, other kinds of skills will build up.
About that, I would rather recommend getting some grammar before WaniKani. WaniKani is not for leading in to Japanese, but probably more about vocabulary building.
WaniKani Community is nice, however. That’s why I am here.
Actually, it can; but expect a long sitting. Still, I don’t recommend skipping a day - otherwise put on Vacation Mode.
I have bene here since July 30 2020. and at level 9. You seem faster than me. I realise now I have been very slow and been doing it just about every day. Most of my lessons are reviews. However my aim is to go faster and do new lessons once every 2 days.