First up, it’s great that you reached otu to the community to ask all these questions even though you were super confused, good on you : )
Partly, you’re jsut at the beginning. the readings in teh right situation is mainly somethign you’ll learn over time and with mroe exposure. you’re in the forested foothills of the mountain right now, and so looking at the mountian is kind of overwhelming since you can only see the tip, and have the word of mouth from other people’s journeys.
I’d start with, don’t worry too much about meeting these deadlines of things liek startign reading aroudn level 6, and grammar around level 10 etc. Ultimately, everyone learns differently, and these are at their strongest, recommendations. They won’t work for everyone.
Another thign with reading is that, for even many grade 0 readers you need some basic grammar. without that, the hiragan on teh kanji, and the kanji order, won’t make sense, even if you’re level 60. Wanikani doesnt; teach grammar, only kanji, but there are many resources out there for grammar (check out the ultimate additional resource list)
Don’t worry that you don’t know everything or remember everythign perfectly, that’s what hte SRS is for. it will brign the things you get wrong back sooner, and the things you get right back later so it gets stuck in yoru head properly.
I’d recommend JP’s guide, which i’ve also linked below, it’ll explain soem of your questions abotu SRS and remembering and lessons and stuff. In general, most people dont; do new lessons as soon as they appear, Your review percentage isnt; super important, as in there’s nto magical number that if you get less than then you ‘fail’ wanikani, that’s not how this works. Again, it’s different for everyone. Same for apprentice count. generally it’s recommended to keep it aroudn 100 to manage reviews level, btu soem people have more, soem people have less, t depends on how fast they can/want to go, the time they have and many more things. It’s soemthign that people work out along the way.
I wouldn;t say there’s an ah-ha moment that’s that sudden a jump, but there are points where things do fall into place like, the first time you remember a reading/meaning without the mnemonic, or when that grammar lesson finally sinks in and that sentence makes sense, or when you see two kanji and their combined meaning just clicks, small things like that that build up to increase your knowledge.
I hope some of that helped : )
Also, Since it’s your first time posting (and the links will help you alot too):
\textcolor{MediumPurple}{\huge \textsf{Hi}} {\huge \textsf{@_Karate}} \textcolor{MediumPurple}{\huge \textsf{!}}

It’s great to have you here!
If you haven’t already check out the Forum Guidelines and the Wanikani User Guide .
There’s also tonnes of things on the forums to help you on your way such as The guide, The Ultimate resource list, and API and Third Party Apps.
If you have any questions, check out this thread; but if this doesn’t answer your questions, feel free to create a thread like you’re done here, or email The Wanikani staff.
Good luck, and I look forward to seeing you around!