So, I have done both - I have reset once after a lengthy break, and I have also continued after not doing any reviews for 9 months. I am happy that I did not reset the second time, to be honest.
When I continued I had about 800 reviews waiting at level 9. My strategy was to work through the reviews in manageable chunks, over several days. My only goal was to get my reviews to a managable level again at a pace that fit my schedule. I had about 70-80% correct answers, and those that I did not get right were almost there, so not many persistent leeches. I started lessons again, when I felt that reviews felt really easy to keep up with, but it took me about two weeks to get there.
Generally, if the thought of resetting demotivates you, I’d say try the reviews and see what your actual failure rate is. If you see that you actually do not remember much, then you can still reset.
For me, the key factor in whether to reset or not is what would get me moving. A few times I was in a situation when I had a huge pile of reviews in front of me and was unable to gather the strength to do them - in those times I did a reset. Later I got fed up with resets and when I got into that situation again - I simply started tackling the reviews instead. So, both methods work, the key is to start moving.
If you can unstuck yourself without the reset - it’s great. But if you can’t - then even resetting to level 1 from whatever level would be better than getting stuck endlessly trying to gather strength to tackle the pile of reviews.
At least, that’s my appurroach - a clumsy appurroach of a small clumsy cat
I’ve done this twice, both with 2000-3000 reviews pending. It’s not as bad as it seems.
My recommendation is to not reset. Even if you only remember 30% of stuff that’s still a lot of progress you’d be throwing away unnecessarily. The ones you don’t know and get wrong will automatically “reset” themselves anyway.
Just set yourself a target. Say to be down to 0 reviews in 1 month (or whatever time frame). By the end of Day 1, be down to 1400 pending reviews. Day 2, 1350 pending reviews. Day 3, 1300 pending reviews. That’s not so bad right?
Do that and in a month’s time you’ll be more or less back on track and it’ll be no big deal.
Thank you for your answers, everyone! I decided to only reset levels 9 and 10 (I looked and pretty much remembered nothing from those) but I’ll work my way through the rest of them, as in lower levels there’s still stuff I remember. I think I will be able to deal with it more easily this way.
I think the main debate here is “to reset, or not to reset”.
To my mind, it is definitely personal taste. Some people say it’s demotivating, others that it salvaged an otherwise disastrous review cycle. I won’t be getting into that debate here (especially considering I cannot really comment given that I haven’t reset myself), instead I thought that I would give you some advice based on what you do decide to do.
If you decided not to reset: I would recommend rereading the mnemonics when you get an item wrong. This may seem trivial if you think you can re-memorise them through brute force, but it can really change the tide of your reviews. Chances are, it won’t take all that much effort to remember the mnemonics after having already gone through them before. Therefore, this can really be a lifesaver for larger piles of forgotten items.
It may initially feel as though you’re going a lot slower than you could otherwise (because you are really ), but hopefully afterwards you’ll find your recollection has greatly improved.
If you decide to reset: make certain that you’re not resetting too far back. I cannot stress this enough; remember, you can always reset further back if you find that you didn’t go far enough beforehand, but you cannot push your level back forward on command.
Go through the item lists from each level and see how many you remember. Once you get to a level whereat you’re remembering about 75% of the items (that is to say, not just the kanji!), reset to that point. The rest of the forgotten items will be revised over time, hence the joy of an SRS.
Feels strange to me that people get discouraged by a large number of reviews. Just imagine the possibilities. You can do as many as you want. Doing lessons when you have more reviews than you can finish in a day is a bad idea. So you are not pressured into getting 0 pending reviews, like you probably are every day, if you stick to a routine of clearing those ~150 reviews and then doing your lessons. This does require being a bit more organized than you’d normally have to be, but gives more leeway.
I reset from lvl 19 back to zero. I had only been of 2 months at the time, but to me it was very worth it!
The first few levels can be done in just days, and the items are so easy it will simply be a soft start.
Having been gone that long a soft start where everything feels motivating rather than a struggle might be best.
I personally just hate the big review piles, and find going back a better choice.
Last time I had a pile that high (at lvl 42) it took me half a year to clear enough to continue O_o
I have done full reset twice, worth it both times =)
), but hopefully afterwards you’ll find your recollection has greatly improved.