So I used to be really active on here and did my reviews religiously, and then I kind of slipped for a while as my responsibilities between work, high school, and college classes was a bit overwhelming. When I returned a couple, I came back to about 650 reviews and I’ve been putting off doing any of them because I’m kind of scared that I’m not going to remember many and will just burn myself out.
Should I just grind through them and start up again? I’m rediscovering my passion for Japanese language and culture and I don’t want all the work that I’ve put in so far to go to waste.
Based on my own experience (~7 month hiatus with no vacation mode), I’d say go through the reviews and don’t touch any lessons until you’ve cleared your review pile – let yourself get things wrong, the SRS will take care of the things you remember and the things you don’t
Don’t rush for risk of burning out, tackle the review pile at your own pace, I myself had returned to a 1200+ review pile that I gradually made my way through over the course of about a week or so before I felt comfortable enough to begin whittling down my lessons
Let your reignited passion for Japanese fuel you! がんばって！
After a long periods without studying, I aim to do a fixed number of reviews each time I start wanikani, like 50 reviews in one sitting. I keep doing it until I finish them all. And only do new lessons when the number of apprentice review items is lower than 50. This helps me keep it manageable.
what are you scared about, you started at some point not knowing any of these kanji, you just need to take your time to undust 'em, little by little, making mistakes is the best approach to learn better, so just do it. because it might take you say a couple weeks to get back on your feet… but in two weeks you’ll be more than ready to continue where you left off, and if you fret and let time pass, you might find yourself two weeks from today in the exact same place you are. move, move, move, make mistakes, recover soon!
Well… just 6 months ago I came back from a 2 year hiatus I had forgotten almost everything I had in the review queue.
You can go back a couple of levels now, no need to restart from scratch, So I did that. I was level 15 when I came back and decided to go back to level 10.
That helped in two ways:
The amount of reviews got to a not so scary number
I still remembered pretty well the level 10 items, so I was able to catch up pretty quick and actually level up also very fast for 3 or 4 levels, that really boosted my momentum.
I have since slowed down, but I have not let go again.
Provided you pace yourself and set your own targets, you can make it through 650 reviews just fine. If setting targets based on number of reviews per session works for you, great! If not, here’s an alternative:
Install the WaniKani Reorder Ultimate script, and set it to order by level. In this way, you can use the highest level to which you have managed to clear all reviews as a way to better visualize your progress through the queue.
Personally I find this a helpful motivator when my review queue has got too big to do in one sitting.
Thanks to everyone for the motivation! I ended up just doing what most of y’all had said and started to chip away at it. Just did a good 150 review session so if I keep it up (which I will, I promise) it’ll be back down and I can start back with lessons in no time.
I surprised myself for how much I was actually able to remember from a rather long leave from Wanikani, so I guess that just goes to show the power of the SRS and mnemonics.
I had forgotten almost everything I had in the review queue.
… someone check his ID.