I’m in the middle of the third level and I started planning my pace, basically, I want to pay the monthly subscription untill December, when there should be a sale for what I was told and I’ll buy the yearly subscripiton.
I calculated and I have to take ~10 days per level(from level 4) so that this is possible, I just don’t know how many daily lessons are needed for that, so how many do y’all say?
There’s a lot of surrounding nuance to this topic of how much you should/could/can do that I don’t feel properly equipped to unpack or make suggestions (especially since there are some wildcard variables like the last ~15 levels being complete-able considerably faster than the earlier levels if you optimize workflow) but it is worth noting this above all else since your plan seems centered around it;
The annual December sale (unless I am misremembering) is specifically for the lifetime subscription- taking it from 300 USD to 200. I don’t believe the other monthly or yearly plans are price cut during this time.
to go at full speed you basically have to gobble up all the lessons as soon as they become available to you. past the first couple levels i haven’t managed any faster than 6 days, 23 hours yet, partly because i’ve never (even considered) altering my sleep schedule to do early apprentice reviews that happen to fall past my bedtime.
so, to give yourself 10 days per level, that gives you the span of one to two days to clear out all the lessons in your queue after each level up. it looks like most levels have between 100 and 200 cards. in my experience you receive the cards for each level in three groups: the first group at level up, the second group as you guru the radicals and kanji made available to you at level up, and the third group (which is all vocab cards) made available to you as you guru the kanji in the second group.
for me in practice, the third group of one level and the first group of the next are more or less the same group. i tend to have about 100 cards at apprentice level at a time.
granted, spacing out the lessons onto different days like a normal human being would change the experience some. probably 10–20 lessons per day could do the trick? the wrinkle is the need to wait for radicals and kanji to be guru’d before other cards unlock…
Personally I feel like I progress pretty quickly. I clear out all the reviews I have during my workday. But I’m averaging about 18-20 days for a level. In order to do each level in 10 days you’d basically have to live and breath on a schedule based around this and nothing else, and that’s before considering making mistakes.
I tend to do all lessons available to me rather than stick to the recommended 15 per day, but it doesn’t actually speed up the process very much. You rarely unlock more than 20-30 at a time regardless.
Rather than aim to “finish” wanikani, it’d be healthier just to aim to be consistent with it over the same time.
Here is a very rough estimate. There are 9,352 total items on Wanikani per wkstats.
Keep in mind though that it’s not just about how many lessons you do each day but how often you do reviews, and the timing of your review sessions. You’re limited by how fast you can level up by the SRS timing. Leveling up is determined by guruing 90% of the Kanji, but before unlocking all the kanji you have to guru all of the radicals for the level. So leveling up quickly is based not only around how many lessons you do each day but how frequently and the timing of your reviews. If you want to learn more I’d recommend this guide: Wanikani is too slow and the Radicals are Useless. also Why Can't I just level up in one day instead of 7? - #51 by jprspereira
If you want a more chill plan while still having a decent speed, you could do 15 or 20 lessons a day and have a few review sessions a day that are spaced out well, so that you’re leveling up at a pace you’re comfortable with. Ultimately I’d recommend just doing what works best for you!
I think you should measure your accuracy and that’ll tell you how many lessons you can do. Otherwise you risk going too fast ending up with a huge apprentice pile and resetting. Wherever you sit at 90s accuracy will be your lesson count. Though you can always improve.
25 is pretty fast, some even do 30. But i think the fastest you can go is around 6 days and some hours per level.
I do 15 lessons and I’m happy here.