Is taking this long even acceptable

[maxcable]

I am a big fan of going at your own pace, in the way that will keep you excited and motivated to learn. I started slowing down when WaniKani became overwhelming. That being said, taking a year to finish just the first three levels seems far too extreme. There’s no way that you are able to follow the SRS rhythm/methodology that way.

If you are interested in WK, I’d suggest tackling small numbers of lessons (maybe no more than 5 per day) but doing your best to log in all/most days and giving the SRS system a shot.

[Magikarpador]

I guess ill keep that in mind about the 0/0 thing. I just dont want reviews to pile up too much…

[Vanilla]

@drauch

Did you actually memorize all of that stuff

…yes?

I don’t know where this myth that people who do 7 day levels forget more came from, but it definitely isn’t true. We gotta burn stuff the same way regardless…

[Magikarpador]

What’s the SRS system?

[Munetta]

I think you got a little worked up over a sentence that wasn’t demeaning whatsoever. OP put themselves on the spot and I said what I thought. Should’ve I sugar-coated it? Maybe. Should’ve I made a detailed list instead of writing meanigful?
Drop what you picked up yourself.

[ccookf]

SRS: Spaced Repetition System

WaniKani’s SRS Stages

[yamitenshi]

Agreed, if anything the 7 day levels I did were because I already knew a lot of what those levels contained. Otherwise I would’ve failed enough stuff at least a few times to set me back.

I’ve had both 7 day levels and 60 day levels and can’t say I retained more for one or the other. But on the other hand it might be true for some people - it’s all anecdotal after all.

In the end I think the more important factor in long-term retention is whether you acutally use it outside WK. If you burn a kanji and then don’t see it for two years there’s a good chance you forget it, no matter how long you took for your reviews

[yamitenshi]

@maxcable

taking a year to finish just the first three levels seems far too extreme. There’s no way that you are able to follow the SRS rhythm/methodology that way.

While I agree that’s a fair bit more time than the SRS intends, keep in mind the first 3 levels are free, level 4 is not, and that can be a factor in that.

In my case that extremely long break at level 3 was because that’s when I could be bothered to actually buy a subscription.

[Rodngarcia]

Honestly, aim for at most 20 days per level on average. Anything more than that, you’ll take longer than you would with any many other learning methods out there, while spending money.
Do reviews twice a day, and take the review pile to 0 each time. Control your pace by adjusting how many lessons you do a day, not how many reviews

[VegasVed]

Join the club, buddy. It’s good that you have the self-awareness to recognize the problem. It’s just the first step, but it’s a necessary step in order to fix it

[Magikarpador]

I’ll try to follow just that

[Arlutaka]

I’ll show you my stats.
I’m not proud of my speed and I’m trying to put in more daily work. I do not think the ‘level 60 in a year’ is reasonable nor doable for the average user so do not get intimidated! (2 years is fast IMO)

I’m very slow working through my lesson pile. Of course, going at your own speed is fine. Keep in mind with 60 levels, even at 30day per level means I’ll be doing wanikani for 5 years! That’s why I’m trying to increase my speeds.

Start somewhere simple - start by making sure to do 2 full sessions; complete all of your reviews twice daily. If you check in more frequently it will be less overwhelming.

Whatever you do, make sure its enjoyable. If you don’t enjoy it and get stressed you will quit.
Good luck!

[LargeBenMan]

I think I’ve had a lot of the same thoughts as OP here as well. I’m on a church service mission where I have quite a bit of time, and during my less-motivated times on WK I’ve thought “I have so many leeches and I don’t level up nearly as often as I mean to, is this unacceptably slow?” And I think the answer really depends on the person. I tend to do 10-20 vocab every night and do the kanji all at once. That’s far too fast for some people and far too slow for some others, but it’s working for me right now (assuming I don’t get burned out…like I did at times heh)

To OP I would say, are you going as fast as you would like? Sometimes I think it’s important to push through and get through reviews anyway, running solely on willpower. On the other hand, are you enjoying studying and reviewing? Sometimes it’s good to slow down and focus on enjoying study. Noticing your progress and how you learn are as important (or, I think, more important) than whatever you perceive that other people think a reasonable levelup time is. Even if you took a decade to do Wanikani, if you enjoyed doing it and the knowledge you gained, and it was worth the money, that would be worth it in my opinion.
But take it at whatever your own pace is! We’ll welcome you here no matter what, and no matter how fast you learn, choosing to continue learning and reviewing means that you’ve already won!

[DurtleHeaven]

There is nothing wrong with going slow

My suggestions: If going this slow, I would save up and buy lifetime when the sales starts around Christmas. Going slow takes years, making Lifetime the better choice if you can afford it.

Don’t be discouraged by the speed of others. Find your own pace

Try get reviews to zero daily if you can. Only add as many new items (lessons) as you are prepared to review.
That way you review the items when they are fresh in mind, or the distance they should be depending on how many times you have gotten them right.

And if you want to join likeminded people to share progress with, feel free to join our durtle squad (already linked earlier)

Let's Durtle the Scenic Route

Lets Durtle the Scenic Route is a group similar to the “lets level together” groups. But in this group we don’t aspire to level fast, we are taking the scenic route and enjoying the process This is a group for people who don’t want to rush toward a set goal, but just durtle along slowly, maybe using 2-3x the time per level, or even more! For normal levels that means 14 days or more (but anything more than 7 counts) For fast levels that means 7 days or more (but anythi…

[Galeno]

I totally agree with people saying you should take your time and all that stuff, but i think there’s a certain threshold to make the SRS valuable. The timing of reviews is calculated on that system, if you skip them and take too long to cover them then there’s no point in it. Im not talking about wasting money but rather wasting your japanese skills, since you tend to forget stuff if you dont review it!

[Munetta]

I second this. I did WK as fast as I could, averaging 8 days a level and even did the fast levels, and I retained almost everything except a bunch of some loose kanji and vocab I have yet to come across while reading. I look them up as they appear.
I also didn’t stay to burn everything as I deemed it unnecessary because reading itself is wonderful practise.
I absolutely don’t want to appear as a show off, but this “myth” sounds more like an excuse to me. I put in the effort, and it paid off. If you can’t, or maybe if you did but didn’t pay off, it isn’t neither my fault nor other people’s fault who did succeed.

[drauch]

Purely rhetorical and not subscribing to any myths, as I rarely read these forums, and already regret even responding in the first place. Just trying to emphasize to this user that speed is relative, as that seems to be an overwhelming concern with many people.

[HaseebYousfani]

going 0/0 will definitely give you more reviews. you get more reviews if you keep doing lessons. You’re only on level 5, just figure out what pace you’re comfortable with, I thought at the beginning I want to do it quickly then I figured I’d go mid speed and semi durtle, then now I’ve switched back to quick and I’ve maintained my quick pace for the past few levels. I’ve found my pace that I am comfortable with and I will stick with it. In any case, you’re not required to do this quickly, this is a hobby most likely, you might just want to learn because you want to go to japan one day, or you want to watch anime or something. That’s on your own accord, so go at your own pace, this isn’t like your boss telling you to get to level 30 in 1 year or you’re fired.

though I will say it’d be best if you at least log on every day and do some reviews. not doing lessons is fine, but reviews are important so you don’t forget what you’ve learned

[Vanilla]

@drauch

Purely rhetorical and not subscribing to any myths, as I rarely read these forums, and already regret even responding in the first place. Just trying to emphasize to this user that speed is relative, as that seems to be an overwhelming concern with many people.

Didn’t mean to call you out in particular, but yeah it’s a surprisingly common comment I hear.

Either way I think we can all get behind people wanting to go at their own pace. With that being said though, its important to hold your pace to a certain standard in most cases, and it’s just that that standard depends on your own personal goal. If you’re not meeting your goals in the planned timeframe and not happy with your speed, then your pace is a problem.

It sounds like OP isn’t happy with their speed and wants to be more disciplined to improve that though.

[Thud]

Additional advice I can give you is to measure yourself against yourself and not others. However if you do need an example of someone going slow and still progressing, well here’s my graph:

Not saying aim for this, but this is a possible graph to have. You can get faster if you apply yourself more and you can slowdown when you feel you need to.