The level up graphs are from https://www.wkstats.com/, and the workload graphs are from the workload graph userscript!
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Oh yeah, these a trip on constantly. ālawā and āregulationsā welcome to 
For words where the kanji combined donāt give the meaning of the vocab item I try to think extra hard to see whether Iām perhaps not missing something. Sometimes itās a nuance of the kanji thatās not covered by available glosses, sometimes itās just a matter of perspective like with éøę (chosen hand? really?)
Agreed 100%! Itās one of the reasons I havenāt quit yet actually. Gotta know them kanji to get anywhere and everyday there is a new one I havenāt seen before. Without WaniKaniās help it wouldāve been really hard to read articles.
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I think a key thing to remember is that ā¦ holy cow, youāre level 51!!! I was going to respond like youāre new to WK, but lol!
Anyway, I was gonna say that vocab on WaniKani is mostly for learning the readings of the kanji, so perhaps if you focus on that angle, then you can think of vocab as just help for learning the kanji that you already love learning. Indeed, it really is just that. Going up levels donāt require the vocab. So, donāt let the vocabs āpressureā you. Thereās no rush to learn them, really. Just take your time with them and focus on how they are (supposed to be) helping you to practice the readings.
Donāt know if thatāll help you at level 51, but maybe it might help others who feel similar? Anyway, worth a shot. 
Great site by a WK regular: https://www.wkstats.com/
Well, youāre way ahead of me, already reading stuff. Actually, I think Iām about ready to retry jumping in to reading. I tried joining a book-club thread for Sailor Moon a while back, but even that was too much and too fast for me. But Iāve got a stronger foundation now, so maybe it will go a bit easier if I try again. Cheers!
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I dread too much of either
I used to really hate the big vocab pile at the end of the level/beginning of the next, but after I started using the lesson filter script to distribute the kanji lessons throughout the level, I actually appreciated having a bit of a vocab backlog, because it was no longer a frustrating roadblock that I had to slowly chip away at before I could learn more kanji
I also used to really hate doing kanji lessons in huge groups because those lessons are harder for me, and I would fail most of the first few reviews. But doing just 3-4 kanji a day isnāt a problem for me, and I can actually take more time with them and learn to write them, and suddenly they became genuinely enjoyable to learn as things in themselves instead of just a means to an end.
I guess now I enjoy both the vocab and the kanji, and think both are vitally important, so it helps me to rearrange my daily workload so that it incorporates both.
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I love learning new kanji! Itās what keeps me going!
The vocabs can be hit or miss. Sometimes I find one extra interesting, so do find them enjoyable too, but getting to a new kanji lesson always gets me excited!
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Ahā¦ I am totally putting off learning to write. I wish I had been that patient!!
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Itās fun to see this in graph form: I remember when I used to level up faster. But once I started to Enlighten and Burn items from that fast-ish paced period, the amount of time I was spending on Wani Kani every day got ridiculous, and I had to slow waaaaaaay down. This is probably an advantage of durtling slowly from the beginning. Also, if youāre learning to write the kanji, like @fallynleaf , your percent correct during reviews is probably higher than mine.
Hindsight.
Ah, well. I havenāt reset the entire time, so I call it a win.
FYI:
@wct : I joined a beginner book club at about level 20, and it was BARELY doable. It helped that it was Kikiās Delivery Service, which is a great book with a very active club. Absolute Beginner is probably more doable at level 10. I really highly recommend joining a book club-- you learn a ton of grammar that way.
Iām now in intermediate book club, and while I wouldnāt call it easy, Iām reading a second book on my own, on the side.
I used to have to look up about 20 words per page, now I look up about 1-5 words, and I can guess most of those from context. Reading actually feels like reading, although it is MUCH slower than reading in English.
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I put off learning to write hiragana and katakana when I originally learned them, then ended up deeply regretting it when I realized I couldnāt write anything in my textbook or take physical notes . Itās one area where I wish I hadnāt listened to Tofugu and other guides, because I feel like even though it sets you back slightly in the beginning, putting in a little more time there pays off immensely in the long run unless youāre only using the language in extremely limited ways.
With kanji, Iām still pretty slow at it, but Iāve gotten better with practice! If you want to give it a try, one WK user put together these writing practice sheets you can print off, organized by WK level. I combined all the PDFs into one massive document and have been printing off pages from it as I go. Iāll put on some music and just write kanji for 20-30 minutes or so. I donāt practice writing individual kanji more than the 20 times in these worksheets, though of course I get practice writing them in textbook exercises and my notes and such!
If you do start writing, I will warn you, it is very difficult and slow at first. I felt like I was back in elementary school practicing the alphabet on lined paper. Writing simple sentences will take you forever because youāll have to slow down and look up every single kanji, and your handwriting will be clumsy and ugly, and youāll get the proportions really wrong. I started out doing a third of the written exercises for my textbook with just kana (and even this took a while at first because I had to keep consulting stroke order diagrams), then typing a third of the exercises, and only writing the last third with kanji.
But, as is true for most writing, really the only trick is just practicing it enough times. Iāve already massively improved at writing, and I can write the kana pretty easily, and have some of the most common basic kanji memorized. Iāve also gotten decently good at looking at kanji and figuring out the stroke order intuitively, so that saves me time as well.
A lot of people here and elsewhere donāt really think writing is a skill worth learning, because many people believe that youāre better off putting that time into other aspects of the language thatāll allow you to progress faster, but I think youāll find some surprising benefits from it. It helps me a lot when I come across an unknown kanji, because I can quickly draw it in the IME pad and 99% of the time it will come up right away for me. It has also helped me get better at deciphering handwritten kanji because I can see how the radicals are being drawn. And it has just given me a greater appreciation for kanji in general, which I think is worthwhile.
If you do print off those worksheets and start going through them, one thing youāll find is that there are a lot of pretty predictable patterns to writing kanji that youāll become more and more familiar with. Certain shapes are almost always drawn with the same order of strokes, and generally you start writing in the upper left corner and then work your way down and then to the right (though not always). Youāll also learn how they tend to be laid out proportionally in a box grid. So you probably donāt have to specifically practice every single kanji that you learn, because the vast majority follow predictable patterns that youāll be able to get a handle on pretty easily with some practice.
I recommend starting as soon as possible, if itās something youāve been putting off! Youāll probably find itās not quite as intimidating as you thought, though it can be time intensive. But just putting in a little time here and there will go a long way!
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I missed the reordering of the table in post #2 until just now. Just gonna zoot myself up that leaderboard with my updated average level-up time lmao.
Level 8 ding!
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Wow, this has been the longest time Iāve been active with Wanikani. Itās almost 3 months since I started with couple of hundred reviews after being on hiatus for almost a year. What I learned from those past 6 levels? Around 30 apprentice items are kind of max for me. It keeps the review amount reasonable. And I started using the reorder script, so I can tackle vocabulary from the very start of new level. It really helps keeping the previous kanji in use and more fresh in the memory as well. This was huuuge heureka-moment for me and I feel so good about it. Love vocabs, dread kanji 
I need to start writing again before getting into grammar. Iām not happy with just using WK and KW, I want to be able to produce the language by hand as well. THANK YOU @fallynleaf !! Iāve been looking everywhere for kanji lists organized by WK levels and about cried when I tried to make myself a reference list to practice from.
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10 days per level is pretty quick. I feel like Iāve been going at a good rate, clearing reviews twice a day morning and night, going through lessons at a good pace too (apprentice items are usually close to 100) and Iām taking 10+ days per level.
It seems like to go any faster Iād really have to ātry and go fast.ā
I guess I spend less than an hour a day on WK though so maybe thatās why
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Well, it just took me 16 days to clear level 6 and Iām definitely getting slower recentlyāmy median was 10 days when I posted originally! but now itās up to 11 and likely to increase with each passing level. 
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just reached lvl 8 after several vacation days interspersed between the weeks. It feels good but now Iāve got to complete my lvl 7 vocabs before moving forward. iāll check back in once i begin my lvl 8 kanji. itāll definitely help with figuring out exactly how long it actually takes me to finish each level.
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Sadly the userscripts with the pretty graphs stopped working for me recently 
This might be the wrong thread to ask but does anyone know how to get them back?
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Iām certain youāre one of many!
Iām exactly opposite, but my vocabulary was likely larger than most when I started. Thatās not a boast: I first started ālearningā Japanese in the mid-seventies, but only started learning to read kanji when I discovered WK a couple years ago. After decades of living and working in Japan on and off, and with a Japanese wife and all three of my children speaking, reading and writing Japanese as fluently as English, youād think my vocabulary would be FAR larger.
So vocabulary seems easier to me because I already knew many words, and the additional context (reading hints from hiragana or other kanji with jukugo) make vocabulary much more fun to me than kanji.
Iāve learned a shocking amount of new vocabulary already, and now have a much deeper and more ordered understanding of words I only thought I āknew.ā
Who knew literacy would be so useful? 
Further, to me at least, vocabulary is the entire point! I want to get better at reading Japanese. I memorize kanji to make it easier to read and understand vocabulary.
Iām happy to hate on radicals, though.
Radicals are easier in a sense since they have no readings, but they are sometimes annoyingly difficult for me to burn when the mnemonic meanings assigned have nothing whatsoever to do with Japanese!
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Snap, also just made level 8, after spending 41 days on it!
That average is artificially high I suppose, because I started using the shuffled lesson ordering, which will have delayed my level up, this next level should be shorter because I donāt have as much in my level 7 vocab pile than if I had just gone through straight. (51 still feels like loads mindā¦)
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Your dashboard looks cool, would you mind telling me the scripts youāre using?
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oooh my heart. you mentioned the amount of vocab you have to do and then i did the deed and checked ā¦ now im somewhat deflated.
this is with both level 7 and 8 vocab but still feels like a lot ā¦
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