LEVEL 60: My unsolicited advice on how to make it to Level 60 briskly, without going insane. Also, tips for better retention, fast level-ups, avoiding pile-ups and burnout, and more.
I leveled up and finished all my lessons a couple weeks ago (I made a deadline to finish it all right before my birthday! For, yes, the cake! :D) - but I didn’t get a chance to write a post because I wanted to give it some thought, and maybe write some advice for those who are still on their WK journey.
The Big Takeaway:
Quantity over Quality + Keeping the Motivation Going
The most important thing I learned, and I would say this in general for all learning - but especially for Japanese learners because of JLPT, gamification, etc. – it’s to LET GO OF PERFECTION. Don’t do a little perfectly – do a LOT imperfectly. Be okay with not understanding a concept 100% before moving on: generally, by adding more information, older concepts become clearer on their own. This is true for grammar concepts, and it is also true for kanji – because the more kanji you learn, the more fine-tuned your distinguishing abilities are between the older kanji and the newer ones you unlock.
Be okay with finishing WK knowing it isn’t actually “burned” in your brain – because it isn’t. And it won’t be until you actually engage with the language. Reconciling with that last one really helped me to not feel discouraged and to keep plugging on with WK, because I knew that it wasn’t the end of my journey. By the end, I was looking forward to all the stories I would read with ease (mind you I was already reading a little bit, but WK took most of my alloted Japanese time. Now I’m reading more – and I’m noticing that the difference in my comprehension from a year ago is huge!!!) – and I’m also looking forward to conversing.
The SRS didn’t overwhelm my soul because I knew I would be done soon, and because I knew that it didn’t really matter in the long-term. The next step after WK is what matters. This is just the beginning, and that is a liberating mindset to have. It motivated me to go reasonably fast, and also allowed me to take breaks and not feel discouraged when catching up. I’ll go into more detail below.
Outline:
First, the more practical advice on how to review, retain, and learn efficiently. Then I will philosophize on learning in general, using Koichi’s own (quoted) advice; then I will say some (maybe controversial) stuff about SRS; then recommend extra resources; and then finally share my overall conclusions about WK & say my thank-yous!
But firstly, the practical stuff for making the most of WK, at a good pace:
Find a routine, and get through WK by sheer momentum of habit.
I don’t even feel any particular high from reaching level 60. It’s like “oh, okay. I did it. Best keep moving forward with other stuff now before I lose the habit.” (I reached 60 in 1 year 4 months (490 days I think?) – mostly 7 days per level, with some breaks due to travel/sickness, and semi-speed running the last few levels and 40s, but I took it easy-ish even on speed levels at 4-5 days).
My routine for most of WK (level up every week) was this (you need a reorder script to do this):
First half of level: 3.5 days
Level up on Friday 7pm, do all my new radicals and kanji before 8pm. Do 11pm review and go to sleep.
Wake up and do reviews Sat morning, let’s say at 9am. That sets the time for the next 23 hour review Sunday morning at 8am.
Then the 47 hour review on Tuesday at 7am.
Second half of level: 3.5 days
Which unlocks the next set of kanji which you quickly do. Then review 4 hours later at 11am. Then 8 hours later at 7pm.
Wednesday 23 hour review at 6pm.
Friday do the 47 hour review at 5pm (this is if you do everything perfectly, but I like to sleep in on Tuesday so usually I’d level up at 6 or 7 on Friday).
As you can see, you end up leveling up every Friday evening this way. WK gives some leeway because it’s not actually a 24hour review, but a 23hour review, and a 47 hour review, not a 48 hour review. Some people use that to crazy-speed-run it and set alarms for the middle of the night, which is what inevitably happens on this slightly-off review timing; but I wanted regularity so I did my level-ups like clockwork on the same day of the week – and that was really perfect for me and my motivation.
I knew exactly when I would level up, how many lessons I had each day (see next section) and I knew when I would finish Wanikani – and that consistency kept me going even during inevitable slumps.
Use reorder script and don’t do big chunks of lessons upon leveling up.
I didn’t use reorder until level 7, because I for some reason thought it was like cheating. But I realized that the only reason vanilla WK is structured the way it is is because otherwise people would skip vocab and only do kanji.
But if you make a rule to zero-out vocabs before you level up you will avoid this pitfall.
So, with my 7-day-per-level schedule – I would level up and do all the kanji available. And then divide the remaining lessons by 3 because that’s the amount I would need to do per day in order to reach 0 before the next unlock. I did about 15-20 lessons per day this way, and it wasn’t bad.
I highly, highly recommend not doing big bursts of lessons. Your long-term retention and sanity will thank you.
Make reviewing painless. Do reviews quickly on your phone, but do Vocab lessons intentionally and slowly on your desktop.
The biggest trick to getting through WK without hating yourself is to make reviews feel like nothing. So when you see a big pile come up – it’s like “pfft whatever, I can quickly do this.” There’s less dread.
I got faster as time went on, but on average I could do 100 reviews in 15-20 minutes.
I used to do the flick 12key keyboard (for sure, try it and get used to it!), but switching from English to Japanese keyboards slowed me down so I eventually, by level 30 or so, used mainly the English keyboard. I go so fast that I do make typos, so Undo is used for sure in those cases. If a word is too long and messy to type in English, I will switch to Japanese flick keyboard to avoid frustration. I don’t even look at what I’m typing, I go so fast, I’m just staring at the kanji and touch typing basically. The reviews fly by this way.
(Also, the Skip button is great – I can’t believe I only started doing that around level 40. Sometimes just putting a tricky item back in the queue helps jog my memory when it pops up again).
The desktop thing is to not strain your eyes reading tiny foreign kanji context sentences and explanations, and to easily copy and paste sentences into jisho.org. But also, I really like to sit down and concentrate on my lessons because it saves time in the long run. Make associations, make mnemonics, cross reference, read the context sentences. Trust me, TOTAL FOCUS in the LESSONS is A CRUCIAL THING TO DO.
(Sidenote: I actually do my kanji (not vocab) lessons on the phone because there are no Japanese sentences to squint at (reading English is easier on the eyes because you’re so used to it you’re basically skimming), cross-referencing all the similar kanji is easier on the phone, and also I like to look at stroke order (more on stroke order later).
Read the context sentences/usage notes – even if you know zero grammar.
I started WK pretty much right after I learned hiragana, so my goal at the time was to get comfortable recognizing those kana quickly, with hardly any grammar under my belt. So I read every context sentence out loud, and if I didn’t know the kanji I just skipped the kanji (this trains your brain to be okay with not knowing a kanji btw).
This makes lessons take a bit longer, sure – but why are you doing WK if you aren’t training yourself to read a little every day? As I got more advanced it just became extra vocab and grammar review without the SRS penalty - plus it exposes you to non-WK kanji (another humbling reminder that there’s a world of words outside of WK). It also motivates you to unlock the levels where the kanji you encountered do appear.
The sentences won’t make any sense at first, but slowly they start to. You start to figure out what parts of the sentences do, with the translations as a rough guide – and even with a few grammar lessons on Tokini Andy or Japanese with Masa Sensei podcast (both free), it started to click. About level 17 was a turning point in my brain and I started to recognize the places where WK was using kana instead of kanji we already learned (it happens in native Japanese material, too) and also started to guess kanji for words I knew how to say, but didn’t know the kanji for yet (有り難う ie ありがとう, for example).
At level 20 you get an email from Koichi saying:
“Many people don’t realize this, but there’s a step after “burned” when it comes to your kanji / vocabulary, and that step is reading. At Level 20, you should be able to do that. It may not be pretty (yet), and it may still be difficult (depending on your grammar levels), but reading is what will get you to that next step. Even though it won’t be easy, it’ll take your Japanese to the next level.”
Well, with these example sentences – I am already doing that.
I know people bash those sentences – they can be silly – but they are super helpful. Please use them. The third one usually uses crazy kanji – but not always. So try to read all of them, or if it’s too hard, just read the first two for now.
You will miss them at Level 21, because after that you only get 1 context sentence (that’s why with lessons I got pretty fast by the end, and 30 lessons would take 30 minutes.) And after level 10, you don’t get usage notes anymore (with minor exceptions), so definitely read those while you can, too.
Review quickly, but still show the answer card even for right answers, and play the audio after every answer, even for meaning answers.
I can’t tell you how many times that the echo of the audio recording in my mind helps me answer the reading exceptions and difficult vocab. The audio memory works (plus you get pitch accent exposure)! Sure, it takes an extra millisecond to press “play” for each and every answer, but you are getting twice the audio exposure than if you just let the audio auto-play only after a reading answer. Makes sense?
Likewise, I always show the answer card after a correct answer because sometimes I like to rescan the information, and sometimes I like to cross-reference similar kanji, and this makes it easy.
(And doing reviews on the phone is WAAAAY easier to cross reference kanji than on a desktop. Thank you Flaming/Smouldering Durtles!! 
)
Around level 17 you will start to notice onyomi patterns. Lean into that.
When kanji start getting more complex, you’ll notice that certain radicals in kanji indicate what the onyomi will be (especially on the right side). For example, have you noticed that any kanji with the “death” radical usually has the reading “bou”? Well, you just saved yourself a lot of effort! And it gets more and more common as you go , and suddenly I don’t even use WK reading mnemonics most of the time – I just automatically hear the onyomi in my head as I look at it. It’s pretty cool!
Soon, all you’re actually memorizing is exceptions, not the regular readings – and that is a huge mental space-saver.
Use stroke order add-on - and also try to guess the reading/meaning of kanji as you look at the strokes before you look at the lesson info.
You don’t have to write it out at all – just draw it in the air with your finger as you watch, then look away and try to draw in the air again via memory. I like to look at the stroke order animation before I even look at the kanji meaning or components, because I like to analyze it myself first and guess what it could be. Things like moon/flesh radical indicates body parts, tsunami indicates water, etc. A very good exercise! It helps with automatic reading in the long-run.
Likewise, for vocab, try and guess the meaning and reading of the presented kanji before reading the lesson.
What I’m saying is, work your brain a little before getting the info handed to you. If the reading is not what you guessed, it will stick in your brain better than if you just let it be spoon-fed to you as the first-impresson. More often than not, you will end up memorizing mainly the exceptions, because those will go against your expectations (i.e. surprise = stronger memory formation).
Again, as I emphasize repeatedly in my last 2 points - what you eventually want to be doing is mainly just memorizing the exceptions - thus saving time and brain space in the long-run.
More General Thoughts on Learning and WK:
OKAY, that’s the main tips and minutae of how to review and learn for better retention. Now I will get to bigger-picture stuff. Before I go on, please note that my philosophy is largely influenced by this article by Koichi:
I advocate for going as fast as you’re comfortable with, and then moving on from WK, because I strongly feel that :
It is better to do lots of Japanese activities imperfectly, but keep moving forward, than to be stuck on WK forever because you want to do it “Perfectly.”
I knew that I would never finish WK if it took me much more than a year; I would lose motivation and quit. I know I didn’t do it perfectly, but I’m glad it’s over because now I can now do grammar more (on Bunpro I’m halfway through N3 now) and read and do all this other stuff that makes my input way richer than if I spent time doing that extra reviewing on WK and still being on level 32 or whatever.
Saving Money on WK:
Tip: Go to the Tofugu podcast and listen for their code for 25% off for yearly or monthly membership. This way I paid $72 (incl tax) for a year’s subscription. I started in late March, which is pretty far from Christmas - so I barely saved money on the Christmas Lifetime discount (I ended up paying $260 total (incl tax), for the initial one-year sub and then for the prorated lifetime discount). I found out afterwards that once you get to level 60 you can email them and ask for lifetime for $60 (according to some users’ posts I read), so maybe I shouldn’t have gotten lifetime then, but oh well.
I initially got lifetime because I thought I would unburn items I forgot, but now I’m thinking I will just move on with my life and spend that time actually engaging with the language instead of doing SRS. Speaking of…
SRS is not the be-all-end-all for retention. But it’s great for other reasons.
I was pretty scrupulous with the SRS, marking things honestly and everything, even with slightly off synonyms - up until level 30. At that point I started to read more Japanese text and some really obvious kanji that I should’ve known…made my brain go blank in the moment. I had up to that point correctly reviewed that item out of context multiple times - but when it showed up in the wild, the SRS failed me. And THEN, on the other hand, I would come across a WK leach within a storied context – and suddenly it was burned into my memory in a way no amount of out-of-context SRSing could do.
So I became a little bit jaded with SRS. I still like how WK introduces all the kanji and lessons and vocab – and the audio included – and the context sentences for practice (though it’s not quite as contextual as an engaging story would be). That is better than nothing. And the structure is amazing and very motivating.
But I realized that the only way to actually lock something in my brain is to engage with the language.
I consider WK and Bunpro to be like “downloading” information into your brain. You get exposed to it, and repeat it a few times, and indeed some things will stick. But just like reading a book on how to exercise (“downloading” the exercises into your memory) it won’t stick unless you DO the exercise. It won’t stick unless you USE the language. Which is why I think redoing WK after reaching 60 is a waste of time and effort. Please don’t do it. I’ll say it again…
Please don’t restart Wanikani.
It’s okay to unburn stuff, but please don’t reset to level one, or whatever low level.
Go enjoy life. Enjoy content! Doing SRS all over again is, I repeat, a WASTE OF TIME. I think people do it because they are afraid to move on from something comfortable like WK (sorry if I offend anyone, but I am being solicitously sincere).
Another way to think about it is: if you take the time you would’ve spent redoing WaniKani, let’s say even just a year, and you got a side-job working 1-2 hours a day instead of doing WK, you could save up enough money to travel to Japan and get really valuable, unforgettable language and life experience – or even use that time to do italki lessons to get real PRACTICAL experience - and that’s more than a computer or phone screen could ever give you.
What I’m saying is, prioritize. Life is short.
And consider not resetting to a lower level if you get overwhelmed. I have tips!
I have fallen behind on lessons and reviews quite a few times, and I have patiently dug myself out of those situations every time. Usually it happened when I was traveling, and I’d say the most important thing is:
GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO FAIL, AND BE PATIENT WITH YOURSELF.
I knew when I was traveling that I couldn’t do my lessons (or even reviews) with a focused mind. So I gave myself permission to not do any of it. I did vacation mode once, but on subsequent travels I didn’t do that either and just let the reviews pile up – and it didn’t freak me out.
When I got back home to a 1000+ reviews, I gave myself a number of reviews to do each day (100 or 200 is a good amount, depending on how fast you have been going so far), and day by day I slowly made it back to zero. Usually the amount of days I was away, was the amount of days I needed to get back on track. Then I would resume my normal WK routine.
For people with many thousands of reviews, I say that you can do the same (you can do less reviews per day, even - find what feels comfortable for you). Let the SRS do it’s thing – get lots of answers wrong, it’s okay – and slowly you will get to where you once were. And you won’t need to reset a level. It’s best to move on. Quantity over Quality.
Oh yeah, and it’s totally worth it to do level 60.
For all my ragging on SRS, I’d say I’m really happy I didn’t stop at level 30, when people consider the most useful kanji to be covered. Because, the more information and levels you unlock, the more lookalike kanji youre exposed to – and then you have to differentiate between them, and it solidifies your basic kanji in turn. And then the later vocab is also great review for earlier levels. It just keeps giving! And also, there are some great kanji and words even up to level 60. There were barely any dumb kanji (I even appreciated the ones that appeared mostly in common names - I think that is useful).
The only confusing thing was “ripple” kanji had 0 vocab with it. What gives??
Last advice: Start grammar earlier.
I started with BunPo (the app, not Bunpro) around level 10 and then Tokini Andy for basic grammar, but what really changed the game was BunPro.
I am so happy I got Bunpro Lifetime around level 20-something for Christmas because with shadowing their audio sentences and SRS grammar I made LEAPS in my comprehension and speaking. Seriously, try it.
I regret I didn’t start it earlier, but whatever.
Extra Japanese Resources.
FREE RESOURCES:
Comprehensible Japanese on Youtube – it’s terrific. I read along to the transcript and it solidifies SO much kanji and grammar for me, plus you get listening practice.
Konnichiwa Podcast on SpotifyApple etc – great for beginning immersion, and fun.
Tokini Andy on Youtube (is awesome, you don’t even need the Genki textbook he uses)
Japanese with Masa Sensei – on Spotify, etc. : it’s a good from zero overview and gets to N3 level and good for on-the-go learning.
Tofugu Podcast! Yes, it’s great, esp for beginners. Their grammar episodes really dive into the language and make it stick (and it’s helpful for WK too)
Renshuu app: it’s cutesy, but it’s free and it’s a good way to get more N5/4 level vocab which won’t appear til later on WK. And grammar lessons too are helpful.
Cure Dolly on Youtube (creepy, but also uniquely genius in her explanations. Will make Japanese actually seem easy to learn, which is what you want to feel! )
NOT FREE, BUT STILL GOOD, RESOURCES
Bunpro Website/App: Right now I’m into Bunpro for the SRS which is great for memory, and Cure Dolly (free) is really blowing my mind and solidying all that I learned so far in a logical way. I like using several resources– because everyone has a different way of explaining things, and repetition reinforces concepts - but I’d say don’t do it all at once. I mainly do BP now, but Cure Dolly is great to watch when exercising or stretching, etc).
Genki I and II: I came to an important realization for myself - I don’t do textbooks. I am going to sell my mint-condition (didn’t even open them I was instantly demotivated) Genki I and II books on ebay haha.
Used manga on Ebay New manga? Bah! Used is good enough for me - and you save a lot of money. (So you can buy more manga. Duh.)
Satori Reader Next on my list - for listening/reading practice. Waiting for holiday sale and to finish BunPro first though.
Wanikani feedback
Please find another mnemonic for “ji” that doesn’t use a religious figure that could offend people. The most easily substitutable one would be a Genie (like from Aladdin), but Jiminy Cricket, G. I. Joe, etc. are also options.
Some kanji you only teach the onyomi for, but in your own context sentences you include words that use the kunyomi of that kanji. And vice versa. Please teach both readings! And other common variants of kanji like the other reading of 食う(ku—u) which you see quite often, actually.
Please differentiate “suu” and “su” mnemonics more consistently, and other similarly inconsistent mnemonics which I can’t remember at the moment because tired.
Likewise, your mnemonic for transitive/intransitives are inconsistent: the “because you care” or “because you don’t care”, is hard to remember and it is inconsistent - sometimes this mnemonic for “-keru”, which is usually for transitive, is used for instransitive! I basically just have to remember the intransitive exceptions without your mnemonics, because your mnemonics are very confusing in this case.
Kana…I’m glad I finished before more was added. If you should add anything, it should be the complete readings of the kanji, from the second point I made in this section
Maybe add more joyou kanji? Like 1 or 2 added per level? To make it more complete? I dunno, I like it! And it would be a good selling point for you: “Learn ALL the joyou kanji in a little over a year…”
Add a vocab for “Ripple” kanji please.
Do more “A message from Level 60 user” posts on EVERY level-up email please! I did so look forward to those and was bummed that some didn’t have any.
Praises:
Aside from all the obvious praises, I appreciate that WK still adds lessons – I just got 7 new lessons of new vocab even after finishing WK. I like that they’re always improving and updating things. The effort and love is there.
THANKS SO MUCH, KOICHI AND EVERYONE INVOLVED!
I would have totally quit Japanese if it weren’t for Wanikani. But WK taught me the daily discipline required for any language learning, and it made it fun and entertaining – and now I feel like the “scariest” part of Japanese is under my belt. I feel like I can conquer the world!
Writing text on my phone is easy (and super cool to be able to do!), learning song lyrics is miles easier, and I have a much deeper understanding of etymology and cultural nuance than I would have if I had just learned using the kana (also with all the homophones in Japanese, knowing the kanji makes it way easier to remember words effectively).
Exactly a year ago (around level 10), I struggled through Yotsubato (even with a vocab guide), and I had to put it aside. But now (level 60) I picked it up again and I’m understanding it with relative ease (virtually no dictionary!). The difference is stark! Even when kana is used instead of the corresponding kanji, I know what they are saying, because WaniKani taught me VOCAB, not just kanji.
I’m excited for the next step. Thank you Tofugu, Wanikani, and to all the WK users out there whose forum discussions I stalked when I needed a distraction and some extra motivation. Y’all are awesome.
And for those out there who are struggling: I hope my tips can help you somewhat – and please realize that perfection is an illusion. The only way to get what you want is to let go – and smile ** 
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ありがとうございました！
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I will fix that though.
