i’ve been scrolling through the wk community posts for about 20 minutes now (procrastination…) and just realized that a lot of people do care about how fast they level up in wk.
i ended up on a post saying that people should take 8-10 days on average to level up. my average is 20 days !! i know i am taking wk easy because of my studies and the fact that i’m trying to keep up with learning three languages at the same time, but i feel like taking twice the time it should take to level up is a bit… too much?? (and i’m still in the beginner levels!!)
do you all have tips to manage my time correctly as to reduce the time it takes me to level up? i’m not trying to go through it like im flash mcqueen, but taking 15 days to level up instead of 20 would already be it.
Anyone who declares what other people should do with regard to a specific pace is just being a blowhard, so don’t take that to heart. Go at the pace you feel is the best combination of achieving your goals and not getting overwhelmed.
Here’s my recommendation based on my own experience.
First: Use this script to help manage your lessons: [Userscript] WaniKani Lesson Filter
Using that script,
Do all your radical lessons on day one of a new level.
Do roughly 4 kanji and 8 vocab items every day using the above script. (I had my batch size set to 4 and did three batches a day).
By using this script, you can adjust your pace pretty easily. The above lesson ratio should let you level up in about 12-15 days. If you want to go slower than that, do fewer lessons. If you want to go faster, do more. Just make sure you do 2-3 times as many vocab lessons as kanji lessons every day so you don’t get behind on your vocab.
thanks a lot for your advice!
the script seems super useful, that’s what i was looking for. it might help a lot without taking more of my time or overwhelming me. thanks!
I average 8-10 days and I started WK as an advanced learner, I make a few silly mistakes which takes my pace to over a week. Anyone who does quicker must be geniuses (or cheating the system). I can smash a 100, 150 or even 200 review with relative ease and pace as I’ know about 90% already. When I hit a leech, it kills my rhythm, so I’d imagine being a new leaner every single review takes time! Be true to yourself, your speed may increase as your general vocabulary increases. It’s all about the journey
I have never understood it a single bit why everyone on here is so obsessed with leveling up. People are so just much after instant gratification in this fast paced society these days, I guess.
In my opinion Wanikani is not a race to the end, not about just leveling up but actually LEARNING. And everyone should find their own pace at which they learn best. I find I burn out if I try to do reviews right away when they come and more than ~10 lessons each day, so I don’t, and my average level up time is nowadays wayy more than 20 days I think.
Some people also level up very fast by sacrificing vocabulary learning, with the lesson reorder script you can just skip all vocab and level fast. But that makes no sense, since the vocab is actually the most useful thing to learn, that’s what the actual language is made of. So if you use the script, don’t skip vocab too much or you will regret it later when there are hundreds of vocab lessons piled up.
You really don’t have to be a genius or cheating the system to hit the minimum level up time of 6d 20h. It’s all about managing your schedule to learn and review at the right times.
On the matter on this topic, just learn at a comfortable level. Some are actually comfortable hitting that minimum level up time, so it works for them. You don’t have to match anyone’s speed as long as you’re progressing with your learning.
Well for me personally it’s not the fancy number getting higher, I have a specific goal of being as usefull as possible in translating for an event next summer. Basically leveling up means I am exposed to more words that might end up being useful. Because I reckon 伝記 is not gonna come up much…
That being said, I believe it’s best to just let those levels take as long as they need to. After all it’s a spaced repetition system for a reason.
And I second not skipping Vocab. That’s what this language is about yo. Nobody says “すいを飲みました”
This. The onyl pace that’s good for you, is a pace that you are comfortable with.
That being said, it is important you keep your goal in mind (and and make sure it’s your goal and not what others make you think should be your goal). I suggest doing the math and see how long it’d take you to get to level 60 and finally know these 2000 kanji and 7000 words. If you think that works for you, then keep going.
I just couldn’t wait so long, so I try to go fast.
Basicly as other said, setup scripts for reorder and do Kanji first in case you are not finishing everything to the 0. You can also download another script for ignoring mistakes, but I would recommend to not misuse it and only use it in case of typos etc. Having 100% accuracy and everything burned is useless if you don’t understand anything after that.
But don’t try to race as much. You are still level 8 so it’s probably manageable, but unless you can remember big amount of vocab easily, you will get overwhelmed eventually if you race. I am the type of person who doesn’t like to try to remember lessons hard, so I just pass them somehow and then learn over time with reviews. It hurts my speed and accuracy, but who cares. It’s about learning.
But when I check my stats, it shows my average level time being almost 19 days. Last level took 32 days because I was too busy irl and decided to work on vocabulary I ignored, but usually if I try and do reviews every day, it takes me around 14-15 days per level.
But remembering of new things will get easier over time as your brain gets used to learning new words, so it should speed up a bit, but if you really want to go faster, then you should spend some time on lessons to try to remember them, setup some time schedule to make SRS most effective and use reorder script to knock kanji first when you are fresh and won’t make mistakes due to passing another 200 reviews before that. Also, do reviews as often as possible. I noticed that it’s like my brain slows down after a few days break and I can’t remember words I would otherwise remember easily. So don’t skip days if possible.
that’s the thing! i am starting japanese from scratch completely, and i feel like i have to fight through it every time i start a new level with kanjis that are entirely unknown to me. on top of that, i do a LOT of silly mistakes, just because i’m distracted or cannot type properly and it’s very frustrating.
but other than that, i hope it does and i bet it will. i just feel like i could improve a little bit on managing my time to try and to the reviews at the right time!
i didn’t think too much of it until now, tbh. i felt like it didn’t matter at all - like everyone should go at their own pace (like everyone else here is saying!), but then i red people talking about doing craaazy maths just to reach next level or even waking up in the middle of the night just to do reviews as soon as they pop up and that just seemed so… weird to me??
anyways, it made me realize i could maybe use a little advice to try and reach my goal earlier than i was planning to, hence my post.
i won’t skip the vocab, don’t worry, i 100% agree with you on the part that wk isn’t a race, but a learning device, i still want to make the most out of it haha!
i get through my lessons the same way, and deal with wk the same way, and you’re probably right when you say i should spend actual time on my lessons to actually remember them. on another note, do you have a link to get the script for ignoring mistakes? i don’t plan on misusing it, i just feel like as soon as i get a +100 review session, i do a lot of silly mistakes because i get distracted easily.
me: soul? what soul? that transparent and translucent thing? yep, that one, tasty.
me: ARRGHH. GIVE IT BACK!
oh, well. 6d20h leveling up, is not recommended unless you know what you are doing, and it is useless without a lot of non-WK exposure. that’s because, those kanji you wanted to know yesterday will be forgotten someday after tomorrow…
Also, since I’m posting anyway, basically 8-10 days is what you get if you do WK intensely and don’t allow yourself to make any mistakes that would lower your speed (as in, you can’t get more than ~3/4 kanji wrong (didn’t do the math)). It’s not what one should do, and I’m not even sure it’s the most efficient thing.
Why some go fast
Some go fast because they have precise goals/deadlines. Some just can’t imagine investing 3+ years on WK. Personally it’s because I’ve always felt like Kanji is what made learning Japanese so hard. Just knowing that it’s not an alien symbol, but it’s that character makes learning Japanese much more enjoyable. And I can’t wait for that “another alien symbol” feeling to disappear. Although yeah, it’s a little bit because of the cake too
If you want to know how to get faster, it’s something we can’t answer because we don’t really know the technical reason why you are taking 20 days:
If you are doing 20 lessons a day, and still can’t get faster, you are probably getting some kanji wrong too many times. Not much to do about it except correcting the typos with Override.
If you are doing 5-10 lessons every day, than that’s the reason. Just divide the ~9000 kanji+vocab by 10 and you see it’ll take ~900 days. Nothing wrong with it, as long as you are fine with it yourself.
Personal opinion
Also, IMO studying three languages is anything but average. No wonder it’s taking you a little bit longer. Don’t set the bar to high and burn out!
P.S. Someone suggested the reorder script. I’m not sure it’s a good idea if you are doing <10 lessons a day. You risk ending up buried in the vocab from the previous levels. No risk in trying it though, you can judge yourself
People are so just much after instant gratification in this fast paced society these days, I guess.
yep, that one, tasty.