Levels 6-10 the most difficult ones?

I just managed to reach level 6 and I feel the work load to become a lot bigger. The Kouichi mail said levels 6-10 were the most difficult ones and afterwards it’d get easier (since you’d start to burn things).

Now I’m wondering whether those of you level 10+ would second this. The names of the following tiers suggest things to become almost excruciatingly hard so the opposite of what the Kouichi mail said :thinking::thinking::thinking:

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I wonder if it might be more accurate to say that levels 6-10 is where you start to realise how difficult it could be…

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It all depends on your pace. I guess that Emperor Kouichi based that on a typical crabigator worshipper, but if you’re faster than that, you won’t start seeing them until later levels. I noticed that the workload went up slowly even past level 10, but learned to adapt along with it.

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It’s more of a mindset thing, I think. It’s not that the level content itself is hard, but more that the amount of work reaches a threshold where if you manage to pass that you’re that much more likely to persevere to the end.

There was a topic regarding level distribution which more or less demonstrated that (especially this post).

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Well most people drop level 1-10, and that’s one way to interpret those stats.

I’ll say this: giving up is easy.

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I made this same topic back then. With my experience now I’d say it does not get easier, but it never became unbearable either.

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I’d say for me those levels are where things kinda start to get hard. I’ve found every level (I’m only working on level 12 so not that much data) after 10 has been harder than the last in terms of memorization and recognition but in terms of how I personally felt I guess I’m more in the rhythm of it now? So it feels not as hard as when things suddenly got tricky?

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I’d say the kanji/vocab get a bit more abstract so I guess in that way it gets harder, but the main thing that starts making WK harder is just the sheer amount of items that are being put into the SRS system. I wouldn’t say it’ll become excruciatingly bad if you get into a good rhythm of studying/doing reviews - the memorization will get harder, but if you already have the study tools to deal with that, then it’ll be manageable.

Also I think I got my first burn item somewhere in the 20s, and I went at a not-super-speedy-but-definitely-not-slow rate, just for reference :blush:

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You cannot trust this guy. He made a joke. Or maybe he meant the phychological aspect of hitting the first wall. I think there are multiple walls when you climb the levels, so you just take it slow (or fast or however you can), and just keep progressing no matter what. Or quit.

Of course both kanji and their English meanings become more complex, the amount of reviews grows, the amount of mistakes grows. On the other hand, you are getting better and better at this memory training, and also start getting benefits of kanji learning.

I would not use words “excruciatingly hard” to describe WK. WK basically holds your hand along the way, everything is pre-arranged, leveling up is straigh-forward, the end goal is crystal clear. I feel that learning grammar and getting into reading is more difficult, with unlimited number of words and grammar points and colloquialisms and dialects and whatnot.

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Ehh well I hope those were the tougher ones. I’m almost done with level 12 stuff and I feel like there’s a long way to go. :slight_smile: By the way, they kinda lied about you starting to burn things. It takes like half a year before you burn anything; level is not the significant factor to that… it’s time.

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No, you are diving into madness. Things will get more and more difficult. Things will not make much sense anymore. Kanji combination will be more abstract and make less sense into reading and meaning.

Welcome to Hell :hugs:

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I felt there was a step up in difficulty at level 7 and then another at level 14. It seems to have leveled off there wherein items like to churn a bit before burning. I just rate limit my lessons to keep daily reviews manageable. It’s slow, but like getting older, it’s better than the alternative.

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I don’t remember level 6-10 as being hard at all. I do remember a couple of levels in Death and Hell as being a struggle however.

But at that point, you should have found a comfortable study pace for yourself and a routine for reviewing each day that pushes you on.

I guess, at level 6 you’re still trying to figure things out. So that might be a struggle in and of itself if you have been going too fast for example. :eyes: And you’re just now realizing the effects of doing too many lessons at once as Master items are also coming back to you for review.

WK is about finding balance. Everyone has a different life, with IRL struggles, and you have to find a way to fit WK into all of that, that makes studying Japanese enjoyable for you. There is no one-size fits all.

But once you’ve found that formula of what works for YOU, then WK gets increasingly easy to follow - all the way to lv 60 as long as you’re willing to just keep on doing lessons and reviews on a daily basis.

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Probably around level level 12 or so was the most difficult. I had studied kanjo previously before wanikani so I coasted and reviewed for the first little bit.

Please record you slowest lecel so far in the slowest level thread.

I’m curious

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For me I’d say starting to burn items is where it gets more difficult, since you have to recall items you may not have used at all in months. For me that was around lvl 15 I believe. Now I’m used to it so I’d say whenever you start burning items is when things start to get difficult just because you have to adjust to remembering those items that don’t show up often in vocab

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its incredibly subjective but for me I remember the general zone of 10-15 to be the hardest. I think it was just because there was so much to do and I wasn’t fully familiar with how kanji really worked yet. I think around mid 20s is when it starts to suddenly get a lot easier to remember kanji, even as their meanings and associated vocabulary start become more abstract. You start just getting a head for it and can memorize them almost instantly without over dependence on the mnemonic.
The only annoying thing now is when a kanji comes up for a burn and you know the general concept of what it expresses but can’t remember the specific english word wk has assigned to it.

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I disagree. I do agree with what a lot of others have said though. After level 10 you have figured out how SRS works. You know when to expect big workloads, you have an idea of how much you can personally handle, your own study habits are a bit more set. However, for me at least the work load continued to speed up until level…17 or 18. That was definitely my hardest point and also when I took a break from doing new lessons. Getting hundreds a day becomes very hard to keep up with if you have a busy schedule.

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I don‘t think levels 6-10 are particularly hard, but this is probably the phase where you need to transition from motivation to discipline. I don‘t think anyone is completely enthusiastic about learning kanji all the way from level 1 to level 60, and now you come to the point where you‘ll (hopefully) build a good habit of doing WaniKani, no matter if you‘re 100% feeling it or not

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I realized around level 10 that this is not a fun mobile game on the side, but actual work.

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You’ll be adding master->enlightened reviews around then, so the workload does increase. There’s a hike in difficulty around lvl 8-9, but once you get accustomed to it, it’ll be fine. You’ll encounter more difficulty hikes here and there. The ‘Pffftt this is hard’ feeling comes back a couple of times, while nothing seems to get impossibly difficult, probably because you just get better at it…

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