Suppose I go from 3 to 4 week levels to as fast as I can to 30. ~7 levels of speedrun and then stop new lessons while it percolates for some months and the queue settles down. Japanese level is probably high intermediate.
Please predict my future. Will I go mad? Will I have the most fun I’ve ever had?
I might try it. I need kanjis to get in my brain right now.
What is “high intermediate” supposed to mean here? Someone that can comfortably speak Japanese, but can’t read kanji or something?
If that’s the case I would expect the only reason someone of that level isn’t already moving at a fast pace is just a matter of technique/optimization. There’s a lot of little things that make the process more efficient and as a result will open up headroom needed to level up faster. A good starting point is the guide if you haven’t already read it:
As for whether or not it’s a good idea I think you’ll get a multitude of responses. Some want to “rip off the bandaid” and finish asap while others slow down to do other things. Some members think level 50 is good enough, others think level 40… it’s all preference and individual needs in the end. There’s no real harm in trying and in the worst case you can join the ranks of many vocal WK users who dissuade users from doing similar things because of their bad experiences.
The guide does have some comments on level 30 specifically that might be interesting to read:
Personally speaking, it was around your level when I really started getting into native materials (or non-trivial reading) with a bit of confidence. If you haven’t tried in a while give it a shot. Either you’ll discover improved reading ability, or you’ll find more motivation to study hard on WK. Kind of a win either way.
I don’t think it was fun, but you won’t go mad. The satisfaction of seeing the studying pay off is immense, but at level 23 you will probably already be able to see some diminishing returns on WK levels contributing to your Japanese reading ability.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. As for my level, really I think my point is kanji is the thing maybe holding me back the most, as the more I can read, the faster I can go with my improvement. I already do read a good amount. I will take a look at the guide. I do think at the lvl 30-40 range, I will learn kanji faster by just reading and switching to learn them as I need them. We shall see!
I doubt you’ll go mad, especially if you’ve already planned for some downtime after. I mean, I’m doing WK at 7-8 days per levels. It all really depends on how much time you wanna spend on WK, and I think, how fast you are at reviewing and your accuracy doing it.
If you’re more on the slow side, reviews in the range of 150-300 in a day can be taxing, and if your accuracy is mediocre, then you won’t quickly see those items disappear up the SRS either, but apprentice level items will start to accumulate. That can turn overwhelming for some.
I would suggest a tweak to your plan, which is how I got through the fast levels last time I had a go at WK, do 2 levels 6-7/days per level, then you take 1 level a bit slower (9-10 days or more), then back go max speed again, an then take a level a bit slower.
By spreading things out, by interspersing quicker levels with slower ones, that will help push items up the SRS-ladder in a smoother way, and avoid getting too many items in guru coming back too quickly for review.
Of course, when I used this technique, it was mixing 4 days per level vs 7 days per level (it was the fast-levels after all). But, it you’re worried about the amount of reviews you’ll get per day, I think trying something a bit similar but even slower, should work out well for you. Just experiment a bit and tweak to your liking!
Good luck!
Good idea, I should probabaly test a couple levels first.
I sped run levels 25-60, same reason as you, kanji was holding me back. You only plan to go to level 30, then give yourself some downtime and do your reviews. That’s significantly easier and probably better than what I did. I think you’ll be fine.
I sped run levels 25-60, same reason as you, kanji was holding me back. You only plan to go to level 30, then give yourself some downtime and do your reviews. That’s significantly easier and probably better than what I did. I think you’ll be fine.
Did you notice a benefit going faster? Would you do it again?
This is a bit tough. I feel like if I spent more time on WaniKani, my memory on the kanji would be a lot more solid, but at the same time, I was getting sick of knowing so little and SRS wasn’t really my thing anymore. I just wanted to be free from it.
I’ll say yeah, I’d do it again, but only because it was getting painful to keep it up. Well it got very painful going full speed ahead for 35 levels straight, but it is what it is.
I touched on it a bit, but I’m forgetting some kanji. I recognize a lot and think that I’ve definitely learnt it but have no clue about the meaning or reading, sometimes I know what it means but can’t read it, or the other way around. I don’t do my reviews, much less check my dashboard anymore, I’m sure if I stayed on top of it, this would be less of a problem.
Still though, you’re only going 7 levels at this pace, you probably won’t experience the same issues I have.
The ultimate benefit of this though was that I can now focus all my learning time to just reading. Keep reading till I don’t forget that kanji anymore, till I know that vocab by heart, till I can understand the grammar without having to think about it. I don’t usually recommend anyone to speed run, but I do recognize it as a valid option if you have a reason to do it, and know you can do it, like I did.
9 days 11 hours for Level 23. Madness is increasing but ok so far. I am aware real madness begins once this bump comes back for me as enlightened. I wasn’t able to go full speed, but not bad. Now I have 60 lessons or so waiting… Maybe I will YOLO them all today.
Since my progress is a bit off topic, I will continue updates at:
https://community.wanikani.com/t/speed-run-23-30-progress-log/61892?u=alphamjl
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