I do my reviews spaced out throughout the day, using the app on my phone saves up a bunch of time. I’m usually time restrained, so occasionally i could finish a batch of reviews (~50) sometimes I’ll just do whatever i can. I like doing them as they pop up, if i let them grow it becomes a chore and I’ll end up delaying it even more.
Man y’all wheezing through the reviews as if it’s nothing, i take ages (i usually get bored and watch stuff in between the review sessions, i always time out )
Just as a side note - doing such piles in a short time-span doesn’t mean getting everything right, or always knowing everything right away.
For me personally, and I’ve seen others say it as well; if I don’t know in a second or two - it’s not good enough. There is of course leeway, and I’m not saying there is no merit in considering a word and digging through your memory (especially if a word is new and I’m mentally walking through a mnemonic).
On the whole, I’m trying to get Japanese to a functional level. To read at any functional speed, I have to know a word in a second or two, max. So I try to train my brain for quick recall, and will absolutely fail a word just because I took too long to think of the answer, even if I manage to think of it in the end. ^-^
Edit: oh, and I don’t mean to say that’s the one, right way to do it. Just wanted to put into perspective that the people doing large stacks quickly like that aren’t necessarily people that manage to retain everything perfectly. It doesn’t mean to say that they’re doing better than those taking it slower, they might just approach it differently.
This is actually a valid point! I do struggle sometimes because I know I learned the word with WK, but I need time to fetch it from my memory and it just doesn’t work well with listening for example. But on the other hand I feel like I do benefit from making my brain work to find the right connection so I’m sticking with that and hoping to get faster with reading practice
Reading practice made a really big difference for me, even with the relatively limited time I’ve been doing it. ^-^ So I’d say it will certainly help.
And I didn’t mean to imply that you should change your WK tactics. I just know that certain members worry that “slower than” means “worse than.” Or think that others only move through such big piles in that speed because they remember everything, and then worry why their own retention isn’t as good.
Everyone knows what works for them, and knows whether they are seeing good or bad results from a strategy. All equally valid.
I had 80 reviews this morning and it took probably 20-25 min? I guess I am pretty slow thinking about it now but I usually do them on my phone and I don’t want to mistake 末 for 未…
Surely you have time on the toilet with your phone. Extend a pee break or take advantage of, erm, other bathroom excursions to sneak in a few reviews. Also, do you commute? What about right before/after bed? If you think about it I bet you can find small windows throughout the day for focused time to hit your review queue.
I usually do all my reviews everytime I start a session (or at least the Apprentice ones, if I have to stop). I do 100 reviews in about 20 minutes, and if I’m able to maintain a overall session accuracy of at least 90%, I call it a win for me. My current speed is 9 days per level, but I want to get lower to 8d. I really need to change my new level lesson schedule on the morning or during lunch, otherwise I have to do Apprentice I reviews at 3am if I don’t want to lose hours.
Honestly I haven’t timed out my review sessions, but I’ve found that doing reviews in two batches a day is the balance that works best for me. This is my second go-around with Wanikani after some major burnout stalled progress on my last account at level 16 over a year ago; back then I would try to tackle a mountain of reviews once every night before bed, when I was already exhausted, which just led to procrastination which only made the review mountain worse in turn.
Doing reviews as they pop up all throughout the day isn’t viable for me but just splitting the load in half and doing lessons slowly but steadily has been a massive improvement; this way if I miss a set because I had to go in for an early shift or something it’s not much of a setback, and if I’m too worn out to get to 0 in one go then just trying to cut the number of reviews down by half is still acceptable. I might have to adjust this strategy when the later levels start really ramping up and burns start coming down the line, but at the moment I’m taking it easy, spending two 10-20 minute sessions with WK every day, and getting through roughly one level every 15 days.
)
i was starting to feel overwhelmed by the 7-day-per-level 10-min-per-100-reviews people 
Just wanted to put into perspective that the people doing large stacks quickly like that aren’t necessarily people that manage to retain everything perfectly. It doesn’t mean to say that they’re doing better than those taking it slower, they might just approach it differently.
