My Journey of 368 days (+ The Ultimate Guide for WK 📖 )

[Naphthalene]

Currently there’s 1 more fast level

It’s gone already! One of the new kanji (from the last batch I think) made level 41 into a regular level again.

[jprspereira]

It’s gone already! One of the new kanji (from the last batch I think) made level 41 into a regular level again.

There’s still 43 and 44 since the overhaul. Because 26 is no longer a fast level, it’s +1.

Frankly, I’m still disappointed that it took you over a year to complete WaniKani. I mean really, what is the world coming to?

And apparently it’s going to take me that long to add your scripts to the guide

it won’t actually, as I’ve been rewriting it bit by bit every other day. Scripts are next

[Leo-Tyrant]

@jprspereira

Hi! First of all, thank you for all of the work you have contributed to this community. I’m very new here but I already see your responses and the great impact you have generated in a lot of topics and questions.

I have some question for you, If I may:

I apologize and thank you in advance for this request, I just want to have someone with a lot of experience validate my approach.

• Time-frames: I work from 8 am till 5 pm, Monday till Friday. Would you recommend studding at 7 am (lessons-reviews), then around 11:30 am, then around 10 pm? (3 times per day)

• WaniKani config: I believe the default config is optimal for knowledge retention, so I’m not really interested in switching things around and risking retention for speed. But maybe I’m wrong and there are small things I can optimize?

• Amount of lessons per day: I have been doing them all as soon as they show up, or at least during the same day they appear. This means that I’m doing 40-50 lessons some days. Its not bad, after 2-3 reviews I get them all but should I space them out ?

[jprspereira]

Hi! First of all, thank you for all of the work you have contributed to this community. I’m very new here but I already see your responses and the great impact you have generated in a lot of topics and questions.

Appreciate the kind words

Time-frames: I work from 8 am till 5 pm, Monday till Friday. Would you recommend studding at 7 am (lessons-reviews), then around 11:30 am, then around 10 pm? (3 times per day)

If it works for you schedule-wise, why not I’d say that the 4h interval is more important than the 8h one and I haven’t had much problem with postponing the 8h interval for 2 or 3 more hours. Try it and see if if works, but I think it will be fine

WaniKani config: I believe the default config is optimal for knowledge retention, so I’m not really interested in switching things around and risking retention for speed. But maybe I’m wrong and there are small things I can optimize?

If you’re talking about scripts, I’d say they are perfectly fine. You can still optimize your WK experience without going faster. A lot of scripts (Like Jitai, pitch info and visually similar kanji) just make your learning experience more complete, not the opposite (ruin it). If you’re afraid of “cheating” the system, just avoid the “override” and the “reorder” scripts. Everything else just adds more to your experience as a learner

Amount of lessons per day: I have been doing them all as soon as they show up, or at least during the same day they appear. This means that I’m doing 40-50 lessons some days. Its not bad, after 2-3 reviews I get them all but should I space them out ?

I do believe so. Wanikani is a system of routine. By doing lessons spread out and on a daily basis, not only are you reinforcing your habits and improving your consistency around WK, but you’re not overdoing yourself. Remember that learning Japanese is not just learning kanji (what Wanikani is for). You still need to learn grammar, vocab outside Wanikani, read native content, etc. You don’t need to do all lessons as soon as they show up to level up faster, so it’s my opinion that you should conserve energy for other things. Also, if you do lessons in big piles, this means that big piles of reviews will also show up. This in the long-term will lead to having days with a huge amount of reviews, which you might want to avoid.

Hope I was clear enough Let me know if I can help you in any other way possible

[Leo-Tyrant]

Thank you so much for the detailed response. I’m aligned with your recommendations.

What scripts would you recommend? Can you provide quick context on what would I “gain” from adding one or more of them, compared to the regular WK experience?

Only if you have the time of course, you have already helped me greatly.

Thanks!

[Samraku]

If you’re afraid of “cheating” the system, just avoid the “override” and the “reorder” scripts. Everything else just adds more to your experience as a learner

Never Wrong is a good script which adds more to your experience as a learner.

[DarkMelody42]

Thanks for the reply. I slacked off really bad this summer but I’m hoping to get back to the grind. I’ve powered through my 500 waiting words and am back to a reasonable level. I need to restart Lingo deer to refresh grammar though. I’m also hoping to lead a Japanese club at the school I teach at and start helping students learn some Japanese. I won’t be able to teach them perfectly which is why it’s a club instead of a class but I would love for me and my students to all pass the N5 or N4 test so I can say I did it and they can have it on a college application.

[jprspereira]

What scripts would you recommend? Can you provide quick context on what would I “gain” from adding one or more of them, compared to the regular WK experience?

Both your questions are answered on the 2nd post of this thread (my guide), where I have an extensive list of scripts I used, ordered by importance and with descriptions of what they can add to your experience. Please check chapter 7.

My Journey of 368 days (+ The Ultimate Guide for WK )

The Ultimate Guide to Wanikani Become the best version of your Wanikanian self. For newbies: Please read the WaniKani User Guide first before reading this. WK’s User Guide teaches you the very basics. My Guide turns you from a newbie with basic knowledge to a master. However, first you need the basics. This Guide is really longgggggggg. You can read it all in one go, but there’s no need to if you don’t want. Think of it as the place to come to when in doubt/need of help. Thanks for …

Never Wrong is a good script which adds more to your experience as a learner.

I wonder if this still works after all this time

I’ve powered through my 500 waiting words and am back to a reasonable level

Don’t worry about starting right away with lessons. Give yourself a few days of consistent reviewing and then slowly warm that machine

I need to restart Lingo deer to refresh grammar though.

My experience with “starting things” tells me that we spent a lot of energy and time thinking about starting and that we’d feel so much better to actually start and use that same energy to learn. I’d say throw yourself at it. Just 1 lesson is good. It’s important to unlock that wall between thinking of starting and actually starting asap

I’m also hoping to lead a Japanese club at the school I teach at and start helping students learn some Japanese. I won’t be able to teach them perfectly which is why it’s a club instead of a class but I would love for me and my students to all pass the N5 or N4 test so I can say I did it and they can have it on a college application.

Ohh, that’s such a great project! Congratz! Are there many students interested? Please update me with how that goes

[Leo-Tyrant]

Thank you for the clarification! I think I needed clarity on the “ordered by importance”. This is great, thanks again.

[DarkMelody42]

Right now I have 3 but I’m hoping to get a few more. To start I don’t want over ten but we will see how it goes. I’m pulling students from the board game and dnd group I run. Our goal is to take jplt next year and get the students to at least N5

[_Mashira]

What happened on level 58?
3 days and 9 hours… How is that possible

[jprspereira]

What happened on level 58?
3 days and 9 hours… How is that possible

An example:

If you do lessons at 1:30pm, you’re supposed to have them for reviews 4h later (5:30pm). However, WK unlocks items at the start of a hour, which makes it into 5pm. In actuality, one would only wait 3h30mins for the 1st review.

This is most likely what happened. Theoretically, the minimum is 3d10h. But due to this “trick”, it can sometimes be less.

[_Mashira]

But those lessons were unlocked at 1:00pm, so reviews at 5:00 pm is still 4 hours later…? I feel like I’m missing something xD

[jprspereira]

But those lessons were unlocked at 1:00pm

Not necessarily. I could have leveled up at 1:30pm.

[_Mashira]

So if I understand correctly… So you could have leveled up at 1:00… But ofcourse that extra hour is added to level 57, so that’s why level 58 is “one hour short”?

[jprspereira]

So if I understand correctly… So you could have leveled up at 1:00… But ofcourse that extra hour is added to level 57, so that’s why level 58 is “one hour short”?

Yup The time was just added to the previous level

[_Mashira]

Thanks a lot! Have been hurting my brain over it for some weeks now :’)

[anon23775762]

I’m pretty sure it’s been over a month now since I’ve been following your guide since level 1 @jprspereira.

I feel like I’ve unlocked some magical, secret anti-burnout rhythm thanks to the scripts you recommended. When I level up, I do all of my kanji and radical reviews immediately using the reorder script. Then I use ultimate timeline to check when the next batch of apprentice IV items are coming around; once I clear those out I complete as many vocabulary items as I can without letting my apprentice items go too far above 100, starting with the items from the lowest level. I repeat this until I eventually hit 0/0! Not only do I rarely have to worry about backlog from past levels even with a fast leveling pace, I also rarely have so many reviews that I can’t sit down and complete them in under 10 minutes. It feels like too much of a win/win so I know a fast level’s gonna screw it over somehow.

Something else that’s been incredibly helpful is Jitai (especially the wonky banana font). It was frustrating in the beginning, but now I find myself rarely hovering over the text unless I’m super unfamiliar with the stroke order and it looks like a similar kanji. This has been incredibly helpful with reading comprehension since even a slight difference in fonts used to throw me off. I feel like Jitai should join the scripts that make up the cake, since as long as you download a variety of fonts (and don’t fear the banana!) you’ll likely rarely run into that issue of only knowing what the text says after taking forever to decipher the font. Vive pixel-y old JRPG text boxes!

I never thought I’d be excited to log into WaniKani every day, so thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. I look forward to checking back with this guide at a later level.

[Lightheart]

Thank you, @jprspereira .
It has been a month since I started WK using your guide, which I have found to be indispensable. I refer back to it a lot. I have found Progress Plus, Specific SRS Level, and Override to be my favorite scripts so far, surprise surprise. It’s amazing how fat fingered and unobservant I have found myself to be on WaniKani. Unfortunately, if I have too many scripts installed it just crashes my Chrome, so I am pretty limited in what I can do in that regard.

I feel like I have fallen into a pretty good rhythm with WK, and I now do actually look forward to my reviews every day. I’m starting KaniWani/KameSame today, because I don’t want to fall behind in Kanji reproduction. Which has definitely started to happen.

Thank you again for your very helpful and well-written guide.

-L

[Nekyasai]

Oh my gosh!!! The planning when you do lessons makes so much sense… Thank you so much!