Need help and advice for beginner

[http_jea]

Hi!
I am currently coming back to Wani Kani after being able to pay for the membership :D.
I would love to make the most out of it but I don’t really know how to proceed. Do some of you have any exercises or resources, they use to complete Wani Kani in some way? I am already pretty consistent (doing my review every day) and I’ll study grammar with a textbook.

Secondly, I would like to take my time and not rush things to be able to learn deeply what Wani Kani proposed to us: do you think that attaining level 20/30 (at the end of the year) is a realistic goal?

Thanks for the response in advance, and I am really excited to learn more and explore the community!

Have a nice day!

[Lizziemanan]

That’d be around 2 weeks a level which is totally doable and roughly 10 lessons a day. This thread give a suggested schedule for 14 day levels

Daily Schedule For Consistency and Retention: Exactly 14 days per level and about 10 lessons per day

(By the way, my Level 60 topic is now here.) I’d like to share the schedule I’m using for WaniKani: 14 days per level and about 10 lessons per day. This still takes a considerable amount of time every day, but I’ve found this pace delivers the optimal balance of consistency and challenge. Before level 30 I was averaging 9 days per level but found that while I was proud of reaching level 30 in the middle of August 2020 after starting in early December 2019, that pace was no longer sustainable f…

[http_jea]

Thanks for the link and your response, I’ll go check it out! ^-^

[prouleau]

If you want to get the most of WK I strongly recommend reading this guide. It is full of useful tips.

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 to. Think of it as the place to come to when in doubt/need of help. Thanks …

[Rrwrex]

@http_jea

doing my review every day

That’s it. That’s rule #1.

Do your reviews every single day, and do lessons at a pace that you find comfortable. Some do lessons fast enough to finish in a year. Most take two or three (I’ve just passed the three year mark). Some take longer (the longest I’ve seen was around 7).

But many don’t make it to the end. 100% of those people didn’t do their reviews every day (sometimes because they did so many lessons they became overwhelmed, sometimes just because they skipped too many days).

The rule of thumb is to do lessons at a pace that lets you maintain ~100 apprentice items. I like to keep apprentice + guru/10 under 150. Those are the items that most heavily affect your daily review load (because they are amortized over fewer days).

Rule #1 suffices to learn to read kanji. Make it a habit.

To learn to read/write/speak/understand Japanese, you’ll need to augment your kanji studies with grammar, listening practice, speaking practice, and vocabulary building.

That’s a LOT, though, so I’d suggest just some very basic grammar studies until you have enough kanji under your belt to feel more confident about branching out. (Ugh, mixed metaphors.)

Edit:

Oh! And the extra study feature can be a godsend if you find yourself getting overwhelmed. Counterintuitively, MORE (“free”/extra) reviews is the best cure for low accuracy and feeling overwhelmed.

[http_jea]

Thanks for your answer, I will keep it in mind and definitely apply it :D!

[http_jea]

Thanks for the link, I’ll check it, seems really cool :).

[kewms]

I haven’t seen this in any of the other “tips” threads, but it’s really helped me:

Don’t do new lessons at night.

The reason is that the first review comes 4 hours after you first studied the item. If that happens while you’re asleep, you’ll miss it, and will be more likely to have forgotten the item by the time you do review it.

Failing the early reviews for an item is not only demoralizing, but loads up your Apprentice level, and therefore your overall review count.

[http_jea]

Okay, thanks!

[itskemo]

Thank you kindly for the link. It is very helpful.