I’ve been using Wani Kani for a bit, though I just got a few user scripts which helped me a ton on efficiency, after constantly getting various kanji wrong, I’m getting like 3 reviews every 3 hours and it feels like it’s going to take another week to finish level 1 when it should take only 3 days, should I just restart?
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Nope, don’t worry about it! The SRS is fine. The kanji that you need to review will all pop up over the next two days. Get rfindley’s ultimate timeline script, it tells you exactly when your level-up items are coming up.
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Looks good to me! The white arrows indicate current level kanji/radicals. Looks like most of them are coming up today, and then there’s a couple scheduled for tomorrow ready to be gurued.
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You need to get 90% of the level’s kanji to Guru level in order to level up. In theory you could level up tomorrow (maybe even today), considering that you already finished the radicals and have gurued a few kanji as well
The SRS intervals for the first couple of levels (all other levels have doubled Apprentice intervals)
| Review | SRS Level | Total Wait | Next Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lesson | Apprentice 1 | - | 2h |
| 1 | Apprentice 2 | 2h | 4h |
| 2 | Apprentice 3 | 6h | 8h |
| 3 | Apprentice 4 | 14h | 23h |
| 4 | Guru 1 | 37h | 1w |
Apprentice 3 → 4 is 8h and Apprentice 4 → Guru 1 is 23h now. I checked this a few days ago with a 2nd acc.
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You mean 2 → 3, right?
That’s what I used (see total wait), only I wrote it as 1d instead
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Do you people use the self study programs before doing reviews to get them all right?
That would defy the point of the SRS. I only use self study on words that i fail reaaally often.
Huh. You’re right. I had a look at the SRS stages in the API and the regular schedule is 4→8→23→47 hours, and the accelerated schedule is 2→4→8→23. Strange choice
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The point of the SRS is that it asks you something right when you’re on the verge of forgetting it, in order to help you learn it with minimal work. If you go over all the items right before the review, you’re not necessarily getting the benefit. I use self study for burned items (which I don’t currently have any of…) or for items I struggle with. I’ve seen on the forums people like to study upcoming LESSONS in advance, but doing the reviews in advance does defeat the purpose as @Hyva said above (while I was still typing this).
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Failing reviews is not bad, it’s the whole point of SRS. Ignore the percentages at the end of the reviews. They do nothing but unnecessarily depress.
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Yeah and the 23 hour one used to be 24 hours, at least it was when I joined in March
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Does failing reviews slow down progress? Or is it not as noticeable when reaching higher levels.
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It does, however that’s not a bad thing. Failing an item lets the SRS know that you don’t know it well enough, and in response, it gives you the tools to get to know it better. Especially in the beginning, it is very important that you know your radicals and kanji, as a lot of kanji and vocab in the future is based on them. So as long as you’re not working towards an exact deadline, take all the time you need, you’ll get there in the end.
Also, vocab doesn’t influence progress through the levels, but I highly recommend you finish your vocab before continuing with the next level’s radicals and kanji. The vocab is not here to enlarge your vocabulary, but to enforce your knowledge of the readings and meanings of the kanji it uses, and to help you know when and how to use the readings of certain kanji. Almost all kanji have multiple readings, and it is important to know what they imply.
Lastly a tip for the far future, it might seem that the review load is laughably small at the moment, but those reviews will keep coming back over and over, and before you know it you will get overwhelmed by them. A good way to avoid that, is to not do any lessons when your Apprentice count is above a certain value, as it is a good indicator as to how busy you will get. A good rule of thumb is to keep it at 100, but you can tweak that number over time depending on how much you can handle.
Hope that helps a little. 
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One thing you want to make a habit of is going over each item you failed on your summary screen and go over each one after your reviews.
This will reinforce them for the next time they come up.
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Before you have “guru’d” the items. I see them as still being learned and so I see no problem in extra study.
There have been talks about about whether extra study hurts SRS, and someone posted and article that NO it doesn’t hurt you SRS, it just doesn’t help it as much either. So when you are in apprentice go crazy study them as much as you want. WaniKani is designed to teach with the least amount of effort, that doesn’t mean it’s bad to put in more effort if you want to.
It might been even better to study the upcoming level 2 radicals and kanji now, so that when you unlock them you will have an easier level 2.
Have you heard of: kaniwani.com
Personally I find it great for cementing vocab because it gives you the english and makes you come up with the japanese. It’s great for recall in my opinion. like I know when I see 宝くじ that 宝 is takara and the kuji is staring me in the face, but when you go to kaniwani, you just get lottery… I’m like, I know it’s takara… but what is the extra part… ぐし damn it’s くじ. It just activates another part of you brain for learning.
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Hi howlongismyname ,
Glad to have you here at WaniKani 
Below is my experience and yours may vary. So, pick what feels useful and discard the rest.
It is okay to make mistakes. The first one or two levels are difficult (not because of complexity) because you are getting accustomed to the process and it is intimidating to see all those weird shapes and get frustrated for not memorizing it correctly. It happened to me and I am confident it happened to at least 99% of the people here on the forum.
Your mind is not used to this form of input (unless you have already learnt Chinese). Give it a bit of time and it will do it’s job. My suggestion is take it slow until you figure out things and have a strong foundation (At least 3 or 4 levels). I understand the lure of 7 day level completion stats, and a lot of folks later regret for ploughing through these levels super fast as it didn’t stick enough in memory. The stronger foundation you lay now will help you build a 60 floor building called WaniKani and more
And if you are stuck or frustrated and want to vent or need help, we are here for you. So, take your time my friend 
The beginning levels end up feeling very slow, and if missing questions, can also make it even slower due to the lack of reviews. However I don’t feel that you should feel like your in a compromised situation, or like you are going too slow, because we all learn at different paces, and learn some things better than others. The beginning levels are especially tough if you have little background in Japanese due to the foreignness of kanji, so I wouldn’t hurt yourself over it or anything. Just keep up the grind and you’ll eventually succeed because the SRS will take care of it for you! WaniKani is magical like that 