On average how many reviews do you have per day?
I’m currently averaging ~250 per day which is starting to feel a little overwhelming. Granted, I’m by no means perfect regarding accuracy… I typically average ~60-70% correct per review.
I’m also currently only level 17 and by the way things are going don’t think it’ll get any easier.
Any tips/tricks/advice? Is this controllable? I want to keep up the rhythm and avoid throwing in the towel.
Thanks!
Congrats on your first post!
I usually have around 100 reviews a day and keep everything spread out; no more than max 20 reviews in an hour if I can help it. I’m pretty much on WaniKani every hour or so so that’s how I can manage this.
This is tomorrow and a pretty slow day at that. Probably because I brought my apprentice count down to 40.
Rule of thumb: Keep your apprentice count under 100 items at all times! I’ve seen this suggested over and over and it’s made things so manageable.
When doing lessons, think about what you’ll be doing 4 hours and 12 hours from now. Maybe you do a lesson at 4 pm because you’ll be available at 8 pm, but what about 4 am? Are you normally busy on a certain day? Wherever your review ends up at the 12 h stage, it’ll stay there for all other stages. You can create a good rhythm by managing this!
Like I said, I only do max 20 reviews so if say one hour is scheduled for 30 reviews, I let the other 10 roll over into the next hour. Otherwise, all 30 will come back at the same hour they’re scheduled next. Let the +5 and other single digits roll over too unless you really feel like it.
I’m still figuring this out, so I’m by no means an expert, but I hope I’ve helped you gain some control! It will take a long time before your timeline starts to flow how you want it, but just keep at it.
Thanks! Just out of curiosity, how do you keep your apprentice count under 100? Is there an easy way to do that or do you just have to make sure you’re getting the new ones correct?
I also try to do some every couple hours to spread it out. This is what tomorrow looks like for me
Hey there.
I’ve been in your place few times every week. What i try to do is
If you have a weekly review pile of say 700? try to bring them down to 600 over a week or two.
Also, try to set two-three different times of the day say once in the morning, once evening and once night… Take 30-40 mins each session and tackle a fixed amount that needs to be finished so that your review count is 0 by the end of the day
What’s your apprentice count?
You want to watch out for mistaking Guru items then. You could use them in a Japanese daily journal or tape them around your room/house, set them as your phone background.
Maybe complete reviews in 30 increments in the morning since there’s a lot each hour. In the evening, you could pull off ~20 an hour.
The typical way to control review workload is to watch the apprentice count. Most reviews are apprentice, so if you manage your apprentice count you limit your workload. The typical procedure is to enforce a 100 limit to the number of apprentices. If the apprentice count is over the limit, stop doing lessons until it is back under the limit, then resume doing lessons. You may adjust this number to your needs depending on how things work out for you.
The whole 100 apprentice gets repeated all the time and its not a bad general advice.
But here is a different approach that might work for some people:
I dont want my reviews to go to 0.
I keep my apprentice around 250. Thats the amount i found to give me enough reviews to never run out
while not pushing new items so far that the SRS becomes meaningless.
I dont do reviews at fixed times.
I do them whenever i feel like it. That does require some discipline and/or motivation
but it works far better for me.
It can be as little as nothing for an entire day, for example between two night shifts.
Other days while lazing infront of the PC it can end with 4+ sessions.
I dont review fixed amount of items. At the start of a session i dont even know how many items i’ll have
reviewd at the end. At some point i decide that its enough and time for wrap up.
It can be as little as 10, if i was mistaken and not actually in the mood for brain work
or it can go as high as 450, which is my current “record”.
If you do feel like its becoming too much then reduce it.
Its far more important to be consistent.
I try to keep my reviews around the same time every day. So maybe 100 or so in the morning and then up to 50 after lunch.
Apprentice items are kept between 80-120. If they peak above that I don’t do new lessons.
I do 12 new lessons M-F, and take a break on weekends and only do reviews.
Also, when doing reviews anything I get wrong I write them down in a notebook and review in between if I have time (My learning style is to repetitively write stuff).
I like what other ppl have said about consistency. I have time to consistently review throughout the day. Not every hour, but at least every four hours. I think if 250 reviews a day is too much if you slow down on the reviews and new lessons it’ll eventually come to an easier pace. Also don’t feel like you need to finish everything in your review pile. I often leave stuff in there for the next day when I have more time, focus and motivation.
I find that some days the reviews do pile up just to how the SRS cycle works (300+), but if that happens I won’t necessarily do all of them that day. But I will make sure to do the progression blocking items. In general I end most days with 0 reviews in my queue though.
I also have a fairly high accuracy though, which I think helps in keeping the review count down despite going full speed.
After making it to lvl 12, and then moving for a new job, and ending up with a pile of reviews I could never get through, I reset to lvl 1.
Now, if my apprentice items are over 75, I don’t do any lessons. It’s maybe been a bit slower for available reviews, but my accuracy is a lot higher, and I’m pretty much leveling up at the same pace. I do my best to get on and do reviews at least twice a day.
imo 60% is pretty bad, 40% of your times are constantly falling down. that means you are only progressing at 60 - 40 = 20% speed. and you have to keep in mind that answering item correctly only adds +1 to srs while getting it incorrectly can remove few points. you would start undoing you progress at rate of around 50%
I also have my accuracy at what I think is pretty low level of 80% but considering this site was my first exposure to Japanese (except for learning katakana) and how little work I put into it (I almost never read the mnemonics) I am rather pleased with it.
answering the question I am usually at around 150 items per day and I keep my apprentice stack at manageable 100 items. I also did get intimidated by the forums and users posting their wkstats screens with 99% all over them adding ‘omg why do I am so bad/have poor memory’. pay no heed to them (in fact pay no heed to me), find your own pace and stick to it, doing less reviews per day should not slow down your progress provided your accuracy increases.
How do you make sure that items don’t double or triple their intended SRS period?
You stop doing new lessons for a few days. ‘Keeping up the rhythm’ is about doing daily reviews. You feed in new lessons whenever there is room in the apprentice (and sometimes guru) piles.
There are also plenty of people who take a short lesson break every 5 levels or so. Just 7 days or so without new lessons, giving the apprentice pile time to come down a little.
You’re correctly signaling now that it’s starting to become overwhelming - which means it is time to take action before the stack blows up in your face. Even when doing no lessons, it will take a good week for the amount of reviews to come down a little.
I have about 170 reviews per day - and it’s steadily increasing. It will keep increasing slowly as long as you keep doing lessons every day - and will come down slowly if you take a lesson break.
I dont.
For one i have an irregular schedule around the week because of two night shifts
so i cant do any sort of sub-24h periods anyway.
And im not going to sort my time according to WK, that’d be crazy.
If this ends up with me failing an item or 2 so be it.
I cheat the SRS anyway both ways if i feel like its appropriate.
An average is 151 but I think it mostly because I have some days with 200+ and some with 3-5 reviews. And I dont have any burned items (closest will be in september) I am 17 lvl just like you
Grab your pitchforks everyone!
I do a max of 20 new lessons per day plus I have catchup levels:
Every five levels or so I’ll stop lessons and work on reducing the Apprentice and Guru items.
No, I did not mean the apprentice count. I meant that the the number of reviews pending in the review forecast… the one where the weekly review forecast is given, goes down to 0. The words will progress through the srs levels as normal.
The reason I finish all my reviews (in any number of sessions throughout the day) is to stick to the SRS level recomended. If I must recall something in 8 hours , I will not do it 28 hours level because that tosses the whole idea of SRS …
No, I did not mean the apprentice count. I meant that the the number of reviews pending in the review forecast… the one where the weekly review forecast is given, goes down to 0. The words will progress through the srs levels as normal.
The reason I finish all my reviews (in any number of sessions throughout the day) is to stick to the SRS level recomended. If I must recall something in 8 hours , I will not do it 28 hours level because that tosses the whole idea of SRS …
I took a look at your stats and I see that you have 222 apprentice items. That’s where most of your reviews come from. Try to take a break from lessons and do only reviews for a while to get your number of apprentice items down. Maybe you want to keep your maximum at 100, maybe 120, maybe 150, just find something that works for you. But 222 apprentice items is too much if you feel like it’s getting overwhelming.
I also see that you have 743 guru items. That’s a high number too. It will take longer to get the number of guru items down, maybe two weeks or more. It may be a good idea for you to stop doing lessons and concentrate on reviews only until you get your guru items down to the 500’s too, even if that means a few weeks without lessons.
Good luck!
