Still on Lesson 4 after nearly a month!

WaniKani
#1

So I’ve made a few mistakes. But I’d say generally, I’m above 95% of the time correct.

Yet now that I’m paying for Wanikani after the trial till Lesson 3, all progress has stopped. I have nearly 600 items in total but just can t progress to level 5.

It’s been 22 days.

People say it takes a week. If this is gonna be the progress then it looks like wanikani wants my wallet for (60 lessons x pretty much a month = 60 months) = 5 years.

All I can say to that is, am I doing something more wrong than usual or should I just can Wanikani, because I ain’t giving them nearly $1000 for dumb stories.

4 Likes
#2

If you want to find ways to go faster, I suggest reading this guide right [here], and as someone who also got stuck for some time at level 4, I can assure you there’s ways to avoid doing it again and generally having a better time with it :))

9 Likes
#3

Can you give us a screenshot of your dashboard? It tells you how much of your current level radicals and kanji are at the Guru stage.

When you levelled from 3 to 4, you had new radicals unlock, and a bunch of kanji.

When all of those radicals are at Guru at the same time, the rest of the level 4 kanji is / was unlocked. 90% of that level’s total amount of kanji has to be at Guru to progress to level 5.

All of this has to be Guru at the same time. So all that level’s radicals all have to be Guru or above to unlock the rest. If one drops back down to Apprentice, the other half of the kanji isn’t unlocked. If you’re not hitting the 90% of kanji at Guru stage at the same time, progress is delayed.

I’d say there are two options:

  1. It’s simply taking a while for you to get the material down on level 4, and you’re making errors that keep the level-up from happening. Which is fine - I struggled with a lot of items in the first bunch of levels.

  2. Somehow WK is glitched, in which case you should send them an email at hello@wanikani.com to notify them so that they can help you.

But as I said, a screenshot of your dashboard progress bar would already clarify a lot on whether it’s 1 or 2. :slight_smile:

15 Likes
#4

Comes Christmas, there will be a discount on the lifetime membership, so no matter how slow you are, you shouldn’t have to pay more than 200$ :slight_smile: (plus whatever you have used so far).

18 Likes
#5

Wanikani is based on an SRS(spaced repetition system) and I think you don’t know what an SRS is(I was the same when I started) so I highly recommend you check some topics about that, here on the forum.

The people that level up within a week are those that utilize the SRS system to its full potential(a very small percentage of the users actually).

I would say a healthy progress is around 2 weeks per level. Beyond that is just slacking off or laziness. However, some people prefer to take their time and do their lessons in small chunks which I can understand.

If it’s taking time to level up it is not WK’s fault, it’s yours. I also recommend you check the guide mentioned above.

2 Likes
#6

Wait what, really? As far as I know, it only matters to guru a radical/kanji once. Even if it drops down to Apprentice while still on that level, the percentage bars won’t be changed.

@HDshrimpkick reinforcing the idea of the screenshot. That will help us figure out what’s going on. Be assured that WK allows you to level up in 6d20h on level 5, that much is true (but not achievable by all users).

12 Likes
#7

Yeah, I may have expressed myself poorly there.

I meant to say that any of radicals dropping down to Apprentice before the rest of the kanji unlock means you have to wait on those radicals.

Once whatever you’re trying to unlock is unlocked- the rest of the kanji, or the new level - it doesn’t matter whether or not the items are demoted.

#8

What jp said. Guru is guru, the lessons are unlocked, and even if you get it wrong a week later, it doesn’t affect the current level progress bar.

8 Likes
#9

Have you done all your lessons?

#10

Okay, now I don’t even remember. :joy:

Is it the case that any guru’d radical unlocks the associated kanji lessons?

I might have set myself the goal to always guru all radicals first go-around so long ago that I got it in my head that the lessons will only unlock when they’re all guru.

Level 60, and now I’m doubting how WK works.
worldview is shook

6 Likes
#11

If you guru one radical, those kanji get unlocked. If you guru one kanji, those vocab get unlocked. If you guru all but 3 kanji in a level, you level up. Then if you guru the last three kanji, the vocab for those get unlocked.

13 Likes
#12

Check. :ok_hand: Good to remember how it actually works, rather than how my lesson habits made it work. XD

6 Likes
#13

Depends on the situation. Some levels take me months because I focus on school instead, but when I actually have time for wanikani my level up speed is around 10 days.

It’s important to realize that if you’re slower it doesn’t automatically mean you’re lazy. Sometimes life hits, and wanikani really shouldn’t be at the top of your priority list. But of course you shouldn’t make excuses for yourself either. :slight_smile:

23 Likes
#14

Mistakes will slow things down a lot, 7 day levelling requires a very good memory or cheating. Some people take a month per level. Later on (L8+, in my experience) you’ll be so busy with reviews that you won’t mind, but in the beginning it could definitely lead to frustrating waits.

You are paying for the mnemonics, the curation, and the upkeep of the site, and presumably funding other projects which may or may not ever see the light of day. It’s definitely arguable whether the monthly subscription model is the fairest way for that to be done.

2 Likes
#15

I have no problem with that. It’s just that people sometimes use that as an excuse and never get anywhere. That’s why some people spend 4 years here and they are still not level 60. We are all busy.

I also don’t level up within the 7 days myself lol.

3 Likes
#16

I am familiar with Spaced Repetition Systems. They aren’t ground breaking.

I have a one hour commute on the train every morning I dedicate to WaniKani, and I do it on the weekend. So everyday I do this. So this isn’t laziness. I use an app that uses the v2 API so maybe I’ve glitched the progression.

It’s just a question I posted. Most people can seem to speak without being a total nob about it. It might not be WKs fault, but I am asking a question to the community.

4 Likes
#17

Thanks Omun very helpful. I’m not at home but I’ll send a screen shot from the app I’m using to access Wanikani m

Screenshot_20191024-193431
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1 Like
#18

I’m in the same situation. I started on the 30th of the last month. I’m on level 4 but I should hit level 5 by this Saturday according to WaniKani Statistics., That is when most of the kanji left for this level will come up for the last review before passing on to Guru.

My levels have been getting progressively longer:
Level 1: 4 Days 7 hours
Level 2: 5 Days 0 hours
Level 3: 8 Days 9 hours

And if I finish my reviews as soon as they are available, I should finish Level 4 in 8 Days 21 Hours.

Also I’d like to note that your math is wrong. If you can go at 4 levels a month, it will only take you 15 months to hit level 60, which is significantly shorter than the 5 years you came up with to get the $1000 price tag. btw price is capped at $199 (I think) since they offer life time membership for that price at the end of the year. Even without the discount lifetime membership is $299.

Even at a more relaxed pace of 3 levels a month, it will take you 20 months.I really do not know how you arrived at the 60 months/$1000 conclusion.

Still I can somewhat relate since I do feel that this is taking too long. Knowing at least 1000 core Kanji would make the other aspects of my studies like creating flash cards much more efficient.
As it stands I have to make my flash cards using kana since I don’t know what Kanji to use so I will have to update them in the future.

I already have a copy of Remembering the Kanji, which I planned to use to learn how to write kanji. Maybe I will use that to learn the most used 1000 kanji, or at least the meaning of these kanji, while still doing WaniKani to get more in-depth reviews the readings and additional vocabulary.

I should note that meanings of the Kanji, at least so far, have been quite trivial. I remember them on the first go 96% of the time. The readings, especially the initial reading WaniKani gives is another matter.

1 Like
#19

I’ve heard they do specials around Xmas. I’ll make sure to take advantage of it. Thank you for the reminder.

I just want to make there is no problem and it’s just a simple thing, like getting too many wrong.

3 Likes
#20

wow this is eye-opening.

Even though we are on the same level and started roughly at the same time, our dashboards look completely different!

wanikani
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The only things I’ve progressed into Master are the radicals from level one (I think).
And even that happened for the first time just yesterday…

1 Like