I think I was kind of young and dumb when I first started wanikani, I just did it to supplement my elementary Japanese classes as a freshman in University… I did not fully grasp the concept of language learning, and honestly, I think I slogged through lvl 1 through 17 with rote memorization. I think the only reason I didn’t permanently give up was that of my love of Japanese culture, and having the language would benefit me in that regard.
Coming back now and being a graduate student (in business), and just being a better student I took my sweet time trying to really learn the mnemonics, spending more time on radicals rather than trying to actually remember the Kanji by strokes.
TLDR: I was studying Kanji the way Japanese kids were studying Kanji, by rote memorization and learning the strokes. I just had a “mindblown” moment when I passed the kanji reviews I learned just this morning with 97% accuracy… Wanikani is all about mnemonics and radicals. Don’t make the mistake I did.