Thanks! It works like a charm, although it’s separate from the main interface it will offer a nice “review” just after lesson stage!
PS: still looking for something that could order directly the quiz questions (after we have clicked on the quiz button) in the main interface. I just wonder if it’s possible…
Before I write something (likely a riff on @seanblue’s Lesson Hover Details) does anyone know of a dashboard script that shows how many of the currently available lessons are “ascending level” items?
Every time I level up I have varying numbers of vocabulary items still in my lesson queue from the prior level.
I definitely prefer the default “ascending level, then subject” ordering but it would be nice to know just how many of the available items are from the prior (“ascending”) level and when I’ll start seeing the new radicals/kanji for the new level.
TIA
Do you mean something like wkstats.com? You can sort your WK items by ascending level and only display the items in lesson (and locked, if you like) to see the numbers of items that are available for each level. (You can also group by item type, but that’s optional.)
I’d like something on my dashboard (like the level hover script). Your suggestion of using wkstats gives me the info I’m after, but I’d like to see the info just prior to starting my lessons.
It’s really more idle curiosity than anything, but since I find vocabulary at the end of a level easier and more fun, I’d like to know how many days until I start seeing that evil pink again. 
It never ceases to amaze me how much difficult new kanji seem when I first see them, and how easy and familiar they seem just a week or two later.
Well nobody keeps you from looking at WKStats just prior to your lessons 
but I get what you mean. I don’t know any such scripts, unfortunately, but there are lots of dashboard enhancers out there, so maybe one of them does what you like. Good luck!
Ow you can request extensions here huh. Can i also requests bug fixes for an existing script.
I am not sure if the original author is still active but i would love to finically force myself onto pitch accent.
Have you tried the Previous Level SRS table in Item Inspector? It does show the item from your previous level still in your lesson queue.
The item inspector was where my mind went first, actually.
I kind of view it as my Swiss Army knife for idle questions about assignments.
It’s perfect for one-off or occasional stuff but, like a Swiss Army knife, has so many other features and capabilities that I will probably make a simple, dedicated tool for more regular use.
When I have a regular use I create a dedicated table and pick it in the table selector when needed.
Just in case anyone else is interested in the same thing, I thought I’d document the two potential solutions that @NicoleIsEnough and @prouleau suggested, as well as better explain what I’m after.
First, provide an API key to https://wkstats.com.
Navigate to Items → Wanikani, then configure as follows:
This clearly shows I have 12 “ascending” items in my lesson queue (all vocabulary) before I start seeing the radicals and kanji on level 43.
First, install the Item Inspector.
Click the gear icon, then the Tables tab, then New, change the name to “Ascending Lessons”, then set the Table Data Element to be what every you want (I chose to display the meaning because I’m more likely to know the reading — as much as that still amazes me):
Then click the Filters tab under Table Settings and configure as follows:
Selecting this table will then display just the “ascending” items:
While both of these suffice for my needs, I’m more interested in the number of ascending items than in what those items are (I’ll see them when I do my reviews).
Basically, I’d like to estimate when I’ll really start the next level. To my way of thinking, you haven’t “leveled up” until you start doing lessons for the new level. I’ve sometimes spent a week or more finishing up vocabulary lessons for the prior level after “leveling up”.
What I’ll probably do is write something like the Lesson Hover Details script that just displays counts when you hover over the lessons button (something I’m likely to do anyway, just prior to doing my lessons).
Instead of:
I’d like it to display something like:
Ascending 12 (0r/0k/12v)
Radicals 3
Kanji 31
Vocab 25
Edit: here’s a patch to Lesson Hover Details that does what I’m looking for.
Edit 2: I had a linguistic misunderstanding with English for a change.
The WK default user preference for lesson ordering is “ascending level, then subject”. I was interpreting “ascending level” as meaning the specific level you’d just exited. What they really meant was that the default sorted the lessons by level (in ascending order) first, then by subject (radicals/kanji, then vocab using those items).
The data above is correct and meaningful, but I’ve replaced the word “ascending” with “previous level” (abbreviated for space).
Do you do 1x1 with reading first, either in reviews or self-study?
Part of the project I’m working on raises a question about the effect of “reading first” versus “meaning first”. I can predict some of the effects of each, but it’s a complex thing, so I expect I’ll discover a lot of unanticipated effects in the long term.
I set pairing to disabled. I strongly prefer to sometimes see reading first and other times meaning first (on different days/sessions). I also prefer to have other items quizzed in between (vs. “back to back”). I prefer this both with self-study and with actual WK reviews (the default).
My comment re: amazement was just that for some reason readings tend to stick in my memory better than meanings. Dunno why, but it’s not always the case (just common).
Related: Another thing I’ve noticed is how frequently I remember the first English letter/sound of a meaning when quizzed on item->meaning. “Was that ‘analysis’? ‘arrival’? I know it was ‘a…something’?”. More than possible it’s just how my particular brain is wired — hashing on sounds.
That all makes sense to me from a neurophysiology perspective. I’d elaborate, but it would end up being a novella. Essentially, though, memory works as a cascade, and the phenomenon of being on the threshold of remembering something helps illuminate how some of the low-level circuitry of memory works.
Yup. My preferences are expressly about making things harder for myself. I know for certain I remember things better when I try to recall them different ways, and that recalling something one way invariably makes it easier to subsequently recall all the other details (pushing the whole shebang into “short term memory” as it were).
I’m suspicious of paired, back-to-back reviews because I know they feel easier. I worry the ease indicates I won’t remember things as well (we have to recall multiple ways in the real world).
“Friction” being equated with “effectiveness” is a common conclusion drawn from research. I differ slightly in that opinion, but I understand why it seems, and often is, that way. In my view, you are on the right track regarding recalling in multiple ways. I don’t think it’s that friction is beneficial. Rather, I think a lot of frictionless methods are fundamentally flawed due to the brain’s natural ability (and design) to shortcut, so that tends to make friction seem like a benefit rather than a baseline. But I think if you understand where and how the brain is going to shortcut, you can put together a low-friction method that is better than the baseline.
(That’s not a comment on back-to-back, by the way… though it does touch on it a little.)
Wasn’t there a study that showed that most SRS are similar in effectiveness (i.e. accuracy after x weeks, not efficiency)? As long as you have somewhat reasonable intervals. I feel I learn words with Anki just as well, even if it gives you way less reviews especially the first few days.
Non-back to back does feel harder, because you’re basically doing the review twice, the meaning/reading pair can fall out of short-term memory. But that doesn’t seem efficient to me, basically doing the same review twice in a short time span (minutes). You may remember slightly better for a while, because you’re doing it twice.
But I’ve been doing back to back for many months now and I don’t feel it’s impacting my learning and definitely not my accuracy.
Exactly. If I answer one of the questions incorrectly with a delay between them, but would have answered both correctly if performed back to back, I’d prefer more reviews of that item, not less.
Whatever works, and to each their own, but I have a strong bias against paired mode.
To add on: I’m even more biased against ordered pairing (always seeing, say, the reading question first).
Some items I miss the reading most often, others it’s the meaning. But recalling one often reminds me of the other.
My nemesis is 人情 - ask me the meaning and I’d almost certainly get both questions correct. Ask me the reading first and I’d miss it about 1 time out of 4.
I will finally burn this bugger on my 119th review in another month or so, but I feel I needed all those reviews. If I’d used back to back or ordered pairing, I wouldn’t have gotten them.
In that case, when you get a reading question, if you just think of the meaning first, would the reading come to you?
Sometimes - I’d think about it longer if nothing else.
The other way round is what I was thinking of, though. Asked reading first, whether I get it right or not it definitely helps me recall meaning.
In fact, my brain tends to always retrieve reading first. I’ve noticed this more and more. Whatever the question, when I see the characters I “hear” the Japanese reading first.
I think it’s because I try to “think in Japanese” if that makes sense. I even want to think of meanings in Japanese. Converting to English meanings feels like an extra step.
Just reread your question. There are occasions when even on a reading question I only know the meaning. Lately it seems the other way is more common, though.
I think that’s exactly where you want to be: a clean start in Japanese, rather that working your way past translating in your head.
And actually, in my case, that’s what I liked so much about consistent reading-then-meaning, which is why I’m really interested in your experiences, and your feelings about pairing. I’d love to do a formal study on this.