I just started and I really like wanikani so far.
I was wondering what would be a good target accuracy rate for individual aspects.
I am just level 2, but already getting worried. My radicals and kanji are going fine (I have a little bit of experience with Chinese so the concept and structure is not new to me), but I really struggle with alternative readings (on’yomi, yun’yomi and weird exceptions) and thus my first vocabulary are going terrible (see screenshot).
Perhaps it is because I am used to Chinese where (at least as a beginner) 1 character = 1 specific syllable that my brain needs some time to adapt. Should I just power through, considering that at the lower levels the workload is not that big yet (I have the time for it)? Or should I already take a break from learning new vocabulary and not move on to the next level (3) until I got my accuracy for the reading of vocab up to ~90% (the meaning is going perfectly fine, words are rather basic at this stage)?
TL;DR: My overal accuracy = ~90%, vocab reading is ~62% → Problem?
You’re only on level one! So I think you should be kind to yourself and keep going. If you have such high accuracy for the other aspects, that proves your brain is fine. I think progressing levels gives you some encouragement, so I wouldn’t stop aiming for that so early on in your WK career.
don’t worry too much (let the repetition fix the vocabulary in your head). You’ll get there! If you can remember the readings for the kanji, then you can do that for the vocab too - maybe consciously examine the sounds required for the vocab (maybe make up your own mnemonics if you find WK’s don’t stick - I find that helps me).
good luck
To add to this, whenever I started noticing that I repeatedly failed to remember an item, I started “drilling” them by using the “recent mistakes” button.
I did this a few times a day - best done in intervals - and can say that this really helps with retention.
Also, try to use the mnemonics WK provides, or come up with your own.
This will help you remember the readings until they just ‘click’.
I’ll try my own mnemonics, I haven’t tried that yet. I also missed the ‘recent mistakes’ option. Will that not mess up the SRS method of Wanikani though? Perhaps it’s best to use only right after a review and not in between reviews?
The ‘recent mistakes’ feature will not meddle with the SRS.
In fact, none of the functions in the Extra Study section will impair the normal SRS - they’re isolated.
You can use it right after and certainly in-between the reviews, but don’t use it right before.
That way you’d cheat yourself, thus indirectly messing with the SRS.
No, this is fine. Having just failed them, the items have dropped down the SRS and so you will end up reviewing them more often anyway. Doing your own studying is only going to help you in the long run.
That being said, to truly test your long-term memory, studying items that are in Master and Enlightened might, as you say, undermine the idea of SRS. Then it’s best to wait for the actual review and you’ll either answer it correctly or not.
As for accuracy. There’s a bit of a threshold for when the accuracy is too bad. That’s because, while answering a review correctly the item moves up 1 step, while if answered incorrectly it goes down 2 (and sometimes more, if you managed to answer it wrong multiple times during the review session).
I never seem to remember what percentage that is, but 70% is in the lower range for sure.
BUT, good news, as for leveling you don’t really need to guru any vocab. So, it won’t really affect your progression through WK. It will affect how many reviews you get per day if you struggle with vocab though.
In any case, you’re just starting out, so don’t fret about things too much. Just do your best for now.
The accuracy for vocab has gone up to 76% now, and is slowly climbing.
The more vocab you do, the better you internalise the rules and heuristics of when to do which reading etc. Furthermore, when you start to guru the first vocab, that also really helps the percentage. Most mistakes are early in the apprentice stages in my case.
There’s still some difficulty, especially if you learn a certain reading for a kanji and then a single kanji vocab uses a different reading. You have to differentiate by color of the flashcard only… Perhaps it is a cheat, but I started to favour learning the single kanji vocab reading for the kanji already and accepting that as my answer with the kanji. I understand the reasoning, that it is good to know the most used reading of a kanji early on. But my brain just doesn’t like differentiating between ‘kanji’ and ‘vocab’, an artificial separation anyway.
No need to worry about accuracy, as you just started. I’m sitting at like 90% across the board but only because I’ve been here since January. Just take your time, look at the mnemonics if necessary, and keep pushing. I guarantee you’ll level out soon.
