Why are my review percentages so abhorrently low?

WaniKani
#1

12
I was looking through that “last review session picture” thread (or whatever it’s called), and I realized something: my percentages are amazingly low. idigtech puts my overall accuracy at around an 80%, but I don’t understand how. I typically get review sessions between 40 and 70%, usually at 60-65%. I’m assuming it’s just that I’m terrible at memorization, but even then, I don’t know how to improve that, because no matter how hard I try, I end up getting most reviews wrong.

(wow this feels like both a rant and a “I need attention” type of thread, so sorry if it feels that way. I’ve just been struggling with this for weeks now, and I can’t figure out why.)

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#2

Well, the stats site isn’t using the same calculation for your overall accuracy as the summary screen is using, so that’s one reason.

#3

What’s the difference? I figured the only one was WK only calculated the summary while idigtech calculated all of them.

#4

The system of evaluation is different in WK and idigtech. For you to get an item right on WK, you need to have both meaning and reading right. Meaning only for radicals. On the other hand, idigtech counts reading and meaning as separate “items”.

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#5

The summary screen is “correct items / all items”, while the in-session accuracy and the overall accuracy are correct answers / reviews attempted. They’re not the same idea.

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#6

That makes sense. Maybe this threads topic should be “how in the heck do people get 80% on average on their review percentages??” Because it’s still astounding to me. XD

#7

As for the actual problem… I don’t think anyone needs to talk to you about mnemonics or consuming Japanese outside of WK. What are you doing on those fronts?

#8

Heh. Let’s put it this way: not.

I am in high school, and speech season started recently (where the only thing you do is memorize and give a speech well) so I have consumed next to 0 Japanese, other than the occasional sentence I try translating here and there, like in the Japanese only section. I would say that’s it, but my percentages have been this low since around level 15 or so.

#9

Reading actual Japanese really does help with retention. Otherwise you just have all these words floating around in your head with only a vague sense of what they mean and how they’re used.

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#10

Well lacking the application would definitely affect retention. Also if you’re not spending enough time on the lesson end, that would also affect your accuracy as well. But I believe lack of practice apart from WK is playing a strong factor in your struggle.

When you do get in the position to study more (consume more) Japanese outside of WK, your overall skills will improve as well.

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#11

Agreed. One of the best things I realized early on, thanks to reading a post by I think Leebo or RFindley, was that I had to actually spend time on the lessons rather than just rely on the SRS. I cycle through the items with the English covered until I can happily produce the reading and the meaning before I do the quiz. Then at the very end of the session I go through all the items on the lesson summary page and make sure I can recall them all before waiting for the 4-hour interval. (editing to add that I do all of this out loud)

But I agree with the others about outside study - I think most people with high accuracy are studying outside of WaniKani. If you already know a reasonable fraction of the vocab coming up that just makes every aspect way easier.

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#12

I would say two things:

  • Figure out a way to improve your learning during lessons. Sometimes spending 5 more minutes will avoid a headache later on,
  • Figure out a way to make WK a routine. The more automatic this system is to you, the more willpower and time you will have for other things, Japanese or non Japanese related.
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#13

Don’t worry. It’s not just you.

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I think both of us need to work on taking more time during lessons. For me, saying it out loud at least kind of helps.

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#14

I don’t want to say thank goodness I’m not alone because that’s implying I’m glad you get low percentages, but it is comforting to know I’m not the only one with such a low percentage.

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#15

Heh. The way I see it, as long as review items are overall going up more levels than they are going down, that’s a win. :grin:

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#16

I noticed something that I would do during reviews that had particularly low percents would be to switch to other browser tabs and distract myself. So now I don’t switch tabs when I run into a difficult kanji and instead just put あ or A when I don’t know it in a reasonable time.

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#17

I get a 60% almost everyday. There’s always going to be sessions full of leeches, where you’ll have a harder time. Use the numbers as a way to ask yourself how you can do better. No one needs to be a genius and study 10h a day to get a decent % :slight_smile: You’ll get there too.

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#18

My overall average is like 60% I never do well, some issues I may have is I go to fast but yea, I don’t do much with it outside of WK, only thing I can recommend is doing it more often and using the leech trainer script

#19

Leeches! That reminds me.

Does anyone here use that leech script that shows how many “leeches” you have next to the lessons and reviews? Because unless it’s because I hardly do it, it says I have over 400 leeches.

#20

You should try to fix that then :slight_smile: Use that script to review your leeches. Try to do at least some reviews every day (5 or 10 extra minutes).