Thanks for the advice, cram-meister general jamesrender. I’ll put it to good use and may I finally cram my way to the top!
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Is there a full blown tutorial explaining the cram and ghost functions?
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I’ve never used the cram either and I also struggle to find the difference between troubled grammar and ghosts.
Also what was extremely confusing is that PayPal payment option is not automatically linked to your account and you have to contact with someone at the team. So maybe a better integration is needed.
Other than that, what was mentioned, it’s a bit weird that the site doesn’t really suggest or gives any hints/guidelines in the pace you should follow, not forcing, but recommending.
Then there’s the beta features. For the longest time the grammar point progression I though it was not a beta feature but a permanent one. So I’d clearly mark what features are in beta, as that would probably make you pay more attention to see if it’s working properly, and provide feedback respectively.
Maybe something else will come to mind, but that’s from the top of my head for now.
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In general I didn’t find using BunPro too confusing back in the day. Sure, I had to look up / try what the cram feature was and the like, but it was generally A-okay. The one thing I missed and still believe could be a useful feature is an (optional!) time-gated pathway that let’s you add x grammar points per day / time interval (2 - 3 per day seems reasonable, unless some grouping like Lesson 1 Part 1/3 is something you would consider) max as figuring out when / how many grammar points to add was, at least for me, the biggest barrier in starting to use BunPro full time. A short “introduction” of the sitethat comes with a few helpful informational pop-ups in the beginning would be useful too I think, stuff like :
- How to select your JLPT level of items (and why it would be a good idea to still start at N5 to fill in any gaps in your knowledge)
- A general explanation of what an SRS system is. (I suspect most users would at least be familiar with either WK, Anki, Torii or on of many others, but who knows
) - Upon getting your first ghosts, how the cram feature works
- How to add your own sentences
- (In case you’d implement my guided path suggestion) A reminder after both one day and a week that you can always get off the beaten path and enjoy the freedom that makes BunPro so wonderful, but that people who prefer the cozy security can just follow along this guided path.
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-
Ghost Reviews
I didn’t understood what they are and what is their purpose for some time. I found some explanations deep in a forum post, but I am still not sure of the real interest of the ghost reviews.
I would have appreciated some popup : “Hey! congrats you got your first ghost review ! Do you want to know more about ghosts reviews and how they work ? <Yes/No>” -
The Path
I was confused at first by the path to choose : I was just begining my learning so I had no grammar book or other knowledge. Is there a better one ? so it implies there are less good ones ? What it implies to switch from one path to another ? I decided back then to stick with the bunpro order as I do not use any textbook.
I have not much time each day to spend on learning Japanese, and couldn’t take classical courses. I was using wanikani when I discovered Bunpro, so I was already familliar with SRS.
Basicaly I was looking for a site that tells me what to do and in which order to study things, and makes me review it when it is time. Bunpro is really good for this.
Note: I just discovered that the cram feature can be used to ghostbust ! I will have to look into it.
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If you click the ‘faq’ link on the home page, it connects to this thread:
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Thank you so much for the feedback so far! I’m taking this into account, each and every comment.
If there’s any more stuff you guys would like to point out, keep it coming!!
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Today I completed 1 month in bunpro. I finished N5 and did 21 grammar points in N4. Already paid for one year today 
So for me it was the bunny mode, but since now I use anki mode with keys 1,2,3 to answer them, not a problem anymore. It wasn’t working btw idkw.
I would say the ghost too, I think it looks like the leeches in WK. by default it is set to on, but I read someone here saying that it should be changed to a hardcore mode for these ghosts, I couldnt find it. So, just normal on mode.
Also people saying grammar points and lessons, bunpro recommends 3 grammar points a day, I dont know if this is one lesson only or 3 lessons.
Honestly I am kinda addicted to bunpro reviews. I wait them in anticipation more than WK reviews these last few weeks. So the method is working for me.
I finished shirimono from n5 to n2 but the website got a overhaul and got confusing at the point I had to quit, but even before that, I was doing them like a chore, it was very robotic, only one example sentence and I had memorized the answers.
With bunpro, I have to stop for a while and then I answer. That’s cool.
I wish it could use more diversified verbs, not only ‘study, clean, meet, buy’, for the example sentences. It sometimes look like genki II when I used it 11 years ago.
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how many reviews are you averaging a day? doing 147 points in one month is crazy hahaha especially if you have ghosts, hats off to ya though! also the vocab i can assure you gets A LOT more “intense” (for lack of a better word) later on!
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Hey! someone changed my title !
lol!
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Can I ask one thing, as it’s an impressive speed at which you are moving…
Are you reading the sentences along out loud and then putting in the answer, or are you looking at the hint and responding to that?
I was definitely doing the latter for a long time, and whilst it helps you motor through BP, since I switched to the doing the former, my reading ability and retention has improved.
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My first attempt at Bunpro was when it only had N5 and possibly N4, so quite some time ago. I think lack of info/support was an issue back then but obviously that doesn’t apply now, since there are a ton of example sentences, readings, help on the forums etc.
I think the self-directedness of it was an issue too when I came back to it. I’d gotten used to WK holding my hand, so it took a while to work out the balance.
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They probably have like 100-150 reviews on average.
Atleast I added 140 N2 Grammar points throughout november and had around that many reviews on average. You might have seen my stupidly high review amount in the Race
I am having 45 reviews a day. So far very simple because N5 and N4 for me are easy,
I used genki II 11 years ago, so even the sentences are similar. That’s why I pointed out about the same use of verbs.
I know from N3 and specially N2 on are quite a nightmare (when I used shirimono at least) because they are too similar to each other those grammar points and usually we dont see them in manga in a regular basis or news article and twitter, they are very specific IMO.
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I read the sentence in japanese, read the sentence in english, check the item inside [ ] and then I think what is the answer. Since I use anki mode with keys 1,2,3 review sessions are quite fast.
That’s how I mostly learned english, I am applying to japanese now.
And as I stated above, I have 45 reviews a day doing 3 grammar points every day. So I do these 3 grammar points and get a quiz in the end with three sentences, right?
So I wanna finish N4 (I guess in february at this pace) then I will do 3 grammar points every other day, because by then I guess my vocab will increase a little more from WK (level 34 there now) and I will start reading more complex manga.
Honestly nowadays after a workday I am not in the mood like I was back in college to read manga even in my native language 
wow, you’re crushing it!
anki mode? going to look in the settings … the way you describe it is almost like multiple choice with hot keys…
edit: couldn’t see anything like that in the settings, is it a custom user script?
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Like others, the most confusing or overlooked piece for me has always been Cram. I don’t think I’ve ever used it, even though I’m sure there’s value there somewhere. I think it could benefit from a bit more user-friendly overview/explanation, and maybe new features too to make it easier and enticing for people like me to get started.
For example, if cram is useful for busting ghosts, make it easy to cram just your ghosts! From above it sounds like that process isn’t exactly intuitive right now, especially if you’re on mobile. Or how about an option to “Cram ghosts + all related (unlocked) grammar”? Or even unrelated to ghosts, say I want to drill all conditionals (“if”) to see the differences between them better – let me select a grammar point and a checkbox to “cram all related points”. Etc etc.
The best part has always been how the grammar is presented. I like having the synopsis and example sentences on-site, with the ability to check other references to dig deeper if needed. This saves so much time and mental energy from me needing to say myself “I don’t quite get that. I wonder what tae kim or reddit say about this point, let me google.”
One related thing: I do wish more attention was given to discussion topics for grammar points. Often I’ll go to these threads looking for help and someone will have asked a question months ago with no response. I get that it’s a community effort, but I wonder if there’s a better way to do it. If I run into one of these topics that appears abandoned, should I tag an admin?
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Yes, it is , all the way at the top of the list 
Though I’m personally not really a fan of it, as it’s too easy to read over a mistake you make or think to yourself I got it right. So it works well if you’re really thorough and disciplined probably, but I wouldn’t recommend it otherwise (Though my error percentage and thus review load was way lower when I used it in the past, which was nice at least )
it is a script
and just like quadban said, you have to be disciplined. A slightly mistake (specially for those formal or casual that sometimes I dont pay attention to the hint, and I end up mistaking them)
I just type key for “I dont know”. I prefer to repeat several times until I get them right.
Same with flaming durtles for WK, I use anki mode and when I say/answer wrong, I just set it to incorrect.
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interesting that on WK those threads about news articles and grammar points are way more popular than here.
Usually I ask there and I get several answers.
yes, many threads here I see they were created in the beginning of the year and then forgotten.
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