I just got back from a long break from Bunpro and have about 350 reviews to get through. In WaniKani, I’ve heard it’s recommended to have <100 items in the Apprentice stage - Is there a similar recommendation for Bunpro?
Right now I have 1 item in Begginer, 19 in Adept, and 104 in Seasoned, so I’m wondering how low I should get these numbers before I start lessons again.
*Also wrote this assuming the system is relatively equivalent, but I know it’s slightly different than
WK in that in generates new items
If you ask me I’d say that is about optimal to add a few more reviews to once you crunch past the backlog. Seasoned is SRS level 7-9, and Adept is 4-6. Both of those levels are at the days level so when you get it right you won’t see that review again for days. That’s according to the SRS intervals that bunpro uses
I was just writing a post asking the same question! I have 15 in Beginner, 15 in Adept, and 51 in Seasoned. In the past I’ve kept Beginner under 10 but I’m not sure if that’s too few. And also I’m not sure which SRS stages we should be looking at. Just Beginner? Or Adept and Seasoned too?
imo there’s no such thing as too few exactly, unless you’re feeling restless and want to learn more or learn a bit faster.
I tend to keep things looking like this. While I initially started off studying a lot of new grammar, I now study 2 new terms every other day (essentially, one a day, unless I don’t feel like it):
I actually pay a lot less attention to these numbers than I do to the average number of reviews I have in a given day, because I like being able to only do just 5-10 reviews on average and then go play Tokimeki Memorial or something, so that’s usually what I’ll use to decide if I want to add new grammar that day (although I think my ~1 a day pace works pretty well for me at this point).
If you have hundreds of reviews, I’d probably say to clear that queue a bit at a time before you add new stuff and then you’ll very likely be good to go to add some new stuff.
Something that always worked for me was understanding how long learning new points took me (read prompt + all example sentences + maybe a resource) and then also how long reviews took me and how much I wanted to spend each day doing all of that. Purely subjective, but I’ve often seen people want to hover around the ~50 a day point, but of course it depends on what your objectives are. Grammar IMO needs to be taken slower than vocab, so it’s always better to err on the side of a slightly “slower” (whatever that means) pace rather than trying to zip through.
It’s a bit hard to plan toooo far in the future just because of how the SRS works. Beginner I think tends to be lower due to the SRS timing, so if it were me, I’d keep an eye on Adept and also the Ghost number. That will tell me whether or not things are progressing at a steady pace. Anyways, rambling aside, feel free to post any questions you have and I’m sure everyone would love to throw in their 2 cents to say what worked for them and what didn’t!
Let me know!
This is my current spread. I only just started adding some again now that N2 has been updated.
I have been a big proponent of this way of thinking about it:
Though I have personally liked the ~40 number.
I try to add another batch of three any time my Beginner level empties out, but my speed varies enormously. Like @EdBunpro, I read the text and all example sentences and almost always a resource. I often plateau on purpose so I can work the grammar points into my output and immersion practice. The later items bleed together a lot if you don’t.
As many as you feel comfortable with. That can be 10, that can be 100 or really any other number. There is no right or wrong. If you are the type that is fine throwing tons of different grammar points at yourself and get them to stick quickly there is no limit. If you are new to all the grammar points you are learning, in general not that familiar with Japanese yet or lack time / the ability to handle more than a few points at once go with a low number.
In the end this is a question that can be answered differently for anyone.
But ye, if you are learning/encountering those points for the very first time then its probably never a bad idea to take it at a slower little-by-little pace.
Learning Japanese is not like English and is definitely a marathon if anything - its easy to start counting “today I did X of N4 so I will be done with N4 by XYZ and done with N3 by XYZ” - matter of fact is you wont. Either you really stick with it but have a very rough grasp on those grammar points till you got lots of immersion or you are a linguistic genius that doesnt need immersion or you might already have had lots of exposure to those points before… or you notice a while in how often you get stuff wrong and that grammar doesn’t work the same as vocab does.
Either way, have fun with your studies 
