Lessons Path vs Bunpro Decks vs MNN/Tobira

Bunpro
#1

Hi! I am wondering what is the best way to proceed for ~N2. Should I use the grammar Lessons Paths section (I think it is only grammar points), or should I use the Bunpro N2 Grammar Deck in conjunction with the Bunpro N2 Vocab Deck? Or should I use the Tobira textbook deck?

Just a bit confused. It seem as though the Bunpro JLPT decks are the recommended course of action? I am doing independent study. Are these essentially the same as the Paths section except with corresponding vocab decks? Up until this point, I have just been using Anki, but I think it would be nice to have a grammar deck with corresponding vocab deck. If I use the Bunpro JLPT decks, Should I complete the vocab deck first?

I did searching on here first, but most of the answers to these questions are from months to years ago, and it seems as though a lot of development effort has been put in since, so just wondering what is currently preferred!

Thank you!

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#2

Hi there! Welcome.

Where are you seeing a link to “Paths”? App or on the web?
The “Paths” system got deprecated in favor of Decks, but we still keep links for it in some places as far as I can remember.

I would recommend the Bunpro N2 Grammar Deck, as it naturally builds upon itself.

As for Vocab, that’s another kettle of fish.
You’re new to Bunpro but obviously not new to Vocab learning.

Currently we don’t have a super easy way to back-fill the content you already know (we’re working on it), so in my honest opinion I might just skim through the N5/N4/N3 Vocab Decks and only “Add to Reviews” the Vocab you don’t know/aren’t confident with, and then start on the N2 Vocab Deck.

That OR do the same process with the Core 2k/4k Decks.

If you’re using the Tobira textbook in your personal studies, then obviously go with that if it’s familiar!

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#3

Hi, Sean! I do everything on web, and the Paths (please don’t remove it, as I actually really like the quick organizational style of it (everything on screen all at once) ) is under https://bunpro.jp/lessons, which is accessed by clicking on Content > Lessons. This brings up the old grammar interface that I remember from when a friend showed me the original site years ago (back when it was a dark blue!). I didn’t use the site until now, but was reminded of it and am now trying to figure things out.

My friend said that he used the Paths feature in conjunction with Shin Kanzen Master and Try! series books back then. I was curious seeing that you now have these other Decks as well as Vocab Decks, which seem like pairing them would be good. I’m not sure if the old Paths system is more or less the same level-wise but just in a slightly different order than the decks (and a different order than textbooks like MNN/Tobira)?

Currently we don’t have a super easy way to back-fill the content you already know (we’re working on it), so in my honest opinion I might just skim through the N5/N4/N3 Vocab Decks and only “Add to Reviews” the Vocab you don’t know/aren’t confident with, and then start on the N2 Vocab Deck.

That OR do the same process with the Core 2k/4k Decks.

Thank you for the detailed explanation! I’ll do the N2 Grammar and N2 Vocab Decks, while skimming through the Tobira deck. I’m doing the core decks in Anki right now.

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#4

Ahhh, “Lessons” (the page you linked) is different from the old “Paths”.

Lessons is still our patented Bunpro Order™️ (not actually patented), and should be the same as the corresponding Bunpro Decks/Grammar point index page.

Paths however was the old version of Decks – essentially a way for us to order our Grammar Points according to other resources (textbooks).
Paths has been completely replaced by the equivalent Decks (the order at the time of conversion was of course 1:1) and doesn’t exist anymore.

If you run into any painful user experiences please let us know.
The experience for users starting halfway through their Japanese journey is something we’re currently in deep discussions about how to fix.

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#5

Ahhh, ok! The interface looked the same or at least very similar (a good thing!), so that is what confused me.

If you run into any painful user experiences please let us know.

Yea, no problem! I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions! Your website is very nice™️!

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#6

Oh, apologies, I don’t think it’s “painful” or anything, but is there a way in which to mix and match the review types when cramming? For example:

Study 5 grammar notes, complete the points (which I think should perhaps be able to be set higher than merely 1 learning quiz per note), then do a cram on it to drill with like 5x per point, but then you can’t mix and match clozes with card flips and audio cards and translating in each direction. I think you should be able to select all question types for a cram session, and have them randomly interleaved. Perhaps there is a way to do this already, I just haven’t found it.