Overloaded with reviews and not sure how to proceed

Bunpro
#1

I really like Bunpro - I even have a lifetime account - but the SRS system is simply overwhelming. I use reading as my primary learning method and because of that I’m already a hardcore Anki user, but Bunpro’s SRS is so overwhelming in comparison. Bunpro is really good at overloading the user with too many reviews which leads to burn out.

But in fairness this is my fault. For me, Bunpro is just supplementary to my reading. It’s not something I want to devote a lot of time to each day. I know a lot of grammar already anyway but not enough to dismiss them all as “mastered” so my goal was to go through every grammar point from the beginning and truly master them all, and I went at a very fast pace and that led to too many reviews each day. I was overloaded with how much time was just going to SRS each day so I turned on vacation mode and then abandoned Bunpro for several months. Anki reviews are much quicker in comparison, probably because they don’t require input from the user and how often the cards reappear is customizable.

How should I proceed from here? I don’t want to reset the grammar points that are waiting for reviews - I do intend to keep reviewing them until they are “mastered” and relearn the ones that have become rusty, but I want the daily amount to go down before I proceed with new lessons. If I simply focus on reviews for a while without adding new lessons, how long would it take to reach a very low number? I have 98 reviews waiting right now, and maybe 100 more which will come in the next few days. Can I know this out within a week or is it going to take longer?

And then there’s the matter of upcoming lessons. I’m thinking I’ll just do 5 grammar points per day. How many reviews can I expect in that case? I can’t remember how many I was doing before but I didn’t feel like it was such a huge amount. I think maybe 12? It might have been more…

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#2

It’s not like you have to do all of them. If you just do like 10 a day or whatever it’ll eventually average out as if you had done few grammar points at a time.

Also, I did 3 grammar points a day until I got through N3, and that was already a ton. I would not recommend more than that. I’m doing 1 a day currently with N2.

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#3

First, to address your problem directly, I would recommend resetting grammar points you are not actually that strong on and then when you add them back you can start them at a higher SRS level (4 or something).

Second, to address the amount of reviews you have and should expect. If you genuinely know and understand the grammar point then 100 reviews doesn’t take very long. If you are not solid on them then you have probably added too much too quickly. How long it will take and how many reviews you can expect rests entirely on your retention and knowledge of the grammar points you already have.

Third, to address the pace you are going at or aiming for. There are 909 points in total on Bunpro. If you do 5 a day then you will finish everything in half a year. Going from nothing to N1 in half a year is not something that happens very often (if at all). If you do 2 new a day that is still only a bit over a year to get to N1. Again, that kind of pace is very uncommon. Unless you already know the grammar point relatively well then adding at that pace will lead to burn out and you likely won’t retain much. Add less or at a more realistic pace.

#4

That’s a good point, but it’s also dependent on the rate at which reviews appear. For example if I do 5 grammar points daily and that adds 15 reviews but I only do 15 daily reviews then that means the backlog will never reach zero. It would also delay the timing until I see reviews for the newly learned grammar.

I did 3 grammar points a day until I got through N3, and that was already a ton.

How many daily reviews did you have?

#5

100 reviews after such a long time isn’t too bad actually. I’d definitely stop adding new grammar points and do 40-50+ reviews per day until you have them down to an acceptable level. Maybe set ghosts to minimal, as well.

Once you’ve done that, and are ready to add new grammar, I’d shoot for a fewer. 5 new grammar points per day is a lot - at that pace you’d finish all of Bunpro in right around half a year. Especially if you want to spend less time on Bunpro per day, I’d lower that to 4 or even 3. I do 2 per day and have slightly above-average pass rates (and generous self-grading), and still have 40-50 reviews per day. I’m in N3 lesson 2 currently, though I took a few months off from new grammar.

You can also add specific grammar that you select. You could e.g., find grammar in your reading/listening, and add those specific points as you encounter them. You can also be a bit more generous in grading, as long as you’re confident you understand the grammar point sufficiently.

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#6

Seems like a good idea.

It takes a while even if I understand the grammar point. It’s mostly due to fumbling around with the translations. The translation might say X, but my brain says Y and I will often get a result like “that’s correct but can you say it another way?”

I fail to see the problem. In December alone I learned far more vocabulary that that (more than double), grammar isn’t much different. The problem isn’t the pacing, it’s the SRS system.

My question was regarding how many reviews appear per grammar point, not at the pace at which you think I should learn.

#7

Honestly that’s depressing. But at that rate it seems you could finish all of the content by this Fall. I guess worst case scenario I’ll go at the same rate as you.

#8

I fail to see the problem. In December alone I learned far more vocabulary that that (more than double), grammar isn’t much different. The problem isn’t the pacing, it’s the SRS system.

My question was regarding how many reviews appear per grammar point, not at the pace at which you think I should learn.

Bunpro, in a very minor way, tests output whereas the normal style of anki (or other srs) vocab/sentence cards only test input and they tend to be much easier to pass. This is also ignoring that many words are simply easier to learn than grammar points/grammar usage.

But to give an answer to your question: at 5-10 new a day I would get 50-100 daily reviews but I had 98% retention when I was doing that pace. It would take maybe 20-30 minutes a day. Now I do 2 a day, at around 96% retention, and I have about 10-20 reviews a day. Takes 5-10 minutes.

If you want to go fast but don’t like the Bunpro style of answering then I think (maybe, not sure) there is a user script to make the reviews anki style. That should be much quicker.

#9

Honestly that sounds like perfection right there.

I guess I simply have to slow down the pace further than expected. At the same pace as you and quufer I could finish all of the content this year and not have to devote a huge chunk of time to it daily. I was just hoping to be done with it faster.

#10

I fail to see the problem. In December alone I learned far more vocabulary that that (more than double), grammar isn’t much different. The problem isn’t the pacing, it’s the SRS system.

Really? Not to be rude but to truly “learn” over 1800 vocabulary items in a month is near on impossible. Remembering 60 new vocab terms per day doesn’t seem feasible to me at all. I think you might want to slow down your Japanese studies in general if you’re taking on so much each day. I would worry that the SRS will come back and bite you. Unless you have huge amounts of time on your hands, but from this post it seems you don’t.

Learning Japanese is a marathon not a sprint. I burnt out on Wanikani and didn’t touch it for a year. When I went back to it I realised even doing a level per month, I would’ve been way further ahead than I was.

Edit: or are you studying Japanese at a school or university as well?

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#11

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It seems it wasn’t double after all. I do 60 cards per day but on some days I don’t have any cards in my backlog.

My “studying” is just engaging with the language as a part of daily life through my work, hobbies, reading books, watching TV, or interacting with the world around me. I’ve been doing this for quite some time and the SRS is perfectly manageable and doesn’t take much time at all.

No.

#12

Fair play, that’s pretty impressive!

Is that Anki? When I go to my stats page it doesn’t look like that.

Also what sort of time intervals are between each level? I do about the same number of reviews per day, and get around 93-96% correct, but I’m doing nowhere near 50 new cards a day. I might need to make some changes to how often the cards show up

#13

I have the same thought at least once a week hahaha (“what if I just add 50 new today? can’t be that bad, right?”) but I burnt out on SRS once before and, honestly, immersion and just using Japanese is so much more important for grammar (for me, at this point) than spending an hour a day doing Bunpro so adding less turned out to be the solution for me （笑）

#14

I binged a lot of N2 grammar before Christmas and haven’t added any new lessons for about a month. It has taken me about that long to get my grammar reviews down from around 200-250 reviews a day to around 100 a day. That is doing reviews down to zero 2-3 times a day, just to give you an idea for timing.

I am not a model student by any means and the rate I get them correct can be pretty low though (anywhere from 40-80% depending on the day) so I expect it would be faster if you are getting the reviews consistently correct more than me. Regular reviewing as often as you can is the key.

You can do it!

#15

It’s anki with the true retention add on.
https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/613684242

#16

Just ignore the number of reviews you have, and do some reviews every now and then :slight_smile:

I sometimes set some targets like “in this session, I’d like to get down to 250” or whatever, but don’t take it too seriously and just do some reviews every now and then :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

#17

as a begginer i think that they’re a bit slow when you hit the same review many times, now i have to use cram 2.0 if i want to refresh, maybe because you’re and advenced learner and added too many reviews in a fast paced manner that you gor burned out :shushing_face:
when i get burnout i just stop everything for a few days and start doing what i have to do little by little, try doing them 1 review every hour or 10 per day.

#18

you can also lessen or deactivate ghosts, if u didnt do that yet. Its all about keeping your inner peace, to preserve balance, and bring harmony.

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#19

Someone already mentioned this, but you may just be better off using the Anki userscript. This will just allow you to review grammar like you do vocab in Anki. If you’re learning 60 words a day and not having any time issues, but you’re having time issues with Bunpro then the only reason I can think of is it being an issue with the output-styled reviews. Yes, I know you mentioned that you’re saying it’s the SRS system that’s the issue - but I think what it comes down to is the difference in difficulty between recall and output. I’ve used the Anki userscript for awhile now and there’s a vast difference in speed between the two styles of reviews (for me at least).

If you want to try the anki userscript and see if that works better for you, here’s some links:
List of scripts found here: List of Scripts
Anki mode: Bunpro Anki Mode
Add hotkeys if you want: List of Scripts - #309 by josh

This userscript really just takes any typing out of the equation, but you can remove all “output reviewing” from it by revealing the answer and then reviewing it based on if you recall the meaning of the grammar point.

85% Accuracy

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90% Accuracy

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95% Accuracy

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I don’t think this takes into account Ghosts.

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#20

I definitely want the output-based reviews. It seems it’s just the number of new grammar points x 10 (+5-ish). That’s not bad. It seems 2-5 will be manageable but beyond that isn’t.

I did two grammar points yesterday and today. Trying to clear out reviews. Actually it’s not so bad now that I reset the points that were giving me trouble. I’ll have to go back and relearn those later. Once the review log lowers down I’ll maybe add one or two more grammar points on top of the two I’m doing now, but it seems like it will be a few days still.

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