What is Avalanche Recovery?

Avalanche Recovery is a tool that can help prevent the feeling of being overwhelmed by having too many reviews to do, which can happen after a break of a few days or more.

It is one of the options* that we may want to reach for when dealing with an avalanche.

*The other option is simply pressing the smiley face as fast as possible through reviews. More on this idea below.

How does Avalanche Recovery work?

Avalanche Recovery keeps an eye on your review flashcards and appears when the flashcards you have to study for the day are a percentage* greater than your set Review Threshold.

*The default is 250% greater. As an example, if your threshold is set at 50, and you have 125 or more flashcards to do in a single day, the Avalanche Recovery option will appear. This can be adjusted in your Study Settings, in the "Avalanche Recovery" section.

When the above happens, a pop-up will appear on your My Journey page, above your "Today's studies" section:

Using the "Recover from Avalanche" button will cause reviews to be spread out based on this formula:

Reviews/review threshold = days to recover

The results will be shown when you click the button though! So no need to worry about doing math here

But as an example, in the above screenshot, we have 167 reviews and our review threshold is 50. So it will take 3 days and a bit of the fourth day to recover from our avalanche here.

However, there is a bit of a trick/suggestion I'd like to make before you use the tool.

How to get out of a review avalanche

You have three options. You can...

- Hit the "Recover from Avalanche" button and use the Avalanche Recovery tool

This will spread out your cards over the next few days according to your review threshold as described above.

This isn't a bad option, but I like to recommend one of the following two most of the time.

We can also...

- Lower our review threshold by half or more, use the "Recover from Avalanche" button, then raise our review threshold back to what we want it to be.

This method allows you to study new content while recovering from an avalanche.

Personally, I (Ty) like to recommend either this option or the next option the most.

Progressing through new Units is one of the most helpful things you can do for your Japanese knowledge.

Seeing more Japanese in more contexts helps solidify your understanding far more than stressing about memorizing something perfectly before considering moving on to the next topic.

Japanese is such a highly contextual language that you can't deeply understand it without having seen lots of pieces used in lots of contexts.

We accomplish that by seeing new Japanese in new Units (and native materials), not by spending hours upon hours in reviews ^^

And our last option is...

- Not use Avalanche Recovery, press "Study Now", and quickly run through your reviews much more carefree* than you might normally be.

*You should be pretty carefree during reviews anyway. Answer with the smiley face 99.99% of the time!

Again, I like to recommend this or the second option in most cases. I do lean towards this one because it's less to think about, though.

If you have under, say... 300 cards**, I would say maybe listen to one audio on the flashcards, and then press the smiley face. Don't worry if you understood it or not, just worry about getting through it at a steady pace.

If you have much more than that, then I might suggest barely looking at most cards, stopping and listening to a few, and maybe reading some lesson summaries randomly as you go. Or do the above option.

**This number will be different for everyone and is a rough estimate.

The comprehensive nature and reinforcement of concepts in NativShark will cover you in this regard when you start progressing through new Units again. So you don't have to worry about whatever you may have forgotten or are still in the process of learning.

You'll see it all again.

Wait, are you saying that I shouldn't use Avalanche Recovery at all?

Yes and no. It depends. We have it as an option because every learner is a bit different with what works best for them.

I personally would just spam the smiley face through all my flashcards as fast as possible no matter how many there were, but some learners might be more likely to burn out if they do that. You should pick the option that works best for you.

Whatever option you pick, however, I would be sure to focus on getting into new Units as soon as possible!

Spending too much time in reviews can be stressful and a bit... uhh... mundane. You'll have more fun learning new things. And NativShark will reinforce whatever you've learned already anyway ^^

These articles help explain why we recommend getting into learning new things as soon as possible after an avalanche:

I just came back after a break and feel lost. What do I do?

There is no passing or failing when learning