The Study Time Calculator

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kanewai
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The Study Time Calculator

Postby kanewai » Wed Apr 28, 2021 1:45 am

I have had a lot of fun playing with the Study Time Calculator this afternoon. The creator took the estimated study hours from FSI, and added various parameters (such as motivation, study hours per day, prior experience, etc) that might impact the amount of time needed to learn any given language to a set level.

It's not science, and the creator warns us to take the results with a grain of salt - but it's still a very enjoyable toy to experiment with.
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Re: The Study Time Calculator

Postby amarina » Wed Apr 28, 2021 11:03 am

Thank you for this link! Quite a useful tool for estimating the time it will take to reach the heights of desired mastery (and adjusting schedule accordingly haha)

I wonder how would one count hours of extensive listening and reading. They are definitely not as effective as intensive sessions, especially at first.
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Re: The Study Time Calculator

Postby Cavesa » Wed Apr 28, 2021 12:12 pm

Thanks, this is a well thought out fun tool. It's not exact science, sure, but it does a very good job at making the link between some of the common factors and time easier to imagine.

Just one thing I haven't understood: The daily study time means the time spent on each "study day" or on each day on average? So, if I put it 3-5 times a week, and 1 h a week, is the time estimate based on a total of 4 hours a week (1 hour four times), or for 7 hours, at the pace of 1h45min per study session?

Oh, and I love how nicely it shows that the usual "just a few minutes a day does wonders!" promises of various leanint tools would lead to results in decades, at the very best :-D
Last edited by Cavesa on Wed Apr 28, 2021 12:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Study Time Calculator

Postby gsbod » Wed Apr 28, 2021 12:17 pm

That's a nice little tool. I thought I'd try it out with some real world data, so put in the parameters and start dates corresponding with my experiences learning Japanese and German. The result for Japanese to B2 came within 3 months of me successfully sitting JLPT N2 and the result for German to C1 came within 3 months of me successfully passing all the assessments for a C1 course. Obviously all taken with a big grain of salt, but I was quite surprised that the model was such a good fit to my own experience!
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Re: The Study Time Calculator

Postby David1917 » Thu Apr 29, 2021 4:32 pm

I was skeptical when I saw that it uses the FSI numbers but glad to see that it has multipliers to factor in everything else that make real life not like going to the FSI - especially motivation and experience with language learning. I think a multiplier factoring in distance from a related language would help, too.

Like the post above, I put in Russian with "no language experience" "moderate motivation" "C1" and "3-5 hr/wk" and got 7 years. Well I started in 2010 and 2017 was the first trip I made to Russia where I didn't have to slide into English at all.
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Re: The Study Time Calculator

Postby kanewai » Thu Apr 29, 2021 9:47 pm

I found I had to tweak the parameters a bit for it to match up with my current experiences with Greek. Once I did I started projecting things into the future, which was a good reality check:

Can I realistically level up in Greek by September? Yes! Can I realistically level up in French by September? Yes! Can I realistically level up in both by September? Eh, theoretically, if you make it your life's work for the next four months. Can I level up in Greek past September, when my motivation & study hours will decrease? Sure, but it will take two more years ...
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Re: The Study Time Calculator

Postby Xenops » Fri May 07, 2021 5:53 pm

It might be a bug in the calculator, but I found that studying once a week for 3 hours is faster than daily studying time for 1 1/2 hours?

If that’s true, that’s a game changer for me. :D
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Re: The Study Time Calculator

Postby kanewai » Tue May 11, 2021 1:07 am

Xenops wrote:It might be a bug in the calculator, but I found that studying once a week for 3 hours is faster than daily studying time for 1 1/2 hours?

If that’s true, that’s a game changer for me. :D
Yikes! I got the same results. It looks like I could learn Portuguese in one month with only one three-hour study session a week! There's definitely a bug in the system. My best guess is that the conditions don't interact with each other.
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Re: The Study Time Calculator

Postby Christi » Tue May 11, 2021 4:17 pm

Thanks for sharing! Seems like a pretty interesting tool!

I wonder how accurate this is.
Could be fun to fill in and see if the predictions ring true.

I filled in mine for Spanish and it states I could reach B2 within 10 months and 2 hours of daily studying. This is incredibly motivating!

I also filled it in for Korean, which was less motivating...
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Re: The Study Time Calculator

Postby BrennoGold » Sat Dec 31, 2022 6:28 pm

I've noticed this tool doesn't take into consideration what language you speak. This is something that makes a lot of difference and should be there. One thing is to learn Spanish coming from Portuguese, another thing is to learn Spanish coming from Japanese.
(Although, I understand, this tool uses the FSI table, which was made for Americans, still...).
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