Been playing the Witcher 3 for a few days, 2-3 hours a day and yet only level 2 character...... feel the game is super slow in terms of progression.
Am I playing the game wrong? I cleared at least 70-80% of the question marks on the initial world map, found 3-4 power stones, uncovered quite a number of hidden treasures, killed some specters, bear, drownies, lots of bandits but the experience acquired is slow as hell  I'm playing the normal difficulty.

I follow those beginners tips that I should clear all the side quests as the initial world map will be locked once we completed the first main quest of asking the where about of Yenifer......

Weird..... I had to do quests that have recommended level above my character level because I can't seem to level up with side quests
I'm no RPG expert but my RPG experience over the years is that leveling up should not require grinding in the initial stage, by other RPG game standard I should have at least level up 3-4 times already considering the quests/tasks completed.....       

So you're level 4 after completing White Orchard (the first map) and truly ventured into the real big map?
I usually play wizard/mage in most RPG as each levelling up means opening more flashy magic attacks..... Witcher's magic attack is of course nowhere near wizard/mages as the witcher is more like a warrior build that has weak magic as supplementary skill, if the progression is so slow and gameplay remain at this pace I'm not sure the game can keep me interested to finish it.... 

I'm not looking for easy game, just a game that's entertaining with proper pacing. I hope the slow pacing is only restricted to the tutorial level White Orchard.
I feel the pacing is weird mainly because I encountered side quests that have recommended level way beyond my existing character level, but the only way to really progress in this game is to complete main quest (as I found out from other forum that main quest give the most experience but side quest and killing monsters gave only petty experience), so it's rather counter-intuitive that we actually should finish the main quest (to gain proper level) before we can tackle side quest.....