Anyone else taken N4 after having only finished Genki 1?

Japanese Language
1

I’m only going to be able to finish Genki I before taking the N4 this July. Was anyone else in this position. What did you do to compensate and how did the exam go for you?

2

Depends on what else you’re doing for your studies. If your main source is genki 1 and you’re not doing much outside of it, you’re probably going to have a pretty tough time.

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3

Disclaimer: I haven’t taken any of the JLPT exams so I can’t tell you about the difficulty and such.

However, I believe Genki I covers almost all N5 content in terms of grammar/kanji. I think it lacks a grammar point or two that can be found in Genki II, but they aren’t difficult to learn. Also lacks some vocabulary as well.

Genki II covers most N4 grammar if I am correct (currently making my way through Genki II atm).

I don’t know what your experience/studying is outside of the Genki textbook and seeing that you are level 21 on Wanikani (that’s practically all of N4 kanji!), I wish you the best of luck on the JLPT N4 this July!

(If you only have learned from Genki I, I may suggest honing your skills for the N5 instead)

4

I did N5 after genki 1, wanikani to about 20 if I remember right, and all the bunpro N5 content. I passed (easily it turns out), but it felt like a nail-biter. I breezed through the written-only sections, no problem. That’s the good news.

The bad news is if you aren’t doing any listening practice, you might want to re-think that strategy. Luckily the required score on that is far from 100%, but it FELT like I failed right there. There are a bunch of N5 and N4 JLPT listening practice from old exams on YouTube you can try - if you’re reasonably able to do those, you’re probably good.

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5

I also live in Japan but I would say I don’t get enough conversation practice in daily life

6

Mmm. The JLPT listening questions (at least at the higher levels, maybe N4 and N5 are simpler) tend to a slightly odd format(*) which can be confusing when you first encounter them, so a little practice to get familiar with what the question structure is like is a good idea even if you’re fairly strong with listening.

(*) I think the test setters want to avoid people being able to guess the right answer by picking out a single word from the dialogue without understanding much of the sentence, so the dialogue often mentions all the options and then identifies the right choice implicitly rather than explicitly.

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