Hi all,
I’ve signed up for N4 this December and I’ve been going through the lists provided by Nihongoichiban.com to check I know all the vocab. However today I noticed that the page was actually posted in 2012.
Have they changed what you need to know since then and if so does someone have a better list?
Here’s where I’ve been looking List of all verbs for the JLPT N4 – NIHONGO ICHIBAN
Thanks all
The tests moved from 4 total levels to 5 total levels in like… 2009? Anything that was made after that, and has the “N” in the level number, should be a relatively good indication of the content you need to study.
Especially since levels N5 and N4 are already basic enough that there’s not a lot of content for the creators to choose from in the first place.
Of course, there still could be better sites than that one for reasons other than age, I’m not sure about that specifically.
Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind. I think I read somewhere that since 2010 there’s no official list? Anything extra I learn will help me later with higher levels anyway I guess?
Yeah, nothing official exists. But 2012 was like 6 test cycles after the change, so that’s plenty of time to see what the new tests were like. The biggest changes were the introduction of the new intermediate test, so there are huge differences between old Level 2 tests and new N2 tests, because N3 ate a lot of that content.
You can always get something like 日本語単語スピードマスター for vocab, or other JLPT specific books that exist for grammar, etc. But each resource will put slightly different boundaries on what they think each test covers.
The reality is that if you actually know every single thing in one of these resource lists for a given level, you will crush the test (at least that section of the test), because you don’t need a really high percentage of right answers to pass.
Thanks for that, I feel more reassured. It’s getting pretty close now and I still have things to learn, just need to make sure I get it all right.
If I may piggy back off of this post to ask you a question in regards to this:
In your opinion, how far do you think knowing all of the N4 stuff will get you in an N3 test? Enough to pass with low marks?
It’s hard to say, since I doubt anyone has ever gone into a test having only absorbed content from a specific set of just one resource, where they could theoretically know nothing specifically taught for the one above it.
I would say in theory if you actually did that, you probably shouldn’t be able to pass, but I don’t know.
They always overlap a bit. Any question you see on one level could be tweaked just a bit to appear on an adjacent level.
I passed N2 with a relatively high mark and I’m preparing for N1. I felt that I know almost everything that could be on N2, but there is still an ocean of N1 stuff out there. It’s more exaggerated for the high levels, sure, but that’s what I’m dealing with now.
From taking a look at the difference between N3 and N2 stuff, it seems like it’s mostly kanji and vocab that makes the jump take so much time. Obviously there are new grammar rules, but it seems like after N3 it gets more into the “these seemingly similar things have different attitude nuances” kind of thing.
Guess I’ll enjoy being a naive spectator a bit longer while I up my vocab. My weak point. 
Good luck @Leebo! One of my Japanese friends gave the sample questions a go and said it was pretty tough even for them.
Grammar is one of my weak points (I scored 47/60 on the Vocab/Grammar section of N2 and I feel better about vocab than grammar, so that means I probably was getting like 50% of the grammar questions wrong.
Those nuances are not to be trifled with. If there are any gaps in your knowledge of N5-N3 grammar, that will be exposed, because those continue to show up as the glue that holds everything together of course.
I narrowly failed N1 twice before giving in and settling for N2 (I had passed N3 several years earlier and thought I was ready). So, I have plenty of exposure to what N1 is like… it’s just, it feels like there’s always more synonyms waiting to be uncovered.
Not sure if you know of this one, but I stumbled upon it recently: JLPT Level N4 Study Page
Best of luck to you and everyone else! (Including me x’D I’ll be taking the N4 too :'))
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