Sitting for a test does sound more natural to me too. Maybe it is an American versus British English thing as @Naphthalene said. Where I’m from it’s much more common to say “taking a test” than “sitting for a test” anyway, so I didn’t even notice that the “for” was missing when @Belthazar first mentioned it.
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Oh yeah, I remember that. That was a weird day.
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All of this commotion about sitting/writing/taking aside, I’ve never personally taken the JLPT, but it’s my understanding that since they changed the levels N5 is basically “intro to intro to Japanese” AKA ridiculously easy. Anyone have any input on this? I missed the sign ups for December’s JLPT by less than a week but I’m finishing up Genki II and I assume at this point I should just be going for the N4 at the next opportunity. I just got my J-CAT sign in today so I’ll try that this week and see how it goes.
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The old level 4 and the new N5 (not so new anymore, but yeah) are basically the same. They cover a pretty narrow amount of beginner topics, but the content didn’t really change.
The main change with the levels was that the old level 2 was basically the same as N3 and N2 combined. So that intermediate content is split into two levels now. It was a cavernous divide between 3 and 2 in the past.
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Sitting a test is a really common way to say it in Australia.
Got to love the English language.
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purposely stands up for all tests here on in
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As @Leebo said, that never really changed.
“Easy” is a very subjective thing, though. While that test covers a very small part of the Japanese language, if you don’t know the content, you’ll fail no matter what. People have reported on the forum failing N5, and if you look at the official stats, they aren’t the only ones.
That being said, I’m pretty sure Genki II is enough grammar for N4. I’ve seen somewhere a list of N4 grammar point not covered by that book, so you may want to check on that. However, if you know everything else really well, it should be enough to get a passing grade. (Well, in that section at least). Since you have time, you might as well learn the rest while you are waiting. (Also, practice reading and listening, obviously)
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While you’re at it, maybe stop stealing the tests too.
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To be fair, ‘taking’ might not make literal sense, but we use the word take idiomatically for eeeeeverything in American English.
I take a test, take people places, take my medicine, take a punch, take over a country, take a look, take a pass, take the piss…
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English just sucks in general
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Language just sucks in general.
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But it’s so fun
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It’s funny you should say that, because I almost ended my post with “it might as well be 当たる”
Because all languages are equally bad with their swiss army words.
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Try this…this is Newfoundland-ese…even the rest of Canada can barely understand them. Good luck
ps…The guy talking is a comedian from Newfoundland and is NOT laying it on thick…
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Oh, I’m quite certain that every country has a regional dialect that the rest of the country can’t understand. 
Quite. For us, the test giver is the examiner - which is to say, the person providing the test.
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‘Taking’ a test is normal here. I’ve heard ‘writing’ a test; I’d know what you meant. ‘Sitting’ a test sounds backwards to me. We often do oral interviews in front of a board, and ‘sitting’ a board is what I call it when I’m a board member, not the candidate.
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Because no one’s mentioned the Japanese phrase yet… 試験を受ける - “to accept a test”
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Well, also receive or get, so not that different from take.
Yeah, I guess you’d say “take a test” if you were translating.
Do you folks remember “Sitting for a picture”? That’s an old one…
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