For anyone who did N4 listening, what option did you choose on the fish factory visit question? I think it was like: What did they do first? Put on name tags, hand over their bags, take photos, or watch a movie?
I was waffling between “take photos” and “watch a movie” and changed my answer a couple times.
I think I put hand over the bags but I have no certainty in my answer.
I believe she said at the end that she’d give the guy a card or something that would give him 3000 off his next visit.
Take a photo. Watching the movie was the last thing.
Amigo, sigues con vida!! 
I… hmm I definitely needed more time to study.
First part, vocabulary wasn’t so bad, that’s thanks to wanikani for words like 血圧 and that I finished the core 2000, but still I was really hoping to do better
I lost so much time in reading section that I ended up guessing in some questions, I was clearly not focused at all
And listening pretty much destroyed me.
Overall, im not really expecting to pass, but it doesn’t really matter. What surprised me was the huge amount of people writing the test.
Hey, what about you? Are you coming back to end WK for good? ^^
For reading section, I normally see the questions and skim through the passage first. Especially for that last poster, I didn’t read it at 1st. Same with the sofa passage.
Also I had people around me not understanding the word 建築. I was so thankful to WK for that.
Look at you! Level 53! I’m still stuck in review 地獄, but now that the JLPT is finished, it’s time to get serious again.
Sounds like your N3 experience was pretty standard. Everyone’s been saying pretty much the same thing, so maybe that’s good, at least in the sense that misery loves company. ¡De todas maneras, suerte!
haha, love this phrase but this is not the case, I’m glad I could write the N3 when this time last year I was still struggling remembering hiragana. It’s ok
What about writing N2 december next year, deal?
I want to see you at 60 
And I have a crushing pile of reviews to do, so we’re on the same boat
Best wishes!!
Yeah! awesome feeling
I took N4. I was wondering whether I should go for N4 or N3, in the end I went for N4 because I felt that was a safe bet and N3 might be too hard for me… I regret it. N4 was way too easy (a lot more than I thought it was going to be), of course there were a couple of things I didn’t know and the listening section was a little bit confusing, but reading through the coments it seems like that will be the case no matter what level or how much I practice.
N3 would have probably been hard, but not hard enough for me to fail. Anyway, I will be going for N2 next year.
Oh, there were no clocks in the room but we were allowed to bring a wrist watch. And the proctor let us know when there were 5 minutes left for each section (I just learned the word proctor from this thread 
).
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For my N4 peeps:
Listening section, there was a dialogue about a male and a female student that were talking about a reunion and the girl had to do something. There was a picture of the girl setting up the table, buying flowers, making flower arrangements and I don’t remember the fourth one. I was between setting up the table and making flower arrangements, but honestly I was just guessing because I didn’t understand crap. Did anyone get that?
I was probably some steps away from you if you wrote it at Mexico city.
Anyway, good luck and success!
This one was about some sort of friendly meetup or competition or something with people from different places or countries. You had to bring a picture about your hometown and they said that even though they first asked to bring a bento, they were now going to hold a cooking class where everyone would make food and they would provide the aprons and stuff, and ended with saying there would be physical activities to keep in mind. So I picked the picture and the gym shoes.
The person at the restaurant said that it was 3000 per person and that there were 5 people. The asker said there was going to be one less person and if he could change his reservation to which she replied the food was prepared beforehand, and then something something I couldn’t catch, and ended with saying she would give him a discount coupon for 2000 that he could use NEXT time. So I picked 15000 here.
They definitely mentioned the translated flyer having an effect. They also said they changed western style rooms to tatami mats and that didn’t scare away the foreigners from what I could gather, and I forgot what the fourth choice was but something was off about that too so I ended up picking the translated flyer for this one.
Also in the N3 vocab, one of the question was about 埋まる (WK level 43) and one the four associated sentence used 花壇 (Level 49), I gasped in disbelief when I saw this one 
In the same vein, I was discussing with a guy during the break and he told me he didn’t know the word 芝生 (level 42) and was completely confused about the text where they keep repeating 芝生 over and over again…
Thanks WK !
Yeah, I just realized how much they would have found 芝生 to be hard whereas here I just took it as a normal vocab.
I must confess, I actually forgot what 芝生 is. But thanks to wanikani I am able to read at a good pace, so as I quickly skimmed over the passage, I figured it out based on the fact that 土 was being replaced by 芝生 in the 校庭 lol
I was the same way with the N2 last year. Did all the sections well except reading because I’m a slow reader and was rushed for time. Maybe I’ll take the test again in 2019!
I have the same goals basically (being able to talk to people, read labels, signs and so on; and eventually being able to read books would be so nice too). And I completely agree that the requirements for the JLPT match well with that.
However, the JLPT N4 became a goal on its own. Since I had only 5 months for the jump from N5 to N4, I had a study plan that I wanted to stick to and every chapter of Genki that I finished was never a feeling of “yay, I learned new things, isn’t this exciting!” but always "damn it, I should already be at chapter 21 by now so that I can move on to Try N4 by week 44… ". I’m torn between 1.) this being a good idea since I pushed harder because of the JLPT or 2.) maybe I studied less than I would have without the JLPT because thinking about the JLPT became a stressful deadline and I started to procrastinate a bit. I already have too many deadlines in my life as it is.
For the next year I just want to focus on learning Japanese and making progress and enjoying it. Just having fun, being happy that I understand intermediate resources and some easy native content now. If that takes me to N3 by December (which I secretly hope it will… ) then that is great. If not… I still have 2020. One great thing that I took away from the N4 is that I need to work more on listening – I might not have realized that yet without the test.
That being said, knowing me, I’m sure I will start preparing for the JLPT in September or October at least. And I’ll probably start looking through N3 vocabulary lists already so that I can get familiar with them. But I want the JLPT to turn back into a nice way of measuring progress, not an important goal. No more study plans for me! The risk of not enjoying this process anymore and then stopping entirely is too high.
If I failed the N4, I’ll retake it in July and see you in Düsseldorf 
(oh my, if I passed then I can already see myself wondering if I should attempt the N3 there in July “just for fun”; I’m such an idiot sometimes… )
Good luck for the N3 prep, 頑張って！
WK doesn’t teach you 盗聴 for nothing. Just a little nudge down the right path.
I took it in Zürich on sunday. I also found it easier than expected. But did not understand the question with the day of birthday either.
I heard at the end, that some chair was missing and they had to go to the room next door, to get one. I chose the chair, because I think I caught a glympse of asking the girl to do it, but my friend said afterwards, that she thinks, the guy went to get the chair, and the girl had to put the flowers in the vase. But neither of us are sure :'D