Amazing scores!!!
Out of curiosity, how was your pace during the first part of the test (Reading/Language Knowledge)? Did it felt rushed? Did you manage to finish this part with some leeway?
That’s a wonderful achievement!
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Before I go crazy, maybe I should ask for some context as to what these results actually mean.
On one hand,I see 113/180, which is a low 60, and think how?! I walked out of that test room confident that I had 80% of the questions right, easily. The grammar section with the __ ___ * ___ questions was annoying, but I felt like I’d crushed the vocab and listening sections. In my head, it was inconceivable that I’d end up with less than a 140. It might say “Passed” at the top, but it sure doesn’t feel that way. I haven’t been this disheartened since I started studying Japanese. It makes me feel like I should just give up.
And on the other hand, I see three As at the bottom and have no idea what they mean. There’s no planet I know of where 37/60 is an A.
Do I have some fundamental misunderstanding about how this test is scored? Is the scoring different from other standardized tests? This was my first crack at one of these, so I have no clue.
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Your score isn’t equivalent to a percentage of correct answers, so if that’s what you thought it was, yes, there is some misunderstanding. The scores are weighted.
There’s a key that explains it. A here is not an “American report card A” but just a symbol that stands for “answered more than 67% of questions in this section correctly.” They could use a circle, square, and triangle if they wanted.
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Thank you for explaining it! I was wondering too.
(I am still completely over the moon at the fact I passed)
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@feoya definitely rushed 
I had 10 minutes for the last two passages (thank god the last one was an information retrieval and not a wall of kanji). I did manage to finish though.
If I could do it over again, I’d definitely sit down and do a full practice test. I did example reading questions, but I never did an entire first section (vocab/grammar/reading), which made timing myself much more stressful during the actual test.
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アミゴ！
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Passed the N1! I started studying in fall of 2015, and the only reason I was able to make it this far was thanks to wanikani helping me test into advanced classes at university.
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Holy guacamole
N1 in three years?!
You’re awesome!
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Passed!!!
I did way better than I expected, but is it bad to say that I wanted a better score on a pass?
But hey, I’m cool with it xD
On to the N2 in December 
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I’m honestly still shocked myself, but thank you!
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Oh! I see! But that makes your scores even more amazing!
And this is a really nice piece of advice!
Btw, I’m just asking because I kind of had my expectations of what should be a good run on the JLPT almost broken after overhearing a conversation of the guy sitting in front of me. He was saying how the test was difficult, but he managed to finish it with something like 10 minutes of leeway (!!?). What you said sounds much more reasonable and in line with what I’ve always heard about the nouryoku shiken.
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Wow, that’s a crazy good score too! Congrats!
Scrolling up, @charlesfm also got a crazy score.
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That’s an outstanding achievement, especially with those wonderful scores!
Congrats!!
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@feoya Haha, I sort of space out between passages. I think the more leeway you have the better but any time is good as long as you’re able to finish.
@Naphthalene Thank you! I definitely didn’t expect to do as well as I did.
@Protonstorm Congrats! I definitely wasn’t at your level when I had been studying for only three years 
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Not even sure I would get that kind of score today, 11.5 years in.
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Thanks!! Your score was really incredible!!!
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The A means you literally got more than 67% of the questions right (but that’s all you get to know, not an exact number).
The number is a “scaled” score that takes into account how hard the questions should have been for someone at the “marginally pass” level. Say you start with 50 points (or whatever they use.) For a hard question, maybe you get -1 for missing it (no big deal) and +4 for getting it right (good job!), which penalizes you less and rewards you more. But a easy question, maybe you get -4 for missing it (you idiot) and only +1 for getting it right (as you should). They add them all up and you get a scaled score.
From that scaled score, you need to get 30% to pass the section, but you can’t get two 30%'s, because overall score has to be 50%.
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I actually scored well enough to pass each section but didn’t score enough to pass overall.
I concentrated on reading and listening when I was studying. Particularly listening. I thought as long as I could pass listening that I would score enough in vocab/grammar and reading to get enough points to pass so I’m disappointed with my scores for those, especially vocab where I thought I’d done well.
Also, I feel that the published practice tests are of questionable quality since I managed to well in those prior to the test.
I guess I need to find a tutor who can slap some sense into me.
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