Literally was me in the N3. I was able to read a lot of the long passages at a decent pace, but I spent way to much time overanalyzing each answer choice before making a selection, and ended up with 2 untouched sections when the proctor said “10 minutes remaining”
BIG oof.
You only had 2 untouched reading sections at the ten minute mark? うらやましい！(like the boy who couldn’t remember people’s names)
Finished the N5 this afternoon. It is my first attempt. I think I did okay on the grammar and vocabulary, but I’m sure the listening will be what will do me in. I’ll try again next year. Honestly, I think the worst part of the test is the waiting for the results 
I’ll be camping out by the mailbox when February comes around! 
I really dislike you for making that joke and making me giggle.
I want to be upset about the JLPT right now, stop it.
Is this not standardized? Or is it different in different levels. For me (N1 in Kobe) they made a point of telling us they would not make any time announcements. Just “start” and “finish.”
Guess not, we certainly had time announcements at the 10 minute mark in each section.
US N3.
I don’t think it is standardized. It seems some testing sites take liberties that others aren’t afforded.
At a testing I went to four times, the room’s clocks were covered up and they also didn’t give us a warning. A person I know went to a different testing site in Japan ans mentioned that the clocks weren’t covered.
If they’re going to do things, it should be more consistent.
I mean, it’s not like it would have mattered that much, there’s only one section where they could even do it in N1 (no point in doing it for Listening). Still interesting that they go out of their way to say they won’t do it.
I didn’t bother looking around the room for clocks, but I didn’t notice any. For N1, it was in an exhibition hall, so just everyone in tons of rows of tables. I had a wristwatch to put on my table.
N2 turned out a lot harder than I expected. During all my practice tests leading up to the exam I felt generally confident in my answers, but this was a completely different game. Kanji was pretty straightforward, just got confused by 和やか for some reason. Vocab made absolutely no sense to me. Except one onomatopoeia, not a single word asked in the “pick the correct sentence” vocab section had come up in Kanzen Master or any book I’ve read so far. Luckily, grammar was a breeze. All the traps were pretty obvious and easy to dodge. Reading, which is usually always my strongest section, got super weird after I got stuck on that abstract thing about shortcomings being personality quirks. Then it kinda fell apart from there as I focussed more on the remaining time than on the problems in front of me. Listening was meh. Kinda straightforward except the last question. Got a nice memo down and was ready to answer it but the second conversation, the one between the two students, was too fast for me. Also quick response went better than usual, but still a lot of dark areas. Usually I have a very good sense of whether or not I passed a test, but not this time. Even if I’m lucky and it’s a pass, I’m not super proud of my performance.
In Toronto they (or my proctor) announced the 5 minute mark. They had a clock on a website projected on the screen in front during the first two sections. They strongly discouraged anyone from wearing even an analog wristwatch, and they must have warned against cellphones at least 50 times.
Also only water (no juice!) was allowed as long as the bottle had no label.
Huh… a watch is one of the few things explicitly allowed. Weird.
And where I was, no food or drink was allowed. Period.
I noticed that a lot of the practice books were published in 2010 when the test was revised. I wonder if the test has evolved since then so that the practice books are falling short in some areas.
It was a bit weird. At one point the proctor said that having your cellphone in your pocket even though it was completely off could result in disqualification, though that’s patently ridiculous. She must have been getting a little giddy by that point and started making up rules.
Yeah, didn’t hear anything like that. The only thing about cellphones for us was that if they go off during Listening it’s an automatic disqualification. They did give us plastic bags to put the phone inside, which we were then told to put inside our personal bags. I assume this is so they can visually see if anyone still has a plastic bag sitting on their table, which could be an indication they flaunted the cellphone instructions.
I’ve taken the test four times in two locations. I’ve had them say both that no announcements would be made, and that they would make announcements. We were never allowed any food or drink though, and watches were always fine. Last year they didn’t allow mechanical HB pencils, which was pretty strange.
Re: Time. When I took N4, last year of December, in the Philippines, the proctors were kind enough to advise us of the time and there was even a wall clock in front of us. Then, when I took N3 in Nakai, Tokyo, there was also a wall clock as it was in a university and they also reminded us of the time. But yesterday, when I took N2 in Akihabara, in a conference hall, there wasn’t a single wall clock present at the test site and the proctors didn’t gave us any hint of the time… and yes, it was very fortunate that I forgot to bring my wristwatch at that perfect day so I was really playing blind. Lol. Luckily, I finished the 1st part of N2 with around 10 minutes left I guess.
I have never really thought about doing any of the JPLT as I don’t have any real need… but reading all of you is giving me anxiety imagining me in one of these tests…
Ooff @ N4 Listening section. I aced every practice exam and practice question and study material. But the real thing felt like it was much faster than the practice material.
Destroyed characters and vocab in ten minutes though because of WaniKani.
Time to work out if I want to take a holiday to another city in July (cuz my city doesn’t offer it in July) or wait till December to retake the N4, or study for N3 December 2019 or most likely December 2020.
Judging by how I feel, I doubt I could get to N3 in a year. 
They even took my A4 plastic sleeve that I was using to protect my test voucher. Bit over-the-top.
The only weird rule at my site was “no hanging your coat on your chair.” All coats had to be in a bag or under the chair. They didn’t explain why.
I guess it makes it easier for them to see that you’re not reaching into the coat or something, but eh.