JLPT 2019!

I’m hoping to take the N3 test in Philadelphia in December. I’ve also never taken one of the tests before, but I think I should be able to reach N3 by the end of the year.

Wait. You’re saying in the test room, no one gets headphones for the listening part? You just have to hear everyone doing their listening questions too at the same time?

Well, generally speaking people don’t make that much noise when they take a test, but you can always end up with bad luck and someone who is sniffling like crazy the whole time or something.

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After @Imasi mentioned the German test date I googled for it and it seems that the 7th of July is already confirmed for Germany which as a result should mean it is also confirmed for everywhere else. So I updated that in the first post.


Myself, I took the N5 in July 2018 in Hamburg which was fun and I was well prepared after one year of studying.

After that, I took the N4 in December in Vienna but listening was unexpectedly hard. I thought visiting Japan for a month immediately before the test and watching a lot (but with Englisch subtitles…) had prepared me well enough but that was not the case. I also talk a lot to my iTalki teachers but they are great at talking in a way that is understandable for me so that didn’t help either. So now I’m trying to focus more on listening by watching more without subtitles, focusing more on my subs2srs decks and immersion (with basically this concept ). I hope that will help for N3.

I will definitely attempt N3 in December, probably in Vienna again. But I am still secretly wondering whether I should aim high and attempt it in July in Düsseldorf and not care if I fail. But maybe that would stress me out too much and moreover I might not want to spend a hot summer weekend in Düsseldorf since I’m frequently traveling there for work anyway. Registration opens at the end of January so I still have some time left to decide.

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To be fair, after years of taking language tests for different level and languages (all for European ones though) there has been only one instance in which I was given headphones. For all the others all the candidates where in the same room listening from the same device.

Also, not every test center has huge rooms with 200 people listening to the same CD player, you might get lucky and be in a small room with only 8 others (like in Stuttgart).

Last december I took the N3, My first JLPT in all my life. I feel it went 50/50… I want to see how I did in test, Do you know when the results will be published?
I definitely want to take the test this year again, but I want to jump up to N2. For Mexico we can only take the test in december, so… It feels kind of far away right now.

Or even if it’s like N1 was for me in Kobe, with more than 1000 people in an exhibition hall. They played it over the PA system and it sounded fine.

To my knowledge, they split the levels up so you aren’t listening to N1 stuff during a N4 test.

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Haha, it didn’t even occur to me that someone might think the different levels were taking the test in the same room together. They’re all different lengths (ultimately with N1 being roughly twice as long as N5), so you couldn’t do this even if listening wasn’t involved.

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I’m planning on taking N2 in December in Los Angeles. It’ll be my first attempt.

My preparation plan is to study for N1 and try to read at least 3 books before then.

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I probably won’t be taking the JLPT this year. Took N1 in December just to see how far away it was, and it’s pretty far. Not sure I’ll even be in the country for the summer test, which is held in my city, and I don’t feel like going to Denmark in December just to fail again. So I’ll be aiming for N1 in July next year. If I am in the country I might take N1 again this summer, though.

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Per the official site:

The online Test Results Announcement for those who took the Test overseas will be available for viewing from 10:00 am on January 23 to 5:00 pm on March 31 (Japan Time) 2019.

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I could put up with hearing other people’s speakers I guess, but if everyone is listening from the same speaker, does that mean everyone gets fed only one question at a time, at the same time? And you have to wait for everyone else to finish answering before you move on to the next one? Like it’s proctored?

To my understanding, they have a public address speaker system, not a tiny speaker for each student.

the proctors announce the listening portion of the exam and then start the tape. The tape states a question in strict Japanese and the test takers have a set amount of time to select the correct answer on their paper before the recording starts the next question, whether all test takers are ready or not.

Most people fail this section because they take too much time trying to parse the asked question and can’t answer before the next question starts.

It’s just a series of questions from beginning to end. You get one chance to listen to each one, and it takes a set amount of time to play, so there’s no reason to have it be separate for different test takers.

There’s really no “waiting to answer.” You answer in the short gap between questions.

I actually disagree. In my experience, understanding the question wasn’t even the issue. The questions are usually fairly straight forward (at least for N5-N3) and easy to understand.

I think the issue actually becomes listening to the longer section (the actual listening part the question refers to) and parsing that while continuously listening. Ultimately, unless you just understand it in ‘real-time’ it’ll be too hard to keep up and you’ll eventually start falling behind.

In fact, in my experience I even know exactly when the answer is in the dialogue (that’s probably from attending quite a few language exams), my listening skills are just not good enough to keep up for the whole time (even though it’s not actually that long)

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Thanks for the correction. My knowledge was just from a bunch of N1-2 people complaining about how hard the section was.

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It is super hard. But again, I think it’s just because moreso than the grammer and structure, your brain also processes sounds and as a learner, that tends to be the most challenging on time restraint.
Also very few questions are actually written down. Most are spoken by the person on the tape and often it’s a simple: choose the right picture or time or location etc. for x event or x dialogue or something.

Don’t get me wrong though, it is absolute killer.

The good thing about the listening is that it doesn’t give you time to go back over your answers. Kind of takes the pressure off a bit. Once it’s done, it’s done, so you don’t have a choice but to move on.

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Not sure. Failed N5 twice (by 2 points, and then 3). The shame/embarashment :-1::cold_sweat: Skipped it last year, as I got very little study time in due to life. :family_man_woman_girl:
Was thinking of trying to bust my ass and go for N4 this year, but I’ll probably just be done with JLPT. Two failures is enough.
Wife suggests I just go for N5 again, no matter how much I do or don’t improve.
One of these days I’ll try JCAT again, as much as I hate that thing.

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