I hope to take N3 by the end of the year (not sure if itās only here in Italy, but they only held the exam in december).
I went back to studying Japanese in february 2020 (little did I know about the amount of extra time I would have had few months later). When I was in high school I tought myself hiragana, katakana and really basic kanjis, grammar and words (think about the first four, five chapters of Genki I).
In these two years I went into the difficulties I guess everyone gets through, mainly searching for the āoptimalā resource to study with. I tried Memrise, Duolingo, online resources, Pimsleur so on so forth.
I really liked Lingodeer when i got it, clean, easy and complete. But still, I didnāt get a good overall retention of what Iāve learned. I literally consumed Genki I and II, started Tobira and went through LOADS of Anki decks in hope to enforce my vocabulary, which I felt being my main problem. All I obtained was getting burned by the sheer amount of reviews, which led me to pause studying last summer.
When I got back in october, I felt like I forgot almost everything Iāve learnt. So here I am, early 2022, going through Genki II again and this time, using Wanikani for the vocabulary and kanjis. I have to say, really satisfied for now.
Good luck everyone for the exam!