Honestly I did not expect it since I signed up after failing in summer, but didn’t get around to actually studying for the test specifically. Even though it felt like my Japanese was stagnating and not improving at all, it turns out that daily immersion does help more than you notice. Compared to summer, I was also able to finish it in time while reading everything (albeit hurriedly).
The question is - do I just sign up for N1 as a study goal (but it will be impossible to pass) or do I just try to improve my N2 grade?
Failed N2 with 76. It sucks because the last time I took it, I got an 89. This is my 6th time taking the N2. I think I am going to step it down to N3 because there must be some concepts I am missing from that level.
In July passed N3 first try with 118/180, similar distribution. The jump between the two tests on the reading section was quite marked but somehow I managed. I thought I did better on the listening part though.
Well, considering in January last year I was not even N5 (prepared by myself hiragana, katakana, basic kanji and a bit of grammar before enrolling in language school but completely lacked listening, so I was in complete shock the first day as I could understand 25% of what the sensei was saying…), I should be content… But to undertake a 面接 in japanese I need WAY more than this level so on to practice actual 会話 and ビジネス日本語 more, at least now I can skip some useless stuff.
I started Wanikani waaaaay too late to be of any use for the JLPT, but I got addicted to it, nevermind that it is an excellent way to keep grinding japanese as my journey has just started, so bring it on!
Reflecting on it, I’m still happy with my progress despite not passing. As cool as it would have been to eek out a pass, I’m okay with this result. Some good takeaways regardless
Positives: Passed each section except reading LOL
Before I started test prepping for the N4, I thought listening was going to be my hardest section cause I got a 0 the first time I took a practice test. To pass the official section feels nice. Vocab/kanji was super easy, thanks to wanikani of course. While technically “passing” the grammar section, considering that score could still be just over 66%, I don’t doubt combined with my abysmal reading score, that it wasn’t up to snuff in the end.
So those are my takeaways. I’ve been studying through Quartet which has been really fun. I’m 7 levels higher than where I was when I took the test in December. I still feel super motivated to keep going and pushing myself as I just love the process itself of learning this language.
Definitely want to take the December 2024 JLPT again, my goal is to just keep studying and reading throughout the year. A simple plan haha.
Maybe it’s dumb, but I’m setting my sights still for N1 lol. I’ll have a better picture of my abilities when sign-ups appear around August. May end up choosing N2 or N3 who knows haha. I’m lucky to live near a testing site so it’s not a big excursion or expense to take it.
Congrats to everyone that took it! Pass or not, every day is an opportunity to learn something new no matter how small
Not really proud of it, but failed the JLPT N5 Was two points short on actually passing the exam. Vocabulary went fine (thanks Wanikani), grammar could be done better, but bombed the listening section. To be honest, reflecting back on my studying methods, I was way too much invested in grammar rules and vocabulary than attempting to exercise in reading and listening. When taking the JLTP exam, it came to my attention that the exam tries to focus more on the overall comprehension of the language (no s*** Sherlock) than trying to surplex you on specific grammar points.
However, I am actually happy that I took the exam in the end. It helped me to actually make some progress to study at all, even when I was super busy with other stuff. Will take N5 again in the summer, as I have a master thesis to complete around that time, and start slowly learning for N4 so I can take it in the winter if I’m confident enough. Not giving up, these mistakes are only there to help you in the end.
Got 60/60 on listening and reading, which I was pleasantly surprised by. SKM reading textbook and taking lots of practice exams definitely helped with my reading speed. Also, regularly using WK for the past year helped so much with speed reading, since I could race through most of the kanji parts and infer the meaning of the sections that I didn’t have time to comb through.
37/60 for language knowledge. I knew this was going to be my worst category and if I failed, that’d be why. Level 38 on WK actually got me through all the kanji (I got lucky with that), but I need to work a ton on vocab for next time. I hadn’t really studied vocab at all, so it was my fault, but tentative plan for now is to combine some kind of flashcard/textbook system with also just reading essays/articles/etc. Used Nihongo no Mori for grammar, and was a big fan, so will definitely be continuing to use it going forward.
I mainly took the JLPT just as study motivation and to see where I was at, and it definitely worked. I would never have studied nearly as much if it weren’t for the impending test date. It also felt super gratifying to have my consistent WK usage pay off.
A little lower than I had hoped I’d get, considering I just barely failed last year, but I’ll take it! Surprised my reading scored so low, and my listening got so high lol
An N3 pass. I’ll take it! WK was super helpful with the first section in knowledge and comprehension, and undoubtedly helped in the rest. Though I’ve done a dozen practice tests as well, and crammed pretty intensively the last month with my sensei.
Wasn’t sure I’d pass, given my brain somewhat gave in during the listening section, but Kami Sama was clearly watching over me ;D
N2 is next at some point, and it didn’t actually seem as far off as expected, based on the one mock test I tried, but that’ll be after my first planned trip to Japan! Finally yay! Let’s keep on trucking yall!
reading is a weak point for me, i’ve been trying to find easy stuff to read, i have a couple of “easy japanese stories” ebooks on my kindle but they can be a bit boring, but you mentioned novels aimed at 9 years old, do you remember some that you’ve read and were relatively easy and interesting?
Passed N2 103/180. Came out of the exam thinking I failed it, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that I have passed it. Reading/kanji was always my weakness, but I feel wanikani really helped me this year on that. Being able to read the kanji better helped out in all sections except for listening. With that said, I hit a wall on WK levels 20/21. Constantly having to use vacation mode! Will keep working on it though. This year since I am done with JLPT (not planning to attempt N1) I want to focus on wanikani/kanji and reading lots of Japanese.
Now I need to start planning for N1. I don’t have a goal to pass it on the first time but I want to start having the N1 experience. I believe each fail is a learning experience.
My focus at the moment is speaking classes because I am left behind on that and I want to travel to Japan in a year or so.
Passed N3! Knew it was going to be ギリギリ pass or not pass, so I’m happy with the result. Planning to take N2 in the summer just cause I can while I’m in Japan. Can’t put off studying for it until the last minute though.
What do the As or Bs under a section mean?
I passed the N4! My grammar is N2/N3 but as I really do not have time to study for the test, I am just taking the lower levels, last year I passed the N5. This year I started filling the answers skipping one line so I had to go back and erase everything and the audio was playing… in the end I thought I had failed the listening part… but passed.
Was two points short on actually passing the exam. Vocabulary went fine (thanks Wanikani), grammar could be done better, but bombed the listening section. To be honest, reflecting back on my studying methods, I was way too much invested in grammar rules and vocabulary than attempting to exercise in reading and listening. When taking the JLTP exam, it came to my attention that the exam tries to focus more on the overall comprehension of the language (no s*** Sherlock) than trying to surplex you on specific grammar points.
