As of today I am at 18 grammar points into the N3 deck.
If I continue what I am doing I think I will be missing a lot of vocabulary necessary for the N2. Of course I am picking up vocab here and there through wk, bunpro and reading but I am pretty sure that there will be a lot missing of specific N2 vocab.
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Hey hey Iām really good with studying vocab so maybe you wanna consider my method:
I study vocab while relaxing. So I use the JLPT Tango book for the jlpt Iām studying for, from the same publisher that does the Sou Matome books. I get myself really comfortable in lots of different places that suit the season. Preferably somewhere outside so I donāt get FOMO, maybe some comfort snacks or beverages, Lo-Fi music, all the good stuff. And then I come up with my own mnemonics for the vocab I have to study. That might entail taking half and hour at times to just find a single mnemonic that works for me. But the more I did it the quicke Iāve become. And of course then I repeat going though vocab regularly and sometimes have to come up with new mnemonics because Iāve forgotten older ones.
This might not sound revolutionary to you. But tying vocab study so closely relaxing emotionally makes a huge difference in the speed with which youāll become able to memorize words and it helps me to keep my overall studying work load in balance with my leisure time.
Maybe at the beginning it feels counterintuitive to spend that much time on coming up with mnemonics as it does. The review time youāll eventually save is worth it though. I studied through the entire 1000 N5 and 1500 N4 vocab books this way.
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Iām curious, when you review, do you just go back through the textbook? Or are you creating flashcards/something else? I struggle a lot with studying vocab, but Iām not ready to set up any other flashcard or SRS system till finishing WaniKani rn.
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I use the vocab book. Itās designed for doing reviews by having that handy red sheets that only hides the Japanese translation of the word. Itās the ćÆććć¦ć®ę„ę¬čŖč½å試éØ series. Though Iām sure any nicely structured vocab bookāll work as long as you come up with a way to cover the translations that doesnāt make it easy for you to fool yourself (or maybe thatās a me thing haha)
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Are you in a hurry to get a certificate?
Because if you want to reach N2 by time x and fear the amount of studying youāre doing right now wonāt carry you there and canāt put in more time, then in my mind the logical conclusion would be to postpone taking the test.
I believe studying under pressure isnāt sustainable nor fun long-term. If I was you Iād continue studying in a sustainable and fun way (as Iām assuming you are right now), and try a mock exam just before registrations for next summer open to see if youāre ready for it.
Please donāt stress yourself too much if itās not completely unavoidable.
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I think I just managed to register for N3 in Dublin, woo! It was a mess, they said they werenāt opening registrations until the afternoon today but Iām overeager so I checked in the morning and it looked like everything but N3 and N2 was already booked which kinda panicked me. Anyway, payment went through and I got a booking confirmations so I hope Iām okay. Time to really knuckle down now!
ETA: Actually, so I think they just arbitrarily opened N3 and N2 registration before everyone else? Because Iām now seeing that N3 is noted as ācourse fullā and N5, N4, and N1 are totally blank so Iām assuming they havenāt opened at all yet. Just wanted to add that on the off chance there are any other Irish JLPT-takers here who might have been worried, keep checking the page!
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Itās such a mess. I wish they offered the JLPT a little more often than twice a year (or once, depending on where you live). I canāt think of a single other language certification thatās held so infrequently.
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For sure, itās so restrictive! In Ireland itās just once a year and to be fair I think itās one of the less competitive countries, like I checked just now and there are still spots for N5 and N1, so I donāt know if there would necessarily be enough interest here for even a July session.
Some countries like the UK it seems like an absolute bloodbath though, youād think they could respond to the demand that is clearly there. Maybe they just donāt have the resources to offer it more than twice a year, but at the same time the current system is so awkward and clunky that Iām sure they could streamline things significantly if they wanted to.
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Itās not great, but the UK situation has gradually improved I think ā it used to be only 2 sites (Edinburgh and London) which offered it only in December, and now there are 4 sites (Cardiff and Leicester also now offering it) and at least some of those sites also do it in July. So that should add up to increased capacity.
No idea what the central JLPT organisationās motives are, but I suspect that most people on this forum donāt weigh very heavily in their decisions. Of the total 660,000+ test takers, all of Western Europeās test sites put together come out to only just over 1%, and all of North America is another 1% or so. (About a third of test takers are in Japan itself, 128,000 are in China, and Myanmar is 86,000 ā that last one there must be some dynamic I donāt know. In general East Asia and Southeast Asia are heavily represented.)
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For Japan residents, the December test application is today, 5pm! Best of luck everyone
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I passed N4 with 94/180 last December. I suppose I could try for N3, but at 90ā¬ a failire would start to feel expensive.
I also payed for some classes at a local language school, that enough for the ājapanese budgetā for now.
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I registered for N1 at the last minute yesterday haha
I was a little torn, cuz I know Iāll feel really bad if I donāt pass this next time 
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Call me crazy, but I sort of like it that itās only offered twice a year. I suppose it sucks if you really need the certificate, but for someone like me that only did the JLPT for the milestone it was more fun this way. Certainly turns the entire thing into more of an event. Iād imagine I wouldnāt have met so many people from WaniKani either if the test was offered more often 
I could do without the limited spots, but I imagine the local institutes that offer the test arenāt actually making a lot of money (if any) with the JLPT, so asking even more people to come in and supervise the testāon a Sunday no lessāprobably isnāt very easy 
Since the test is at most offered twice per year no matter where you are, I imagine itās not actually up to the local hosts. Seems like the Japan Foundation would have to initiate that
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I agree with you. Having it only available twice a year is fine. The problem is the restriction on number of places.
The seasonal nature of the test encourages people to take it seriously instead of retaking it over and over.
Either way, it was way easier for me to get a JLPT spot than it was a driving test hahahah
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Itās the same in Denmark for the Danish proficiency test 
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This year JLPT is on the weekend after Thanks Giving in the USA. It is a nightmare to travel during this time: tickets are more expensive, airports are crowed, even highway traffic is higherā¦ Skipping it this yearā¦ 
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