I was really surprised how big the test area was in Düsseldorf this year, last year when I took N3, our room had 15 people in it, there might have been a few of those, but nothing prepared me for a 110+ person room for the N2 level today ^^
Each one of the levels had what seemed to be over a hundred people in it, and I’d know because I accidentally queued up for N1 and N5 not knowing where the N2 line is 
The N5 line seemed to be the longest of all.
Each row was constructed of multiple desks crammed against each other with plastic separators inserted between the sections, and the craziest bit… the acoustics were actually pretty decent! For the listening part, I mean, because the Japanese exam coordinator was attempting to scream out the instructions across the room so that even the last rows would hear, and I sat in one of the last ones and could barely hear her xddd
Though, possibly the biggest crime to humanity, because our test only had two segments, when the coordinator screamed us out for a break between the segments, on the whole floor where N2 and N4 was taken, there was not a single table… nor a chair waiting for you outside to sit in. So I and a few German people just hugged the walls as we ranted and stretched the legs inbetween, waiting for the listening section ^^
Also, an invention of this year, each testing station had a ziplock bag, where we were supposed to deposit our phones and watches in so that they wouldn’t accidentally ring, in the past, just hiding your turned off phone in a bag would do, but this time they were very strict.
And the test began 30 minutes after when we were supposed to have the test taken because accommodating this many people in a single testing room overwhelmed the organizers slightly.
Overall, if it weren’t for the inhumane hour of the test (9:00am), I think my experience of taking the test has been really positive this year, as for the actual test though, well…
I can outwardly just say that it did feel more fair to me than the December 2024 N3 one, there were a couple of spots that did feel mean, but at no point in time I felt like I would’ve failed because of the test being mean though.
I did completely bomb it but for a different reason though xddd
It was an interesting survival camp experience that made me realize that:
- 2077 kanji on WaniKani are just the beginning and prerequisite to even start study
- Bunpro crams will most likely not help you out, because in some grammar questions, multiple grammars are correct and you need to understand the nuance of what makes them distinct from one another
- The texts are written in a way where understanding the whole text and understanding every option is not enough and you need to juggle the options in your head to find out not just what do the options say, but also why are the options superior to the remaining ones
And tbh, it was my first JLPT I’ve taken where I could actually construct the whole meaning of the texts and options by reading them, that did feel really empowering… but it simply wasn’t enough ^^
I do feel like the test could’ve been harder than the Bunpro N2 mocks, but it could’ve just been the nerves, unfamiliar environment, test fatigue/aversion or just overusing the strategy of skimming the text instead of just reading it, leading to skimming the same sections of text multiple times to see how they link to the other parts of the text.
Final question of reading, THANK YOU, at least I secured some points xdd
Final question of listening, ahhh, the easiest points I’ve ever lost in my life by not realizing what would be asked of me before it was all over xddd
Overall, estimating 70-90/180 points because I just applied a random number generator to like, five texts, as I was too exhausted to weigh the options against each other and I’m slowly warming myself up to the idea of taking another shot at N2 one in December 2026, regardless of the current score - no amount of cramming and exam prep would’ve helped me out for this one, I simply wasn’t N2 ^^
Still, pretty curious about the result regardless ^^