Hello there, I have been using wanikani for the past couple of days after having learned hiragana and katakana and began using genki as well! I am looking to sign up for the JLPT N5 in December and was wondering what the main sources of advice would be for someone that has this long (six months) to prepare? Any and every form of advice is welcomed, I really want to pass.
Thanks!
Finish Genki 1 and you shouldn’t have any issue passing N5
N5 is super easy. This is true for all levels - but especially N5 - you don’t need to be a Kanji master. Like, level 5 on WaniKani is probably sufficient.
More importantly is that you actually study Japanese. Grammar, vocabulary, etc… actually, I’d recommend WaniKani be a very small part of your overall Japanese study.
I just starting using it on Saturday! I’m hoping to have it done by either late october or early november 
Thank you so much! I’ve invested in Genki and hope Bunpro and Tae Kim’s guide will take me the rest of the way there!
If there’s any way you can do it, I highly highly recommend getting a tutor. There’s some on Preply and Verbling for around $10 / hour. A lesson every week or two will go a long way. Alternatively, a lot of cities will have language exchanges which are typically free.
Actually depending on the amount of time you want to put in, its possible to get N4 in that time… Genki I and II would get you the grammar and vocab, while WK level 14 would be 89% of the kanji. WK level 7 would be 91% of N5 kanji.
I’ve been looking on italki but I will have to check out preply and verbling for those prices!
I should add that this would probably take a high amount of self study compared to taking a class, as one 2 hour class per week would definitely not be enough to finish two textbooks that fast.
Don’t slack off with the listening part!
Really? I was planning on getting to level 16 wanikani by september because they said that would take me to 100% N5. I have 100% free time except for 12 hours a week at work. Any resources you recommend to get to N4 in that time?
I fear that the most :0 any tips? I know that my genki book has an audio cd, but I don’t know if there are any good podcasts or any other resource specifically to help N5 listeners?
Actually since wanikani doesnt teach based off of jlpt, it doesnt finish N5 kanji until lv 16 however there would only be a very few that you dont know by level 7. Level 16 would most definitely be enough for N4 JLPT, and as for the grammar, I recommend self studying through Genki I and II books as your main source.
This site will show you the correlation between WK levels and JLPT N# percentage: https://www.wkstats.com/#charts.jlpt
I, might do this? Thank you so much for this motivation? I’m very new to japanese but have a lot of self-discipline for languages and had no idea you could get to N4 that fast. I guess I would just have to have a different timeline in terms of when I finish certain materials?? but other than that I really want to try for that I suppose, thank you!!!
Happy to help! Actually to be honest I havent been learning that long either and I am probably between N3 and N4 right now myself. But I did it solely with self study, using Genki I and II, while boosting my kanji with WK, and am currently using Tobira for N3. I think ive been studying for 5 months but I finished Genki I and II after 3 months (really a ton of crammed studying!!!).
I think if you do the listening part of Genki you’ll be fine! If you feel that this isn’t enough there are graded readers with audio specifically for N5 learners.
With the 6 months you have it should be an easier process for sure and you should try your best! Ganbatte 
Personal opinion: That chart is bunk science because
Your best bet is to look at sample questions and old tests.
Really, that fast? I have genki I and workbook right now (planning on buying genki II now lol), how do you suggest going about finishing them that quickly and how to review the content from them? (Sorry for the massive amounts of ?s I want to be done with, now, both by mid october or late september to be able to review for at least a month)