Hi guys, this is probably a topic that’s been repeated a thousand times but I’m looking for recommendations for N3. I self studied Genki 1 and 2 to get to N4, and everything I saw recommended that the Quartet books were the natural progression from Genki, but I just can’t get along with the style of Quartet - it seems very tailored to group classes with the huge speaking sections, but I study alone.
The thing I loved most about Genki was the drilling after every chapter and the workbooks. I’ve heard mentions of Try! and Kanzen master, but I don’t want to spend more money on a book I won’t use >.<
It depends if you’re looking to just learn the grammar for the JLPT, or looking for more well-rounded textbooks. I didn’t like Tobira or Quartet or other ones like that, so settled on JLPT-specific ones. For JLPT self-study only, this is what I’ve thought about all the main ones people recommend:
(All of these are for grammar only, those are the only ones I’ve used. If you’re looking for opinions about Reading, Listening etc. textbooks in these series other people might be able to offer advice. Personally I think the grammar ones are the most important for the exam):
Try! - Good for an introduction into the grammar. Goes a bit more in-depth than Soumatome but doesn’t have so many practice questions. This is my go-to textbook to start off studying with.
Kanzen Master - The most detailed, longest, hardest textbook of these. Lots of practice questions, grammar explanations in Japanese as well as English for N3. It’s very dense, so maybe not so good for a first introduction into the grammar. But it’s a good way to brush up on the little differences before the test.
Soumatome - doesn’t explain the grammar points so well, but it gives you more practice questions after every section. Probably the quickest proper grammar book to work through, I think it would be good either as an introduction to the grammar, or for a quick run-through prior to the exam after completing a different one first.
500問 - Good for practicing answering lots of exam-style questions (only for Kanji, Vocab and Grammar), after having completed a different textbook. Very quick compared to the other books, and I like these ones a lot in combination with other stuff.
What works for me:
Work through Try!/Soumatome (whichever you like the look of more)
After finishing, go through Kanzen master (not all of the sections are necessary, but at least some of it) if you have time. 500問 is also something you can fit in for 10 minutes daily to get more practice answering exam questions.
The books can get expensive if you end up buying the whole series like Reading, Vocab, Kanji etc. I personally find I only end up using the grammar ones anyway because I cover the other areas with other bits of study, so think about which you’ll actually use. You can mostly find the first few pages of each textbook online to have a look at before buying to see which you like the style of more.
For me the ShinKanzen Master Reading and Grammar worked but since the grammar explanations aren’t very much indepth, it might be best to get a grammar dictionary to help. This book is very much a drill and test sort of book, expecially targeted to those hoping to take the JLPT.
Thank you so much for giving so much detail! I really appreciate it!
I’ll take a look at Try! and Soumatome as my starting point, I’m similar to you in that I tend not to worry too much about studying reading and listening through textbooks, grammar is my main focus right now.
Does it have to be a textbook? Nowadays there are wonderful websites/apps that are more suited to self learners. If you’re looking for JLPT grammar points, MaruMori is laid out fairly well for that.
I’m the kind of person who can only remember by writing and repeating, so textbook and drills works best for my learning style. I did do MaruMori for a bit when I first started and loved it as far as online resources go, but things just stick better when I use physical paper.
As someone who loved the genki books for the drills and just got the quartet books (but haven’t started on them yet), I used all the “talk with your neighbour” exercises as “write a dialog” exercises and used them for casual speech patterns while I used the writing exercises for more formal patterns. I intend to keep this up for quartet. I do read out my stuff out loud and occasionally “roleplayed” both parts of the exercise too, but I’m not really interested in actually speaking japanese.
If you love doing lots of drills and exercises, you should go with a book that offers a great vatiety of exercises. I found a lot of textbooks lacking in that regard, just giving a few “fill-in the blank” exercises, that’s why I went for quartet, the amount of exercises and the variety is perfect for me
