N5 Tokyo July

@tametie, I passed the N5 last December 2016, percentile rank 92.7.

Most of my textbook study was Japanese for Busy People (1 and 2) and Genki 1. Self taught N5 kanji. About a month before the exam, I started to use the following materials. I did timed practice tests in the two weeks leading up to the exam.

My weak point is listening so I spent more time on listening practice tests. Here are the materials I used:

  1. JLPT Grammar The grammar document for N5: I checked that I knew every grammar point on this list.

  2. Practice test on the JLPT web site: half length test. Easier than the real one. Do that one first so that it gives you a feel for the question format.

  3. Try! N5: blue/yellow cover. revises grammar, has nice tables for reference, exercises for every grammar point covered. practice test at the back of the book.

  4. 短期マスター 日本語能力試験ドリル N5 (日本語) blue/white cover. practice questions for each section and practice exam at the end.

  5. 日本語能力試験 完全模試N5 (〈1〉) (日本語能力試験完全模試シリーズ) (日本語) Paperback – May 27, 2013: teal green/white cover. three complete mock exams. I did these against a clock to mimic a real exam.

  6. 日本語能力試験N5 予想問題集[改訂版] (日本語) 単行本 – October 26, 2015 - orange/white cover. practice questions on vocab, grammar, listening. Most difficult of all books.

  7. 実力アップ!日本語能力試験N5読む(文字・語彙・文法) (日本語) 単行本 – April, 2010 Green Unicom book. It has a lot of practice questions for grammar and vocab. I did not use it much because I ran out of time and the the print was hard (for my eyes) to read.

You can copy/paste the book titles into Amazon.co.jp to search for them. If you have any questions, please reply to my post.

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