People learn differently. You might find it helpful to read some of them out loud. I thought the radicals were stupid at first, but it really can help you remember meanings later on.
In some cases you just need to rely on brute force memorisation, but in other cases you might find it easier if you try to consume other japanese media (dramas/anime etc). That way, you might be able to look at a kanji, know what it means and you don’t necessarily have to remember the onyomi reading at all since you already know the word. Um, an example off the top of my head is atm there’s a vocab word that’s ‘to be hidden’. Hide has an onyomi of ‘in’ and a kunyomi of ‘kaku’. I didn’t actually learn ‘kaku’, so when I see the ‘Hide’ Kanji with ‘Su’, even though I didn’t specifically remember the Kun yomi, I’d heard the term ‘kakusu’ enough to make that connection.
Idigtech has a chart which you can check out for yourself for more details, but at WK L25 you’re at 79% N3. The corresponding levels for N4 and N5 would be 11 and 5 respectively.
The first column is N5. You get 100% of the Kanji at level 16. (Although according to the Tsukiji app, I’m like 17 short of the 4-500 possible vocab at level 23, so don’t forget kanji and grammar aren’t all you need to know. You need to know - vocab that includes kanji that isn’t what WK has taught, and katakana and hiragana kanji like ラジオ and whatnots.)
Second column is N4. You get 100% of that at level 27.
Third column is N3. So you don’t get to 100% of that until level 51 and there probably aren’t many people willing to wait that long. If you go by an earlier suggestion and take it at your mid-20’s (so here I highlighted 25 and 26 as reasonable levels) you’ll be at nearly 80%. At 31, 90%, at level 35, nearly 96%.
For those wanting to take the N5 or N4.
Assuming you want at least 75% of the Kanji (although I would terrified to go in without a higher percent, lol)…
~ N5: Level 5 = 78%, Level 7 - 91% Level 10 = 98%, Level 16 - 100%
~ N4: Level 10 = (nearly) 76%, Level 15 = 93%, Level 16 - 96%,
Levels 18 - 23 are all 98 percent, and 24- 26 are all the same 99.40%. Level 27 = 100%.
Sadly, in my country we only get to take the JLPT once a year (in december). But I’m also looking forward to take N3 this year… Acording to idigtech I will be at 95% of the N3 kanji by then so it should be ok LOL, I just have to focus more on grammar.
As for the JLPT tables, they’re a nice reference, but don’t take them for granted. As I mentioned somewhere else in this forums, it is not rare that Kanji labeled N4 appears on the N5, and at the same time, the N5 test really doesn’t focus that much on Kanij, as long as your other abilities are up to speed, you should be ok.
I would encourage people to take the test not for the certification, but as a personal challenge to see if you can pass it. That way there’s less pressure and it makes it more fun, i think
Can I ask what you used to learn grammar? And though probably a hard question to answer, how ‘much’ would you say you would need to know to get to that level?
おめでとうございます！A very nice thread, way to motivate me to learn more!
I’ve just started learning Japanese exactly a month ago, drilling WK and kanjis/vocabs through obenkyo & working on grammars when commuting to work, almost everyday. How long do you think I’ll be able to take N5 with that sort of time, if I were to drill my N5 kanjis/vocabs for almost 3 hrs per day?
(aside doing WK reviews)
The textbooks I used were Mirai 5, Mirai 6 and the Living Languages series (3 books iirc). The living language ones didn’t teach me much, as most of the material was already covered in the first 2 books I mentioned.
I watch a lot of anime too, leading up to the N3 I was watching Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Not sure if it was simply timing, but a lot of the vocab I was learning around that time ended up being used in the show shortly after. Kinda gives you a smug feeling when that happens! I’d say I performed much better in the listening section than any of the others, despite not putting any specific preparation into it.
That’s amazing dude! I am studying N3 right now in Japan. I am taking classes at my university in Japan right now. It may sound far-fetched, but I’m shooting for N1 by the end of the year. Being in Japan is extremely good for fast learning. Good luck everyone!!
