Not expecting too much, but I took it as a baseline to see where I end up after working on my vocab on WK for the next six months, and…
That’s… pretty much the exact opposite of what I anticipated. Wow. I have no idea how my vocabulary and listening ended up that high. And I’m just going to blame the timed format for that horrid grammar score. :sadface:
なります 
September 2018
☆～March 2019～☆
Wow studying my bottom off everyday with grammar really paid off!
It felt like night and day with the reading section. I could actually understand them this time around. But it’s sad that since September I’ve read 8 books in Japanese and did worse than before!! Haha what? 
So I guess I just overthought them? Oh well.
Also I’ve been studying vocabulary everyday and got the same exact score. Just because I didn’t know what さかん was eurgh.
I had the same exact problem! I wonder what it was but it was really distracting.
My J-Cat results:
Listening 55
Vocabulary 59
Grammar 29
Reading 53
The results were surprising for me. I’ve never expected that I am that good in listening. I thought it’s by far the worst, so maybe I was just lucky while answering the questions… I definitely have to work on my grammer. As soon as I’ve finished Wani Kani (should be in about 3-4months), I will have more time to focus on the other language abilites. At the end it was very interesting to see where I approximately stand.
Urgh, my J-CAT score wen’t down even though my JLPT score went up (passed all sections of N2 last time but just not enough points to pass overall, compared to before when I got a 7 for reading LOL). No idea what’s going on. These last six months I feel like I just haven’t been able to break out my “between N3 and N2” rut. I just want a comfortable N2 so I can find a new job here.
Since I have not quite hit my 1-year anniversary of studying Japanese (which will be July!), I feel pretty good about the results. Being mid-N4 seems completely reasonable for finishing Genki - but obviously I need to up my grammar game and read more than, like, once a week. . . 
Wow, 1000 clicks on the link!
Just got the badge! Weeee
First time taking it - not bad for ~10 months of study 
Apparently 150-200 indicates N3, but I highly doubt I’m anywhere near that. I haven’t even started looking at N3 grammar, so I guess I’m letting my vocab and reading get ahead of me. I would like to improve my grammar and listening, but my study time is mostly taken by Wanikani and Anki…
So, about two a half months ago I decided to pick up Wanikani again and start studying Japanese for real this time (in the past I did absolutely no grammar, reading or really anything besides Wanikani). Anyway, I’m only half way through Genki 1, but I decided to do the J-cat now so that I can take it again just before the JPLT in December to gauge my progress.
Well, now that the preamble’s out of the way here’s how I did:
It went about as poorly as was to be expected.
The test was absolutely heinous, as others have noted, it constantly feels like you’re basically guessing and I refuse to believe my reading score is actually that high considering I reached a point in the reading section where I’d see a giant wall of text, my eyes would glaze over and I’d pick an answer at random.
My score:
Did not expect listening to end up as high as it did, since I guessed a few.
Reading also had to guess one because the wall of text just scared me.
I must add to this, though, that despite just being level 4 on Wanikani, I have studied Japanese in university between 2007 and 2011 and actually graduated with it being my major.
However, since I haven’t actively used it since then, my knowledge has pretty much poofed.
My degree has therefor stopped being relevant and I’m planning on taking (and passing) the N2 test (july 2020) so I can actually use it again for job applications.
I’m using Wanikani to basically relearn all my Kanji (though I slacked a lot back then and probably only knew about 300 initially).
I’m using my old uni text books to reacquaint myself with the vocab and grammar. (Minna no Nihongo series, though i also have access to Genki)
Then Iknow for more vocabulary.
Now all I need is to start doing some active listening.
I also have an N2 book somewhere, which I’ll start using once I can actually read the questions in there.
I’ll retry this test in 6 months and see where I end up.
I was really curious to see what these results would be - after taking a break for more than 20 years (after previously doing 4 years study at university and 2 years living in Japan). In 6 months since I started to study Japanese again my receptive language skills seem to have jumped straight back up, however grammar, vocab and Kanji still have a long way to go!
Here is hoping that a year of WK can bring my Vocabulary up to speed! The grammar section was just hectic - I felt lucky to even get 50.
すごい！
Looks like you are well on target to get through N2 again (I seem to recall that was your plan?)
That is the plan. I have never taken N2 - and now that I am studying the grammar, I am fairly sure that I was never quite at that level!
November 2018
May 2019
I’m happy to see I’ve improved by 20 points in the last 6 months, thanks to Grammar and Reading.
Since November I’ve:
Joined wanikani and got to level 12
Read 時をかける少女 with the bookclub
Read a disney novelisation
Put all the grammar points I was unsure of/didn’t know from “An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese” into Bunpro
Started Shin Kanzen Master N2 grammar and reviewed through Bunpro
Kanji has always been a weak point for me and even though some of the readings were still overwhelming with unknown kanji and vocab, I did feel like I could read and understand a lot more thanks to wanikani. Some of the grammar points were ones I’ve studied recently too.
I (optimistically) signed up to do the N2 in July and while I’m not quite there yet, I’ll use the next 2 months to study hard. I plan on continuing with Wanikani and SKM grammar and I think I’ll also start on my SKM N2 reading book and possibly go through an anki or memrise vocab deck.
Listening 51
Vocabulary 40
Grammar 47
Reading 44
Total 182
My attention span isn’t great for tests like these when I’m in my apartment and just want to relax, so I feel like I could’ve score a little higher. But this also puts me in N3 territory (I’ve signed up for it in July), and I feel like I definitely wouldn’t pass if I took the actual test today.
Also I don’t know if it’s the norm, but I was asked 20 listening questions, but less than 10 questions for the rest of the sections?
It was the same for me. Listening was the longest, vocab was only 3-5 questions and reading was longer but still shorter than listening.
I believe I last took this exam in January 2018 right after I took JLPT N3 and scored somewhere in the 151-200 range!
I’m not sure if the clock in the top right corner gives anyone else anxiety? 
I found it really hard to focus and I was just in panic mood like, crap I gotta read faster during the reading section and I ended just not absorbing a lot of the text altogether…
I was hoping to score a little higher since I’m hoping to take JLPT N1 this year but it looks like I’ll be in the right range with just a little more studying (and lots of WK)! 
I didn’t even notice the clock in the top right corner until I ran out of time on one question.
Then I started to be so aware of it, the anxiety appeared.
I think I scored less high because of it. BUT since I scored higher than I thought I would, I’m not too fussed about.
Now when I think about it, if it takes me too long to read the question, it’s probably too hard for me anyway.
I’ll just keep on studying the way I am, and hopefully in 6 months I’ll see a significant improvement.