Should I completely immerse or do concentrated study

Japanese Language
1

Hello,
I’m taking Jlpt N3 in july and it is my first proficiency test of any kind.
When I applied I was beginner N4 level.
Since then I went through Try N3 and did some mock exams which I performed okay in jlpt N3.
My weakest being Listening.I think I’m beginning to enter the intermediate level.
I would like to know would it be more beneficial for me to go through textbooks(Quartet) or shinkanzen master or would it be better for immersion(Migaku) to do it’s work.
I’m taking inspirations from Tokini andy and Livakivi as they are Immerse focused people.

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2

Three vague principles (based on nothing more solid than my personal opinion and experience) that might help you in making a decision:

  • if there’s an area you feel weak in and want to improve, put proportionally more time into that than other aspects – if you want to get better at listening then only doing textbook work is not going to get you there.
  • it’s probably better to do a mix of things than to focus on one approach and do nothing else – some immersion plus some textbook study might work better than only one or the other.
  • the study routine you enjoy and can continue for the long haul is better than the theoretically optimal one you hate, so if one of these options is calling to you much more strongly than the other then you should give it a go. You can always come back and reassess how it’s working later.
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Would It be better then to Focus on Shinkanzen Listening then?
The problem is I was able to go with the flow of the listening part. But Without subtitles I had so many blank spaces while listening. Should I do immersion without subtitles. It’s like hearing the words for the first time.

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If you find the listening part of the N3 too difficult to understand try the N5 listening mock exams and practice part first and build your ability to listen without using subtitles from there. That way you’ll be able to see where you listening level stands, and build it gradually towards N3 level.

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Do immersion of podcasts on commute, jogging etc., but I think you should go through some of the JLPT N3 listening mock exams on YouTube. They helped me get a 53/60 in my exams last December.

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