I used to be the same - the trick is for these is that there’s usually some kind of fixed grammatical pattern it uses, so you can almost always work out what either the first or last options are working off of particles, fixed structures etc (or both), and work backwards. For example, お金を…払って…からでないと… for the last one, and then you can work out the order of the other two fairly easily as well, 品物を…送って… Try to match up all the pairs of things that look like they have to go together (both with the 4 words, and with the fixed things either side), and then fit it all together. If you keep practicing, and work out where you went wrong each time, it gets a lot easier.
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Same! I’m taking the JLPT for the first time, and I’m taking N3.
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Hello! Nice to know the other N3 warriors here!
A little bit about me: I’ve took N3 twice (2023 and 2025) but I’m yet to pass. It’s always quite close to passing grade - latest result was 87/180 which is 3 points shy of passing, so I’m quite frustrated at this point but I really, really want to get it by this year.
My weakness are kanji and reading speed. As you can see I’m still quite low level in Wanikani - I slacked off learning kanji for a loooong time and it hinders my progress. I also didn’t time myself well during the exam and ended up not being able to answer many reading questions due to running out of time. I’d have to work on that by drilling kanji and doing timed mock tests.
My strength is listening - I had a ton of listening immersion and I lived in Japan for a short while. Those two things help a lot but the materials I’ve been consuming is too casual (like, game streaming content and anime with casual conversations) and I need to branch out for more ‘serious’ or ‘general topics’ listening. I’m thinking something like news and documentaries, which is thankfully plentiful in Youtube.
Anyway I hope we all can pass it this year!
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Same here! I know this was months ago but would anyone be interested in studying together? I have Discord if that helps.
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I’m probably not a good candidate for joining such a group - but I’m curious - how exactly might that work?
A few years back I attempted to run an in-person meetup for the purpose of studying for the N4 exam, and figuring out the mechanics of doing that was not a trivial matter - in fact, it fell apart pretty quickly.
Part of that is that people have different backgrounds, skill levels, strong points vs. weak points, etc.
For example, one thing that we had tried (unsuccessfully) was to have all of us take a practice test section, which IIRC maybe took 30 minutes to do individually, and then walking through the answer key and discussing the correct answers vs. any that were missed.
I think that individual study like that is probably not only useful, but likely essential. However, effectively translating that effort into a group activity was not so easy.
Also, we did not have a ‘group leader’ with a higher level of language knowledge to organize and run things (as well as to serve as a “source of truth”).
(And, FWIW, IIRC I missed getting a passing score on the N4 by 3 points - since that time I have decided to focus more on learning to read and speak Japanese, and less on passing a standardized test such as the JLPT, as they represent two distinctly different end goals.
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At the very least, I think a group would be excellent for scheduling mock exams. It’s hard to make yourself take a test that you don’t really need to take, so some light social pressure can be helpful with that 
And I also like the troubleshooting aspect of groups, sometimes study books are not so straightforward with how to use them (shakes fist at shin kanzen)
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I admire the level of self-control that permits you to restrain yourself to fist-shaking
(I swear that some of the shouting and vulgar invective that I launched at the shin kanzen master N4 grammar book could have been heard two or three states away from me).
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Haha I definitely wasn’t upset to find that Soumatome covered the same material but was easier to follow
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I would be up for joining a N3 study group 
though I’m not interested in taking the actual test.
What’s everyone choice for textbooks? I really like the genki series, since it’s full of exercises, and I don’t care much about grammar explanation, since I use bunpro for that. But genki seems to only cover N5/N4.
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The publisher of Genki makes intermediate textbooks! Those are Quartet 1 and 2. Quartet 1 is roughly N3, and Quartet 2 is roughly N2.
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Thanks! I heard of those, but never new they were related. Gonna take a look at them
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Sounds like a plan! I finished Genki I and II and have started working my way through Quartet I. Tokini Andy has videos on both Genki and Quartet which have been pretty useful imo. That said I could really use a refresher on kanji.
I also started studying with JLPT Sensei’s N3 grammar guide :0
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Feel free to add me on Discord, impact_frames
Hi there! I’m in the same boat. Passed N4 Dec 2022, then failed N3 Dec 2023 and 2024, I think by 3 and 5 points. 2023 was definitely on me for dropping the ball with studying, 2024 was because I’d had a baby about 6 weeks prior.
This time round I’m determined to pass. I’m making sure to read every day to increase reading speed, and I’ve made a list of vocabulary that’s commonly cited as N3 level but which I haven’t learned from WK.
My biggest worry this time is stamina. I’ll be taking the test in Tokyo and they run N3/4/5 in the afternoon. From the timetable I saw, it looks like the test ends at around 19:00. I get woken up at around 5 or 6am by my kid, so will have been awake for quite a while by the time the listening section rolls around.
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I think this is a useful reference about time management in the JLPT:
JLPT time – Time management for the test
For N3: especially the reading section.
And for the first section, to have a plan about which questions should take ~2 minutes each and which ~1 minute.
I used it to scrape a minimum pass 
after failing narrowly more than once.
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Hi5! OMG, having a baby 6 weeks before the test sounds extremely tough…
I unfortunately did not manage to get a slot for December test in my country since it sold out extremely fast, so I’ll have to wait next year. I’m going to amp up my studying too since I’m bad at timing myself and try to widen the scope of my immersion.
My first N3 was in Tokyo! I didn’t remember taking it until that late in the day, but I took it in summer so I might not notice. But it is pretty tiring since you’ll be awake and having activities for a while. Conserving energy is super, super important. Good luck for your next attempt!!
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Thank you! I’ll check it out!
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