Would like to preface this by saying, yes I am immersing and speaking and all the good stuff.
But yeah, what are the popular JLPT prep books? I want to try to get as many as I can to complete. So far, I’m thinking of sou matome, Shin Kanzen Master, Try, and Speed Master.
Do you guys recommend/know about any others? I want to try to complete as many as possible before December. Currently I am going through Quartet 1 with a tutor (halfway done).
I know it seems like overkill, but I want to try to get as close to a perfect score as possible. This is just a personal thing for me. I know n3 “doesn’t matter”, but I’ll try the same thing for n2 in 2027 and n1 and 2028. And then my goal is to keep taking n1 every year (half as a vacation) until I get a perfect score.
I am diagnosed with OCD, and this is kinda just how I like to do things. I find studying and using japanese very fun, and I don’t have work or school or any obligations, so I have nothing but time. Also money isn’t an issue.
While I’m in no way authoritative here, I imagine it must be quite repetitive as they do cover the same material. You’re not going to become a better mathematician by reading that 1+1=2 in a dozen books?
But you do you. I would just recommend to go through them one after the other instead of buying everything all at once to get the purchasing dopamine rush of feeling like you’re making progress without putting in any work yet. Work your way through the books you have purchased and then you will see if you actually see enough value in going over the same concepts in different materials multiple times
I used TRY! and Shinkanzen Master for N2. Try is more like a traditional textbook with several skills covered simultaneously, while Shinkanzen Master goes into the very details (personally the grammar and reading books were all I used, I don’t think the vocab book is needed if you study vocab elsewhere).
I would cover the basics with Try (or something else more textbook-like) first and do Shinkanzen last, because Shinkanzen also really asks for minute details of similar grammar points in their exercises that won’t even be expected from you in the actual JLPT. No harm in knowing them, but maybe not the best as a first textbook.
And I hope you don’t mean JLPT vacation in Japan, because after a recent change, you can no longer take it on a tourist visa in Japan
ShinKanzen Master is really good and should be done bit by bit over at least 6 months imo. I did the speed master in about 3 weeks I believe before the exam. I would also encourage you to do the youtube vidoes practice tests as they serve as textbooks imo .
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