I’m not preparing that diligently for this mock exam, but yesterday I had a nightmare about forgetting to bring my test voucher to the exam and thus I couldn’t participate. 
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Do you know what wanikani level corresponds to N4?
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Level 27 for 100%, but you pass the 95% mark by level 15, at level 18 you’re at 99.18% and that doesn’t go up until level 24 when you get to 99.59%, with the last few kanji being in level 27.
You can see this on https://www.wkstats.com/charts/jlpt
I do always check the box for cumulative percentages, since I figure it’s no use not counting the kanji of previous JLPT levels. You still need to know them, it’s not as if the N4 test won’t use N5 kanji.
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@Pep95 @yamitenshi Thanks for your help I’m not familiar with wkstats so I’ll check it out! I’m part way through my level six right now so I should be far enough along by the mock exam 
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The site also has a list of which items belong to which JLPT level. If you’ve read Japanese stuff at all there’s a good chance you’ve seen many if not all the N5 kanji you haven’t encountered in WaniKani yet, so that list gives you a better idea of how far you are from knowing all the kanji you need to know.
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been a casual lurker on this thread. gonna aim to take a mock exam with y’all on July 4th.
tried out the sample questions on the JLPT site last night. got all but one of the N5 questions right; missed one on particles. tried the N4 this morning and was getting them all of them wrong until the question on particles lol.
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I did a cheeky check in using the app called Migii and it showed me some pretty useful insights from a short mock test I did.
Turns out I suck at actually comprehension. My Kanji/Vocab knowledge in isolation is great but I just can’t connect the dots right now. So with that in might, I’m going to focus on my reading/listening comprehension and check in with myself in a few weeks time I think 
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Check-in (#2) March 28th
How does it work?
These check-in posts were suggested by @banditraider and will be made bi-weekly (on Sundays). Please answer the questions over the indicated period (so, the past two weeks). Feel free to respond, whether you’re studying more casually, or even if you’re taking the actual JLPT! It might be a nice way to hold yourself accountable, or just see how you’re progressing over time (if you regularly respond). The format and included questions aren’t set in stone at all, so if you have any suggestions, please reply!
Q1: How have you been sticking to your study schedule during the past two weeks? (period 14/03 - 28/03)
- I have stuck to my schedule 75% - 100% of the time
- I have stuck to my schedule around 50% of the time
- I have stuck to my schedule 0% to 25% of the time
- I do not have a clear schedule, but I have studied Japanese regularly
- I do not have a clear schedule yet, but I am in the process of making one
- I have not started studying for the JLPT yet
- Other (please comment)
0 voters
Q2: Have you made any changes to your study routine (if you have one) or methods during the past two weeks? (period 14/03 - 28/03)
- No
- Yes, I have changed my routine so I spend less time on Japanese than I originally intended
- Yes, I have changed my routine so I spend more time on Japanese than I originally intended
- Yes, I have cut some methods from my routine
- Yes, I have discovered new studying methods that I would like to add to my routine (please comment!)
- Yes, I have decided to switch my focus to a different skill (e.g., listening instead of reading)
- Yes, but I haven’t changed my routine/methods in any of the ways mentioned above (please comment!)
- Other (please comment!)
0 voters
Q3: How confident are you for the JLPT, right now?
- Very confident
- Fairly confident
- Neither
- Not very confident
- Not confident at all
0 voters
Q4: What is your strength in Japanese, right now?
- Listening
- Reading
- Speaking
- Vocabulary
- Kanji
- Writing
- My skills are all at a similar level
- I don’t know
- Other (please comment!)
0 voters
Q5: What is your weakness in Japanese, right now?
- Listening
- Reading
- Speaking
- Vocabulary
- Kanji
- Writing
- My skills are all at a similar level
- I don’t know
- Other (please comment!)
0 voters
All polls close in 2 weeks, just before the next check-in post.
Please leave a comment if you feel a question or answering option is missing/should be changed! Also feel free to leave any other comments you might have!
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TIME FLIES. In the last check-in I noticed the following things:
- Most people were able to stick to their schedule/studied Japanese regularly! That must feel super fullfilling, I wouldn’t know
- A lot of you are around the middle in confidence for the JLPT. That makes sense, it’s still quite far away after all.
- 72% voted that reading was their strongest skill, with 62% of voters voting for listening and speaking as their weaknesses.
I did NOT stick to my schedule at all, and I’m leaning towards adopting a loose schedule (no schedule) for now, and getting into a more strict one closer to July 4th. I do study Japanese every day for around 1 or 2 hours, but I find it hard to motivate myself to read and study grammar regularly. If anyone has any tips on how to get a good routine going for these things, I’d love to hear them! (I’m afraid it just comes down to self-discipline that I currently lack )
I have this too, especially when I read. I think in my case it’s the result of not being familiar enough with grammar (not saying this is the case for you haha, just analyzing why I have trouble reading). Either way, I also want to focus on reading comprehension specifically the coming weeks
WELCOME!!
That’s very interesting haha, at least you can safely assume it’s realistic to aim for the N4 right? 
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Especially for the reading part (plus “connecting the dots” plus “reading comprehension” plus “grammar retention” plus “vocab retention” plus “kanji practice” 
) I can strongly recommend book clubs (I mean those with books, not manga, as only books give you longer sentences and force you to rely on understanding just from the text.) If there are none that interest you right away, you can always make use of one of the older clubs and follow in their footsteps. To study grammar, you could try and make use of the grammar you encounter when reading in order to study or retain it.
It may be intimidating at first, but you’re always welcome to ask questions even in the old clubs. There are quite a few people still sticking around, willing to help you along.
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Thank you, this is really helpful. I’ve wanted to join bookclubs before, but I’ve often had to stop at some point because of random things happening, and I felt bad to drop out/fail to participate from the start. I’m worried I can’t actually stick to it, so your tip on reading books that were discussed in old bookclubs is SUPER HELPFUL. I think I’ll go look through them right away, I have some books that you’ve read before, if I remember correctly.
And as you said, it’s also a really nice way to study grammar more actively.
I’ll remember this!
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Looking forward to meeting you in the book club threads
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Well… I’ve been slacking off a little D:
I’ve been pretty busy and will be for a while, so Japanese has kind of been on the backburner.
But at least I’m still
- keeping up with Anki/my vocab studies
- listening to ~15-20 minutes of whatever in the evening before I go to sleep. Right now that’s often an episode of ハイキュー, and it’s still surprisingly entertaining considering it’s audio only
(I’m familiar with it already, so it’s not confusing). I don’t know if I’m imagining it but I sometimes feel like I actually understand a bit more like this compared to when I actually watch an episode. Huh?? I also feel like I*m getting better at the whole (spoken) slang/casual language thing. Not very helpful for the jlpt but still nice 
But I don’t really read a lot these days, and I kinda miss it. Occasionally I’ll read a chapter of Yotsuba (so cute!!) or something random online but it’s rare. I kind of feel guilty whenever I take the time to really focus on something in Japanese for a longer period of time because I have other things to do -
… but then I just go waste time on social media instead. Might as well have spent that time on reading. Why is my brain like this??
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That’s a good point! I definitely think it’s doable. A lot of the missed questions were between two choices. I feel like I would’ve known the answers if I knew the kanji. Excited for WK to help me with that.
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Well I personally like the x-effect and similar things
That kind of thing where you try to do something (in this case maybe something like ‘read for x minutes’ or whatever) once a day, and then you check off that day in a notebook or in an app or something.
Then you try to collect as many X’s (checked off days) as possible 
I personally only do that for SRS (vocab and bunpro) right now, but it’s working pretty well. Doing srs reviews isn’t exactly my favorite part of Japanese, but it’s effective and not wanting to break my streak has often pushed me to do those reviews, or at least a few of them.
(Streaks are pretty!!)
I also second the book clubs. Also maybe the extended reading challenge on here? I’m not part of it myself (low level and all) but it looks nice and it seems like a good way to set up some reading goals.
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Yay, another book fan 
Also, can recommend the Akutagawa Prize Reading Challenge
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Ooh, I’m interested in seeing what this latest poll looks like when we get more votes, because right now it seems like a more even distribution of study plan adherence whereas in the first one people were very disciplined.
Personally I’m only following my study plan about 15% of the time, but that’s up from 0% at the last check-in haha.
My Anki reviews have been especially difficult bc I found out I accidentally set my maximum number of reviews to 5/day and had it like that for a few months. So when I happened to go in and adjust the settings, it turned out that I had almost 400 reviews built up in my vocab deck alone. 
I’m trying to get the numbers back down again but haven’t brought it under 100 yet, and so haven’t been studying anything new with Anki. Awkward.
Hope y’all are doing better than I am
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I feel like my studying was a bit off the last week or two, just because I kept deciding to try too many new resources. I do think I have kind of narrowed it down to what I think is most helpful now, so I think I can actually build a nice routine. I also think how I approached Genki vocab, just wasn’t working for me and sort of derailed me, so I’ve modified that as well. I totally agree with @NicoleIsEnough about doing books from old book clubs I found a club thread for レンタルおにちゃん and plan to start reading that once my book arrives. It’s actually pretty nice since the vocab list has already been filled out so I can learn words beforehand so when I try to read I can more worry about grammar. @NathaLire as for feeling motivated for grammar I think the best thing would be just to have a set time each day to force a routine? That’s kind of what I’m currently trying to establish and I think it’s been helpful! I also do something very similar to @Scylie where I keep a notebook and have daily goals I mark off.
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I was having a great couple of weeks of studying - this thread really encouraged me to knuckle down. And then Monster Hunter Rise came out. I have taken three days of studying but will be back to work tomorrow.
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