Did you already pay for and register for the exam? If so, you might as well go full yolo and give it a shot even if you’re not prepared; you may surprise yourself or, at the very least, learn about the formatting and what to expect for your next run.
Have a repetition flash card app, Genki 1 and 2, and set time to write and listen.
1) Grammar is not terribly hard, it follows patterns, so you need Genki for grammar. I am not sure how many chapters it takes to get N5 right now.
2) You need about 800 vocab words for N5 supposedly. You have 90 days, that is less than 10 a day, but you have to retain them, which is harder.
3) You need to write kanji and words so you can catch things they’ll try to trip you on. Is it yokatta or yokata? Which of these kanji make this sound in their non-standard reading?
4) There is a whole listening section. At N5 they do not speak all that rapidly, but if you are having to parse and reparse it in your head, you will run out of time to answer before they start next question. There is something like 10 seconds after a listening prompt finishes before the next starts, so you can’t be going back mentally. You also should be taking notes during this. I recall questions like “How much did they spend” on one of the levels. So you had to track how many they bought and at what price for each item, but guess what, they also note that something was free. So what is the total?
5) Make it a regular daily thing but avoid cramming it. You should focus on things no more than an hour at a time. The genki books have audio for the conversations at the start of a section that you can listen to, these can be good to listen to when you are working out, traveling, etc. You can also do the flashcard apps when you get a short break.
Try to put every kanji in context, every grammar pattern into a standard sentence ,and use memory methods to keep some patterns fresh.
Quick (bad) example was conjugating i-adjectives. Ku nakatta, ku ku nakatta, I do not even remember the song we said it to. Good flash card apps may have hints like “shita” means under or below, so you “get under the shita when you go to bed” might be a way to help remember.
Okay, that is all my (maybe meh) advice! GO GO !
How much time do you have to dedicate to studying? 1.5 months would be quick but if you have enough time to spend each day you can do it. My main tools I used to pass n5 (and then n4) were anki for vocab, wanikani for kanji, and the textbook genki I for grammar, so here’s how I’d do it if I was starting from scratch right now:
Genki I is 12 chapters so you’ll want to be doing 2 of them a week. I’d recommend a 3 day scheduled of:
* day 1, do the anki flash cards of all the vocab for the chapter, and then read the dialog * day 2, read through and take notes of all chapter sections * day 3, do the exercises using your notes from the day before
This gives you one day off a week (do your flashcard reviews that day though!)
In addition to that, I’d start wanikani now for kanji learning. If you do it at max speed, which is about a level a week, that’ll get you to 85% of n5 kanji. You can do a quick review of the ones you haven’t got to before the test.
Outside of those, you’ll want to be doing listening practice (that was the hardest part of n5 for me). Start with following along w/ the genji dialogues, and then closer to the exam, find as many n5 listening sections as you can on youtube.
This is assuming you know hirigana & katakana already, if not take a day right now to get those under your belt. I liked tofugu’s guide to learn them.
Good luck!
Possible but moderately difficult. With 2-3 hours a day of targeted study for the test you should be fine. However, let’s be honest you’ll probably waste 20 days reading post “is it possible to learn x kanji/words in x amount of time” so you really have 25 days.
take a practice test just for context, look up the answers and explanations. if you’re rushing exam prep, you’re inevitably studying to the exam. can’t hurt to see what you’re aiming for.
6 comments
Get going!
Did you already pay for and register for the exam? If so, you might as well go full yolo and give it a shot even if you’re not prepared; you may surprise yourself or, at the very least, learn about the formatting and what to expect for your next run.
Have a repetition flash card app, Genki 1 and 2, and set time to write and listen.
1) Grammar is not terribly hard, it follows patterns, so you need Genki for grammar. I am not sure how many chapters it takes to get N5 right now.
2) You need about 800 vocab words for N5 supposedly. You have 90 days, that is less than 10 a day, but you have to retain them, which is harder.
3) You need to write kanji and words so you can catch things they’ll try to trip you on. Is it yokatta or yokata? Which of these kanji make this sound in their non-standard reading?
4) There is a whole listening section. At N5 they do not speak all that rapidly, but if you are having to parse and reparse it in your head, you will run out of time to answer before they start next question. There is something like 10 seconds after a listening prompt finishes before the next starts, so you can’t be going back mentally. You also should be taking notes during this. I recall questions like “How much did they spend” on one of the levels. So you had to track how many they bought and at what price for each item, but guess what, they also note that something was free. So what is the total?
5) Make it a regular daily thing but avoid cramming it. You should focus on things no more than an hour at a time. The genki books have audio for the conversations at the start of a section that you can listen to, these can be good to listen to when you are working out, traveling, etc. You can also do the flashcard apps when you get a short break.
Try to put every kanji in context, every grammar pattern into a standard sentence ,and use memory methods to keep some patterns fresh.
Quick (bad) example was conjugating i-adjectives. Ku nakatta, ku ku nakatta, I do not even remember the song we said it to. Good flash card apps may have hints like “shita” means under or below, so you “get under the shita when you go to bed” might be a way to help remember.
Okay, that is all my (maybe meh) advice! GO GO !
How much time do you have to dedicate to studying? 1.5 months would be quick but if you have enough time to spend each day you can do it. My main tools I used to pass n5 (and then n4) were anki for vocab, wanikani for kanji, and the textbook genki I for grammar, so here’s how I’d do it if I was starting from scratch right now:
Genki I is 12 chapters so you’ll want to be doing 2 of them a week. I’d recommend a 3 day scheduled of:
* day 1, do the anki flash cards of all the vocab for the chapter, and then read the dialog
* day 2, read through and take notes of all chapter sections
* day 3, do the exercises using your notes from the day before
This gives you one day off a week (do your flashcard reviews that day though!)
In addition to that, I’d start wanikani now for kanji learning. If you do it at max speed, which is about a level a week, that’ll get you to 85% of n5 kanji. You can do a quick review of the ones you haven’t got to before the test.
Outside of those, you’ll want to be doing listening practice (that was the hardest part of n5 for me). Start with following along w/ the genji dialogues, and then closer to the exam, find as many n5 listening sections as you can on youtube.
This is assuming you know hirigana & katakana already, if not take a day right now to get those under your belt. I liked tofugu’s guide to learn them.
Good luck!
Possible but moderately difficult. With 2-3 hours a day of targeted study for the test you should be fine.
However, let’s be honest you’ll probably waste 20 days reading post “is it possible to learn x kanji/words in x amount of time” so you really have 25 days.
take a practice test just for context, look up the answers and explanations. if you’re rushing exam prep, you’re inevitably studying to the exam. can’t hurt to see what you’re aiming for.