Talk about your experience, the craziness of the test sites, whatever you want. Try to avoid talking about answers outside of DMs as the same test is for some reason used across the entire planet.
Took the N2, but it felt a lot harder than the other time I tried it.
Also, every time the person sitting at the same table as me was marking an answer, it felt like I was going through an earthquake.
I enjoyed bubbling in random answers for N1, and I’m morbidly curious about how low my score will be. Here’s hoping December’s exam isn’t also in the middle of bumfuck nowhere – between the test itself and the commute, today took exactly 8 hours from start to finish.
Hey – why is there no analogue clock in the classroom? I feel like the answer is really obvious but I’ve got no idea why. I get not a digital one but most other exams I’ve had have had an analogue clock right at the front
The room I was in echoed terribly during the listening. Quite fun
Had a tiny chair and a tiny desk. N1 reading was harder than the practice tests and listening was tricky this time around. Vocab I mostly swept through but missed one or two questions I definitely should’ve gotten right. Grammar was hit or miss, passage grammar being pretty easy.
Someone’s phone went off in our room pretty late in the test and the guy started begging the proctors not to disqualify him. They didn’t give us anymore time despite them going back and forth for like 5 minutes.
I don’t feel great about it this time around. Didn’t pass by 2 points last time and would love to be done with it.
I’m looking forward to focusing on the Kanji Kentei, reading the new Murakami novel, and learning Korean. I wanna pass the Korean equivalent of N4 by the end of next year.
Now it’s time for beer and sushi with my partner.
Took many N1 mock exams and have always passed although girigiri. This one is by far the hardest even the listening. The sound echoed, wasn’t helpful with unfamiliar words and struggle to concentrate. Someone sitting near me was clearly sick, wouldn’t stop sniffing, coughing and sneezing throughout the test. What a nightmare. See you in December 🥲
First time at N1, sheggery by the organisers! Started late then got the 時間です after 50 minutes.
Doubt I passed but I know I got some correct at least. Reading and listening had me in the weeds but that’s to be expected, I have not done enough extended stuff. Some questions I enjoyed, others I felt weren’t particularly well written and easy to misenterpret.
N2. The listening part was a bit harder than usually. Other parts felt more like N3-N2, than pure N2. Probably it means I got better than before.
N3 in Tokyo. I posted in the questions thread about taking a watch. Procured a wristwatch, bit there was a clock in the room in the end.
The proctors spent ages farting around in the first part and delayed us. I forgot how much of that there is, in every part there’s lots of waiting.
Coming out of it was like leaving a football match, the roads were mobbed with exam takers walking all over the roads. I thought it was a bit embarrassing, most of them were not paying attention to the pedestrians walking through them and a car was honking furiously at them at one point.
Then at the station, examinees were crowding the top of the escalator so you couldn’t actually get through them without pushing.
The test itself was a bit fast for me. I thought Id be shit at the reading and kanji, but I managed to do quite well except I need to be faster. The listening I thought id do well at but it flew by.
I might have scraped through it but I’m gonna take it again cos there’s way too much in there I didn’t know
Second time taking the N1. Since the first time I’ve read three books and some newspapers but in the last month I haven’t studied at all apart from occasionally reading the opening pages to the same book over and over. コンビニ人間 by 村田沙耶香 is a fantastic book and isn’t especially difficult. Despite that, I think the reading got a lot easier.
Fujisawa venue sucked ass, hot, humid, stuffy, and the world’s most uncomfortable wooden benches.
Took N1. Overall I felt the test was rather difficult compared to old exams I’ve taken. Some lady got kicked out of the room I was in. Found the answers online and it looks like reading was again, my worst part. But overall I felt it was easier due to my studying for it. As well as the building basically not running AC at all…. That wasn’t fun.
Took the N1. It went about as I expected. The reading felt pretty easy, though I ran out of time and had to guess on the last 3 questions. Listening was decent, and the entire language knowledge section was a trash fire. It’ll basically just depend on whether my reading score is able to drag my language knowledge score over the finish line
Totally forgot about it and missed it.
天気がいいから散歩しましょ
Took N3 and didn’t do great because I mainly played Zelda instead of studying.
I took the N1, and literally everyone said that time management is the hardest part, so I just absolutely rushed as fast as possible without looking at the clock and wound up with 45 minutes left over for the first section. Thankfully that gave me time to to over the last part of the grammar section with that passage that felt like it was written in the edo period tbh
Listening acoustics were okay-ish but like man my concentration gave out a couple of times. Overall, I’m nearly 100% confident I passed with a decently high school, but that reading section, while not particularly difficult, was extremely tedious.
Didn’t register for it because the nearest test site is several hours flight from me (yay, Australia), the limited number of slots booked up insanely fast, and who cares about N3 anyways?
Been plugging away at Bunpro and am most of the way through the N3 grammar (I studied no grammar for the mock N4 I did in December and was punished with a 73% on that section, vs mid/low 90s for the others), and have been in maintenance phase with the Tango vocab deck in Anki since mid-April.
I’ve got an international flight coming up in a few weeks, so have printed a mock N3 booklet to kill a few hours. Need to remember to put the mp3s for the listening on my phone.
Will be living in a city with a testing centre in December so may take a punt at N2 even though I won’t be ready. From what I’m reading here it sounds like a good idea if only to get used to taking it! Actual serious attempt will be next July, which if I can stick to my current study routine I should have a good chance at passing.
Was hoping on listening to pull my grades up. But it was so much trickier than i expected.
Edited; took N2
Took the N5 in Osaka. Hopefully third times a charm. Madness as I speak Japanese every day but can’t translate it to tests. Being sick as a dog and it being 32+ with high humidity didn’t help. This time was a better though so fingers crossed, n4 in the winter come what may.
Waaaaaay more people doing the N4. Super noisy no matter all the 静かにくださいs. Three guys in front of me were actively and repeatedly taking, sharing answers and looking at the books before the test started. One guy was told not too multiple times and didn’t receive a penalty yet myself and two others were nearly denied entry because they locked the doors early.
Anyway it’s done and that’s all that matters.
Took N1 and I did muuuch better than my last time!
Still pissed I didn’t go with my gut on a specific question about stress. Hahahha
Listening and reading was easy enough but the 文字・語彙 man.
The JLPT really feels like it is run horribly compared to so many other standardized exams.
1. Why do you not tell me which testing site I’ll be taking it at before I sign up? Ended up at a place 3 hours away from my house…. 2. Why even bother checking our faces against the image we submitted? If I wanted to cheat and have a friend take it for me, I’d just send in his picture instead of mine… 3. Why does it take 2 months to get the results? Most exams can get you the results either immediately, or within a week 4. Why the hell is it only twice a year? Many other exams let you take them whenever you want, like the BJT exam. 5. Why are we still using scantron in 2023? Basically every other exam is taken on a computer nowindays… 6. What’s with this bullshit where question weights aren’t determined until after the exam is already taken? They basically artifically inflate/deflate the results to get whatever pass rate they are aiming at… (Edit: This is apparently not how it’s done, I just had it explained incorrectly to me by a friend apparently)
Was my first time taking the JLPT, took the N2 and I think I passed, but was just a frustrating experience all around…
Took the N5 for the first time and the first part of the test went well but the grammar part wasn’t much of what/how I studied. Where’s trans and intransitive type of questions? Why wasn’t there more kanji?? I signed up for JLPT Patreon and watched videos tooo… Also why did they only repeat the listening questions ONCE?! It was already a hard to hear from the quality of the speakers and for this level also a bit too fast of a conversation.
Took N3. Please, someone tell me what the fish/dirty mirror story was about. I was completely lost. Otherwise did ok. Highlights: My tablemate straight up told me they were looking at my answers and on one section continued writing for well over a minute past the ‘pencils down’. We also sat doing absolutely nothing for 12 minutes, after getting read the directions, before the listening section for good knows what reason.
Was stuck in a room with a bunch of people who stunk of BO. Doesn’t anyone shower?? Seriously…
I should have bought a watch from Amazon or something. I ended up only getting halfway through the reading bc I didn’t realize how much time had passed. It seems to be impossible to find a normal cheap watch these days. Quite a lot of stuff I hadn’t studied for was on the test. Listening actually didn’t feel too hard for some reason. The acoustics in the room were pretty good. I think bc I didn’t get to fill in all the answers for the first part, I don’t think I’ll pass anyway so I guess I didn’t stress the listening section much.
Who else had the lovely experience of the bathroom fire alarm going off because someone pushed the emergency button (presumably thinking it was the flush)??
The guy next me was so nice but legit knew nothing – he kept asking me to show my answers in broken Japanese because he spoke no English.
I’d finish my test and look at his only to see like 15% or less done. I didn’t openly show him my answers but he didn’t start his until I finished mine… part of me felt bad, the other half was like why is he even here? We were writing N4.
As for the test I felt my reading speed had greatly increased since N5, however comprehension is still difficult. I wrote in Omiya this time and the sound quality during listening exercises was mint, like 1000x better than writing in Tokyo. Also I was surprised that there were 5 different rooms labeled N4, full.
I had an overall enjoyable experience no matter my result. Onto N3 studies regardless
Dude behind me kept coughing and making gurgling sounds like he was about to throw up the whole time, the listening section was not fun
Superb experience!
I got to see my friends crying and whining over it 😂
…btw I didn’t take the test this time 🤣
There are many things with the JLPT organisation that I absolutely despise. First of all, it’s always late. ALWAYS. For a country so adamant on time keeping, I’ve never had a JLPT start or finish on time and mainly cos the staff (sorry I mean volunteers with zero experience except 2 or 3) are faffing about with stuff.
Second, it was better today, but in past times the staff have spoken to N1 and N2 test takers in the most basic Japanese it’s actually insulting. I understand speaking simply with N5-3 but at N2 and 1 if someone ain’t understanding natural Japanese, they shouldn’t even be taking the test at N2 or 1 in my opinion. I know my friend experienced this childlike talking back in December and actually filed a complaint so maybe that’s why they were speaking to us properly today, except for the “YAMETE KUDASAI!” the main person yelled at the end of the Reading/Writing test which made me jump.
Personally for me, the listening was way too loud for me today, I actually had to listen to the test with one hand covering an ear. I was in a giant hall so I understand it had to be loud but it was ridiculously loud. They only ever ask if it’s too quiet, not if it’s hurting anyone’s ears from being too loud.
31 comments
Took the N2, but it felt a lot harder than the other time I tried it.
Also, every time the person sitting at the same table as me was marking an answer, it felt like I was going through an earthquake.
I enjoyed bubbling in random answers for N1, and I’m morbidly curious about how low my score will be. Here’s hoping December’s exam isn’t also in the middle of bumfuck nowhere – between the test itself and the commute, today took exactly 8 hours from start to finish.
Hey – why is there no analogue clock in the classroom? I feel like the answer is really obvious but I’ve got no idea why. I get not a digital one but most other exams I’ve had have had an analogue clock right at the front
The room I was in echoed terribly during the listening. Quite fun
Had a tiny chair and a tiny desk. N1 reading was harder than the practice tests and listening was tricky this time around. Vocab I mostly swept through but missed one or two questions I definitely should’ve gotten right. Grammar was hit or miss, passage grammar being pretty easy.
Someone’s phone went off in our room pretty late in the test and the guy started begging the proctors not to disqualify him. They didn’t give us anymore time despite them going back and forth for like 5 minutes.
I don’t feel great about it this time around. Didn’t pass by 2 points last time and would love to be done with it.
I’m looking forward to focusing on the Kanji Kentei, reading the new Murakami novel, and learning Korean. I wanna pass the Korean equivalent of N4 by the end of next year.
Now it’s time for beer and sushi with my partner.
Took many N1 mock exams and have always passed although girigiri. This one is by far the hardest even the listening. The sound echoed, wasn’t helpful with unfamiliar words and struggle to concentrate. Someone sitting near me was clearly sick, wouldn’t stop sniffing, coughing and sneezing throughout the test. What a nightmare. See you in December 🥲
First time at N1, sheggery by the organisers! Started late then got the 時間です after 50 minutes.
Doubt I passed but I know I got some correct at least. Reading and listening had me in the weeds but that’s to be expected, I have not done enough extended stuff. Some questions I enjoyed, others I felt weren’t particularly well written and easy to misenterpret.
N2. The listening part was a bit harder than usually. Other parts felt more like N3-N2, than pure N2. Probably it means I got better than before.
N3 in Tokyo. I posted in the questions thread about taking a watch. Procured a wristwatch, bit there was a clock in the room in the end.
The proctors spent ages farting around in the first part and delayed us. I forgot how much of that there is, in every part there’s lots of waiting.
Coming out of it was like leaving a football match, the roads were mobbed with exam takers walking all over the roads. I thought it was a bit embarrassing, most of them were not paying attention to the pedestrians walking through them and a car was honking furiously at them at one point.
Then at the station, examinees were crowding the top of the escalator so you couldn’t actually get through them without pushing.
The test itself was a bit fast for me. I thought Id be shit at the reading and kanji, but I managed to do quite well except I need to be faster. The listening I thought id do well at but it flew by.
I might have scraped through it but I’m gonna take it again cos there’s way too much in there I didn’t know
Second time taking the N1. Since the first time I’ve read three books and some newspapers but in the last month I haven’t studied at all apart from occasionally reading the opening pages to the same book over and over. コンビニ人間 by 村田沙耶香 is a fantastic book and isn’t especially difficult. Despite that, I think the reading got a lot easier.
Fujisawa venue sucked ass, hot, humid, stuffy, and the world’s most uncomfortable wooden benches.
Took N1. Overall I felt the test was rather difficult compared to old exams I’ve taken. Some lady got kicked out of the room I was in. Found the answers online and it looks like reading was again, my worst part. But overall I felt it was easier due to my studying for it. As well as the building basically not running AC at all…. That wasn’t fun.
Took the N1. It went about as I expected. The reading felt pretty easy, though I ran out of time and had to guess on the last 3 questions. Listening was decent, and the entire language knowledge section was a trash fire. It’ll basically just depend on whether my reading score is able to drag my language knowledge score over the finish line
Totally forgot about it and missed it.
天気がいいから散歩しましょ
Took N3 and didn’t do great because I mainly played Zelda instead of studying.
I took the N1, and literally everyone said that time management is the hardest part, so I just absolutely rushed as fast as possible without looking at the clock and wound up with 45 minutes left over for the first section. Thankfully that gave me time to to over the last part of the grammar section with that passage that felt like it was written in the edo period tbh
Listening acoustics were okay-ish but like man my concentration gave out a couple of times.
Overall, I’m nearly 100% confident I passed with a decently high school, but that reading section, while not particularly difficult, was extremely tedious.
Didn’t register for it because the nearest test site is several hours flight from me (yay, Australia), the limited number of slots booked up insanely fast, and who cares about N3 anyways?
Been plugging away at Bunpro and am most of the way through the N3 grammar (I studied no grammar for the mock N4 I did in December and was punished with a 73% on that section, vs mid/low 90s for the others), and have been in maintenance phase with the Tango vocab deck in Anki since mid-April.
I’ve got an international flight coming up in a few weeks, so have printed a mock N3 booklet to kill a few hours. Need to remember to put the mp3s for the listening on my phone.
Will be living in a city with a testing centre in December so may take a punt at N2 even though I won’t be ready. From what I’m reading here it sounds like a good idea if only to get used to taking it! Actual serious attempt will be next July, which if I can stick to my current study routine I should have a good chance at passing.
Was hoping on listening to pull my grades up. But it was so much trickier than i expected.
Edited; took N2
Took the N5 in Osaka. Hopefully third times a charm. Madness as I speak Japanese every day but can’t translate it to tests. Being sick as a dog and it being 32+ with high humidity didn’t help. This time was a better though so fingers crossed, n4 in the winter come what may.
Waaaaaay more people doing the N4. Super noisy no matter all the 静かにくださいs. Three guys in front of me were actively and repeatedly taking, sharing answers and looking at the books before the test started. One guy was told not too multiple times and didn’t receive a penalty yet myself and two others were nearly denied entry because they locked the doors early.
Anyway it’s done and that’s all that matters.
Took N1 and I did muuuch better than my last time!
Still pissed I didn’t go with my gut on a specific question about stress. Hahahha
Listening and reading was easy enough but the 文字・語彙 man.
The JLPT really feels like it is run horribly compared to so many other standardized exams.
1. Why do you not tell me which testing site I’ll be taking it at before I sign up? Ended up at a place 3 hours away from my house….
2. Why even bother checking our faces against the image we submitted? If I wanted to cheat and have a friend take it for me, I’d just send in his picture instead of mine…
3. Why does it take 2 months to get the results? Most exams can get you the results either immediately, or within a week
4. Why the hell is it only twice a year? Many other exams let you take them whenever you want, like the BJT exam.
5. Why are we still using scantron in 2023? Basically every other exam is taken on a computer nowindays…
6. What’s with this bullshit where question weights aren’t determined until after the exam is already taken? They basically artifically inflate/deflate the results to get whatever pass rate they are aiming at… (Edit: This is apparently not how it’s done, I just had it explained incorrectly to me by a friend apparently)
Was my first time taking the JLPT, took the N2 and I think I passed, but was just a frustrating experience all around…
Took the N5 for the first time and the first part of the test went well but the grammar part wasn’t much of what/how I studied. Where’s trans and intransitive type of questions? Why wasn’t there more kanji?? I signed up for JLPT Patreon and watched videos tooo…
Also why did they only repeat the listening questions ONCE?! It was already a hard to hear from the quality of the speakers and for this level also a bit too fast of a conversation.
Took N3. Please, someone tell me what the fish/dirty mirror story was about. I was completely lost.
Otherwise did ok.
Highlights: My tablemate straight up told me they were looking at my answers and on one section continued writing for well over a minute past the ‘pencils down’. We also sat doing absolutely nothing for 12 minutes, after getting read the directions, before the listening section for good knows what reason.
Was stuck in a room with a bunch of people who stunk of BO. Doesn’t anyone shower?? Seriously…
I should have bought a watch from Amazon or something. I ended up only getting halfway through the reading bc I didn’t realize how much time had passed. It seems to be impossible to find a normal cheap watch these days. Quite a lot of stuff I hadn’t studied for was on the test. Listening actually didn’t feel too hard for some reason. The acoustics in the room were pretty good. I think bc I didn’t get to fill in all the answers for the first part, I don’t think I’ll pass anyway so I guess I didn’t stress the listening section much.
Who else had the lovely experience of the bathroom fire alarm going off because someone pushed the emergency button (presumably thinking it was the flush)??
The guy next me was so nice but legit knew nothing – he kept asking me to show my answers in broken Japanese because he spoke no English.
I’d finish my test and look at his only to see like 15% or less done. I didn’t openly show him my answers but he didn’t start his until I finished mine… part of me felt bad, the other half was like why is he even here? We were writing N4.
As for the test I felt my reading speed had greatly increased since N5, however comprehension is still difficult. I wrote in Omiya this time and the sound quality during listening exercises was mint, like 1000x better than writing in Tokyo. Also I was surprised that there were 5 different rooms labeled N4, full.
I had an overall enjoyable experience no matter my result. Onto N3 studies regardless
Dude behind me kept coughing and making gurgling sounds like he was about to throw up the whole time, the listening section was not fun
Superb experience!
I got to see my friends crying and whining over it 😂
…btw I didn’t take the test this time 🤣
There are many things with the JLPT organisation that I absolutely despise. First of all, it’s always late. ALWAYS. For a country so adamant on time keeping, I’ve never had a JLPT start or finish on time and mainly cos the staff (sorry I mean volunteers with zero experience except 2 or 3) are faffing about with stuff.
Second, it was better today, but in past times the staff have spoken to N1 and N2 test takers in the most basic Japanese it’s actually insulting. I understand speaking simply with N5-3 but at N2 and 1 if someone ain’t understanding natural Japanese, they shouldn’t even be taking the test at N2 or 1 in my opinion. I know my friend experienced this childlike talking back in December and actually filed a complaint so maybe that’s why they were speaking to us properly today, except for the “YAMETE KUDASAI!” the main person yelled at the end of the Reading/Writing test which made me jump.
Personally for me, the listening was way too loud for me today, I actually had to listen to the test with one hand covering an ear. I was in a giant hall so I understand it had to be loud but it was ridiculously loud. They only ever ask if it’s too quiet, not if it’s hurting anyone’s ears from being too loud.