I took N5 when I lived in London, UK. It was scheduled twice a year and there were unlimted places (it didn’t fill up, you just needed to register before the deadline).
Im now based in Los Angeles, and Im trying to register for N4. Aside from the fact that the July exam wasnt even held, I now find that the N4 exam is already full in Los Angeles.
This seems crazy to me given registration opened yesterday. It seems like they could probably 5x the number of spaces and still fill them. Why is the JLPT treated this way in the US? It seems like, unlike London, they make it very difficult for people to take the exam. Why is it like this?
7 comments
At least you can physically get to one of the locations where they hold the exams. I can’t even do that without planning for a multiple day drive or expensive plane ticket. So, despite probably being at N1, I have no way to get the certification without considerable time and expense (even if I was able to register on time).
I thought that the exam was only held in December in the United States?
Edit: Also, if they are still doing it, the way they did when I was proctoring in Los Angeles, the exams are held in meeting rooms in the Japan Foundation’s office building. So the space they have is very very limited compared to sites at universities.
Here in New England, a region with a population of 15 million, there is a single test site open *some* years with 60 spots for N1. I registered within 30 seconds of the site opening and half the seats were already gone.
I was as astonished as you, Japanese surely isn’t that obscure of a language in the US? I mean this subreddit alone has the better part of a million subscribers.
At least this year the US website didn’t crash when registration opened. It sucks that we only get 1 test a year though
Funding issue?
I dunno OP. I took the test in LA from 2016-2019 and the pandemic is what screwed things up. There were times when I would register for tests on the last day during those years. (I started from N2 though so I don’t know if the lower levels ever got full. N2/N1 never were though).
About the effect of the pandemic, there wasn’t a test in 2020 because of covid and slots were super limited in 2021 for covid precautions. The lockdowns probably made the numbers of jp learners explode and now registering for tests is a nightmare even if test sites are back to pre-covid conditions. If you’re willing to travel to take a test, maybe try SF/Monterey/Portland/Denver.
Not sure when you lived in London but it’s not like that anymore. There’s now a limited amount of places and they fill up almost immediately plus costs an actual fortune. It’s been like this since covid and there’s still a backlog of people who want to do the test.