I'm asking this because in the past, I didn't go through vocabulary decks when I learned words. Maybe in the beginning I did for the basics, but there wasn't a JLPT N5 list or Core 2000 stuff like that. And it was like that until I took N4 last year. When I reviewed for 1.5 months for N4 (not from scratch), I was able to read 95% of content so I didn't exactly specifically studied for more vocab for N4. But since they say you need around 3750 words for N3, I considered to use decks so that I wouldn't miss important words and went through Bunpro's list, memorizing all the words listed in their N5 and N4 lists. In the middle of their N3 list I was getting doubtful about the legitimacy of the list and found another one which is Kanshudo. I know there was a core 6K deck, but I also saw that Kanshudo Usefulness list considered them in their own ranking as well.
So a few months before N3 exam this year, I went through words #1 to #4000 in Kanshudo and created flashcards for them. To my shock I only knew around 60% of the words there. Despite them being high in the frequency or as they call it Usefulness level, I have never encountered those words before.
So right now I still have around 1000 words to study from that 1-4000 Kanshudo words, and it looks like at least 1000 more from the 4001-6000th.
I'm also making sure to go through all Shin Kanzen and Sou Matome list. And add vocabs from the manga I read and words I hear from anime. I'll take N2 next year July and hopefully I be better equipped.
by ManyFaithlessness971