I just want to ask if someone used quartet vol 1 to study for their jlpt *n3* test and found it helpful. Was the book good enough to prepare for the test or just using jlpt targeting books would be better? Thank you in advance
It’s a great GROUNDING to get your feet wet, especially longer readings. It lacks a bit in listening IMO (I imagine the in authors’ focus on making this a classroom textbook, they meant for the teacher to provide extra listening material.
Assuming Genki 1&2 and Quartet 1 include kanji which appear on the N3 with no repeats, you’ll have about 110 more to learn.
Assuming that you’ve used Genki and there are no duplicates, you’d also need to learn about 1,300 vocabulary items as well.
Grammar should be covered. Genki has about 135 patterns and Quartet 1 teaches 55. According to JLPT you need 182 grammar patterns for the N3, but I don’t know if that’s cumulative or not.
I would get A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar and some extra prep books, like Shin Kanzen or Somatome. Those should help fill in the gaps. Give yourself plenty of time before the actual JLPT to study and review.
I think it’s a both and type of situation. Textbooks and test prep books have completely different roles. Textbooks aim to improve your language skills overall via explanations and activities. They sometimes roughly align with an exam, but are not tailor made for the exam. Test prep books aim to help you review and prepare for a specific exam. Review is the key word here. Prep books assume you’ve already learned this material at least once and only aim to refresh your memory and clarify tricky parts via breif explanations and drills mimicking the exam.
Ideally you’d want to use Quartet to learn the material, then use a test prep book like Sou Matome or Shin Kanzen Master to review the material and fill in gaps in your knowledge in the months leading up to the exam
2 comments
Tutor here.
It’s a great GROUNDING to get your feet wet, especially longer readings. It lacks a bit in listening IMO (I imagine the in authors’ focus on making this a classroom textbook, they meant for the teacher to provide extra listening material.
Assuming Genki 1&2 and Quartet 1 include kanji which appear on the N3 with no repeats, you’ll have about 110 more to learn.
Assuming that you’ve used Genki and there are no duplicates, you’d also need to learn about 1,300 vocabulary items as well.
Grammar should be covered. Genki has about 135 patterns and Quartet 1 teaches 55. According to JLPT you need 182 grammar patterns for the N3, but I don’t know if that’s cumulative or not.
I would get A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar and some extra prep books, like Shin Kanzen or Somatome. Those should help fill in the gaps. Give yourself plenty of time before the actual JLPT to study and review.
Edit: [read my review](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/oqjjzs/quartet_textbook_series_review/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
I think it’s a both and type of situation. Textbooks and test prep books have completely different roles. Textbooks aim to improve your language skills overall via explanations and activities. They sometimes roughly align with an exam, but are not tailor made for the exam. Test prep books aim to help you review and prepare for a specific exam. Review is the key word here. Prep books assume you’ve already learned this material at least once and only aim to refresh your memory and clarify tricky parts via breif explanations and drills mimicking the exam.
Ideally you’d want to use Quartet to learn the material, then use a test prep book like Sou Matome or Shin Kanzen Master to review the material and fill in gaps in your knowledge in the months leading up to the exam