Just curious. I lived in Japan for 3.5 years and worked as an ALT at a public junior high school. Over there you could take the JLPT twice a year, once in the summer and once in the winter at a nearby university. Now, by today’s standards, that’s not bad. Every six months is an okay way to test one’s abilities.
But in the US, not sure about everywhere else but I imagine it’s the same, you can only take this exam once a year. On top of that, it’s only “cheap” if you live in cities it’s being conducted in which are few and far between. Last time I took it, I spent like $400 on the plane ticket and at least $200 for the hotel. Add the $100 test fee and I spent nearly a grand on this fucking test.
That costs more than double what it takes to get certified for CCNA and almost costs as much as it takes to get certified in IT ABOVE that level. It’s ridiculous.
Whenever I bring up the fact that this test could easily be done in a testing center people bring up cheating but I’m like okay… what cheating are people going to do that isn’t done already? If they cheat on something as little as a JLPT cert how does it help them if they aren’t actually that level? You can’t cheat your way through a fucking conversation or job interview in Japanese for Christ’s sakes.
Please tell me I’m not the only one who thinks how ridiculous it is that the JLPT is conducted in this manner!
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It’s not cheap, and plenty inconvenient. IDK what goes into being a testing center, but they should reconsider the criteria.
I’m curious what it takes to run a test Center. Every test site outside of Japan *could* do it twice a year but many chose not to. I wanted to take a July exam but the University of Zurich, my nearest site only does December. I’m going to drive three hours up to France because Strasbourg does both.
It certainly feels like it should be able to be a more digitised registration process and be offered more on demand like other tests.
Once per year in the US. Stupid.
This is the first time I’ve heard of this stupid price. 1000$??? In my country, the exam take place 2 times per year in multiple locations, the fee is 25$, and if you live in big cities it would take approximately 1.5 hours (cost 10$) to get to the testing location from your home.
On the other hand, the fee for taking English test like IELTS is 200$ and only effective for 2 years in contrast to JLPT and that is ridiculous.
Honestly I do agree, for me I live in Canada but where I live we only have it once a year and I unfortunately do not have the funds to fly to another part of Canada that does it twice to take it again if I do ever fail. Really wish it was consistent and just have the test twice a year for everywhere
It’s only affordable if you live in (relatively) major city in Japan as well. I live in a small town and the test is only offered in the main city in my prefecture. It takes 4 hours one way to get there so I have to spend the night. I just booked my hotel today and while, granted, I am booking *a little* last minute, I was still shocked by how much hotel prices have gone up. I ended up having to pay 20,000 yen/night. Once you factor in the 15,000 yen round trip train ticket and the cost of the exam itself, the amount I’m spending on this exam is ridiculous
(side note: hotels were a lot cheaper before the yen dropped and the borders reopened. I used to be able to easily get a place to stay in this city for 5,000-7,000 yen/night. Everyone’s raised their prices though to take advantage of foreign tourists coming from countries with stronger currencies)
In Canada, we can take it once a year. It’s $70 CAD for any level. Fortunately the test center is 5-10 minutes away from me but if you also live in the same city; its pretty accessible for anyone.
If you don’t then yeah, looking at around 1-2 hours or more of travel to get there.
I do think it’s a bit old fashioned but that’s basically par for the course when it comes to how Japanese companies act. In Europe the situation is a bit better, but that’s probably just because it’s more densely populated. And whether the test is offered once or twice a year is up to the individual test center.
The kanken is much worse. On the other hand, the BJT is computerized so that one is a bit easier to take (you still have to go to a test location though).
Hello. I am from India, where the JLPT is held twice every year. The registration cost for JLPT N5 IN JULY 2022 was around 20 dollars. This year, I am going to give N4 in July. The registration cost this time increased, and now it’s around 25 dollars. There are only 6 or 7 centers in India, and I have to travel to another state and depending on the mode of travel for me, can cost between 70 to 100 dollars and accommodation can cost around 30 or even more. The total cost averages around 140-180 dollars, just for a day of examination. (I have converted the Rupee to Dollar, and the mode of transportation I have considered is air travel and train 2AC, which you will be lucky to find a berth if it has not been completely booked).
Although it is cheaper compared to the US, I still think it is expensive just for one day of exams. They should add more centers and make it a bit convenient for people to take the exams. Or, they could try and switch to online exams at qualified centers, which I believe are in abundance.
As far as I know, JLPT score is based on participants results. They kinda collect all answers, judge how hard questions were and give according scores. This whole scoring system is probably quite complex, but it’s also kinda reasonable. Like think about this, even in the best possible situation like N5, who is expected to know ~800 words, how to judge these 800 words? Do we give the same list every time? Now imagine it’s N1 with it’s 10-15k vocabulary. How to judge individual ability, if we force them to learn words we pick? Like one person likes to watch anime on TV, while another likes to watch news. Their vocabulary is going to differ significantly, so we say one knows Japanese and another doesn’t? It would be ridiculous.
Instead JLPT kinda gives a range. There are simple questions and there are very hard questions, so if person at average crosses specific threshold, it’s a pass. But we also need a bit of statistics for it, to judge the difficulty.
In the UK most uni’s offer it once a year, but in London its every 6 months. It’s the same price for everyone whether or not they live in the city.
I took a couple ETS exams related to teaching on computers at a center in the past year* and it was great. Obviously the number of computers is small but you can schedule your test almost every day. Imagine if the JLPT was like that….
* tests related to teaching, in English, on a computer in Japan!!! What a world!!
You underestimate how much of bureaucracy Japan is, OP. Or in other words, anything official (and the JLPT is considered official) must be done in a very specific, correct way.
Now think about the logistics of transporting official JLPT staff members by plane to a country that’s HUGE compared to Japan. And to do that twice a year? It would cost the organization too much money.
So taking the test is closer to “Prove your dedication.”
It’s to cover for the fact they reuse several test questions. If you could take the test every month, the increased number of chances for you + the increased number of tests they have to publish would greatly increase the chances you could just memorize answers through doing the test alone (whereas currently people currently have to explicitly go out of their way to memorize past answers by using websites and stolen test sheets)
Someone’s making money
Ha of course there’s people defending how ridiculous the JLPT system is
Thank Zeus I have the n1 and no longer have to deal with the turmoil that is brought upon by the JLPT test taking process