I’ve been using Tobira for the past month or so to go through the N3 grammar and vocab I am missing. I like how Tobira explains the grammar and the dialogues. I don’t like the open-ended exercises they have though. I study on my own so it’s not super helpful in most cases.
Does anyone recommend a more straightforward book with exercises that just give you VERB X and ask you to do something with it?
中級から学ぶ日本語 is a good book i used when studying in a language school in Japan , Pretty good book that i used my way from n3-to N2 and after that is 上級から学ぶ日本語 that is aimed for N1 … pretty nice book to have exercises with the thext they present. I used both Tobira and this one , and helped me a lot to understand japanese way easier.
Doing Shinkanzen Master. They have good reviews and I wasn’t convinced myself at first, but am kind of getting in to them.
I don’t think they are quite what you are looking for, but thought it worth mentioning them as a popular alternative series.
So annoying how the content for each JLPT level is split across like 5 books though (kanji, vocab, reading, grammar, listening).
I had not heard of 中級から学ぶ日本語 will see if I can get my hands on it. I did use Shin Kanzen Master last year when preparing for N4, might be a good one as well. Thanks 
Btw, if you want any books which offer a whole load of drills for N3, here are some honourable mentions:
(There are many books in this series, but I’ve only used the listening ones before).
Brief explanations and a whole load of exam-style questions to practice.
Hey! On a slightly unrelated note, how was your N4 experience? Do you think the available JLPT practice tests are at all representative of the tests’ actual difficulty? As in, someone who could ace the practice tests would probably ace that level of JLPT?
The practice tests are very similar. Do the tests within the same time constraint in the real JLPT. Try to score above the necessary so you have a margin of error. For N4 you need to score 90 to pass, when I did the practice tests I was around 135.
These are mostly JLPT N3 format questions right? Do you have a recommendation for just general grammar questions ? eg. Given grammar topic “ことがある” questions related to that
I don’t have recommendations beyond the books for grammar already mentioned just because I haven’t bought/done all the books that are out there.
But for both the Shinkanzen Master N3 Grammar book and the green book above, they have a few pages covering a few specific grammar points, then a set of questions on those points, followed by another few pages covering another few specific grammar points, followed by a set of questions on those points, etc.
