I would like to request that you don’t add English translations to the n3 tests and above… I think from that point it becomes more of a crutch than a help. Part of doing practice tests is also doing your own problem solving afterwards, as well.
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Yep, I feel like you can just use problem solving from day one and just decode Japanese like it’s some kind of ancient Egyptian
how about just having them hidden by default?
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I still dont think they really add much value tbh, seems like a lot of extra work
also I think translation often leads people astray
you know, i thought i heard somewhere that this year’s JLPT tests were going to be “different” somehow. i guess we will know soon.
Translations would be hidden by default and only available at the same time one receives hints for the answers, so it wouldn’t be taking anything away from the experience from those that want the harder, more realistic experience anyway.
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TBH I dont even want the temptation HAHA but fair enough
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After the N4 exam last December, I gave a little bit of feedback in this thread. My conclusion was basically that the difficulty of Bunpro’s N4 mock tests was precisely right, though the Bunpro listening questions about times were harder than the one on the real exam.
If I recall correctly, there were many sentiments that the N3~N1 mock tests on Bunpro were too easy compared to the real exams. I also recall, however, that some were wondering if the 2025 December JLPT was an outlier in terms of difficulty. Some were wondering if it was a strangely hellish exam that doesn’t properly reflect average JLPT difficulty.
I just took the 2026 July N3 and thought I’d share my experience on how it compared to the Bunpro N3 mock tests. I reckon the more data/feedback there is, the better Bunpro can finetune.
My experience was:
- Vocab section - Bunpro tests were almost spot-on, but every so slightly easier
- Grammar section - Bunpro tests were a little bit easier
- Listening section - Very big discrepancy between mock test and real test. Real test was a great deal more difficult.
Detailed descriptions:
For the vocab section, I don’t think any changes are needed. I believe the reason the real test was slightly more difficult is simply that the Bunpro tests mostly follow the Bunpro decks, which I studied extensively in preparation for the JLPT. The real test contained a handful of words I did not know, but I’m somewhat convinced this is just unavoidable. It’s probably impossible to accurately account for every single piece of vocab the official exams throw at you. Interestingly though, one of the words that was specifically tested for is a word that Bunpro has listed as A8. The word happens to be in my review pile.
For the grammar section, the star questions tested some grammar I was not familiar with, and one fill-in-the-gap question specifically tested for a grammar point that is in the Bunpro N2 deck (!). I happened to have only just studied it in the week before the exam. The long texts were about the same level as the Bunpro mock tests, though they might have used slightly harder vocab, I feel. No real discrepancy there. I feel the biggest differences were in the fill-in-the-gaps and star questions.
For the listening section, the discrepancy was very big. The real test had much faster speech and much more high-level grammar and vocab. The Bunpro mock tests are not reflective of this summer’s N3 test. However, talking with people in the JLPT July 2026 thread, the general concensus seems to be that the listening section was extremely hard, so maybe it was a bit of an outlier this year. No way for me to know.
All in all, the Bunpro mock tests were still a fantastic help in preparing for the JLPT. I sure would have been so much more ill-prepared if I hadn’t had Bunpro.
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I took the same N3 test as you did too. I concur with everything you said.
For grammar sections, I feel that the texts were all almost twice as long as the ones in Bunpro.
For listening, I felt like they were using vocab I’ve never heard before although I’m at 10k words with my Anki.
The mock tests definitely helped me prepare and anticipate the structures of the real tests.
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