In desperate need of study routine suggestions to get me to N4 …

Japanese
#1

皆さん、こんにちは :blush:

I just took the N5 in July and managed to pass (by 2 points). But my study has always been a bit haphazard, so would like to start studying for the N4 with a bit more structure.

I have tried みんなの日本語 I, Genki I and Tobira Beginners I. Minna and Genki were for online classes I had and while they were fine, I prefer Tobira when I’m studying by myself as I really like their videos. So I think I will stick with Tobira Beginner II for a textbook.

I also used and liked the Tango N5 1000 vocab book. So will get the N4 1500 book.

I have both BunPro and WaniKani for SRS. I have Anki, but I dislike it, so never end up using it :no_mouth:

So … what would a good study routine look like to get me to an N4 level (ideally in 7 months)? Eg. what proportion of my time should I be spending on any one thing? What am I missing? My brain is all over the place at the moment and instead of just doing something, I’m frozen and doing nothing :tired_face:

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#2

First of all: 7 months is plenty! So you will probably have a lot of bonus time for repeating things, making mistakes and focusing on mock tests :slight_smile:

I would start slow with a focus on SRS first. Making sure you get all the N4 grammar and N4 vocab here on bunpro into your review queue. I didn’t see a Tango deck, not even in the community decks, but you could always make your own tango deck and share it with the community later if you prefer that over bunpro vocab or premade anki decks :slight_smile:

Don’t foget doing those reading exercises in parallel to your grammar here on bunpro, those are great for practice!

Depending on how fast you’ll be adding stuff to your review queue, I would start adding specific N4 reading material halway through (for slower pace) or after having added everything (faster pace), but feel free to read as early as possible when you enjoy it :slight_smile:

Depending on how good your listening already is, I would maybe start by adding N5 listening materials, switching to N4 whenever you feel comfy, but at the latest, when you’ve added all N4 materials to your queue.

I wouldn’t start with mock tests until 1 or 2 months before the actual exam, but would focus on them the closer the exam date comes.

To summarize: Start with the SRS of your choice and focus on that in the beginning, having reading and listening as a small part supplement. When you have everything in your queue, just do your daily reviews and switch focus to reading and listening. When the exam draws near focus on mock tests.

Why haven’t I mentioned textbook work? I love textbooks, but I don’t think they give more value than bunpro when it comes to N4 JLPT tests. If you enjoy them, feel free to switch from bunpro N4 grammar to the textbook of your choice grammar deck and do the exercises in parallel. This will be slower, but obviously also deepens your understanding more and you’ll practice writing.

Why I haven’t mentioned kanji? I don’t know anything about those :sweat_smile: Wanikani isn’t sorted by JLPT Level, but if you head over to their forum, they have lists which level is suggested for which JLPT level.

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#3

This is so weird, I also passed N5 in July by a two point margin :sweat_smile: I’m hoping to get to N4 by the July 2026 exam. I don’t know about you but after I’d sat the exam, I was completely disinterested in Japanese for about three months! So I’m back studying with earnest now (I actually reset Bunpro to help me go over what I’d inevitably forgotten.)

Currently, I’m doing extensive reading using graded readers, doing listening practice on YouTube and generally attempting to immerse. My focus here is trying to make everything I do FUN. I totally burnt out using Bunpro and WaniKani, the reviews built up and got too stressful, so I’m really trying to avoid that. Just keep myself excited to learn and excited to progress. I also started an in person course (it’s a sort of upper-beginners course so it’s not covering anything new for me) but it’s made me realise how insanely bad my output is :joy: so I’m also trying to practice that, chat with a friend who’s also studying N4 alongside me, maybe use Tandem app to have basic conversations.

From your post, I’m going to find a copy of Tobira Beginner II and just keep making sure I am being consistent, and again, ENJOYING my studies. Not just relentlessly smashing through N4 vocab lists and anki decks and reviews that I don’t actually understand, I just have memorised what Bunpro wants me to say. It just doesn’t work for me.

私たち、がんばりましょうね、キャスリーンさん！
一緒に勉強つづけて、がんばろ〜:sparkles:

2 Likes
#4

Yeeeee I love fun!

Reply for post
What about:

  • Taking N5 material that you can read without lookups
  • doing one lookup each page and going deep into kanji (looking up other words with kanji mb you know it already and just can not connect), looking up a lot of sentences with that word. 5-15 minutes.
  • writing that word in your notebook so you can review it latter.

And gradually upgrading reading material’s difficulty so it’s always on point.

This way you train the kind of reading skills jlpt wants and not getting yourself into srs affairs, while making a lot of connections instead of just bruteforcing cards.

But whatever you choose, just setup yourself an everyday goal (if you can not work without it yet) and try to active it, then after a few days you’ll inevitably want to adjust it according to your experience.
This was the hardest step for me, learning how to changing everything on the go

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