Yes, over in NY they read over the instructions in English
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How’s everyone in terms of studying after the exam? Kind of weird deciding what to focus on, but I’m just going to read through some books with my teacher I think for better comprehension
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I’m honestly not taking it too hard and using it as a reason to study harder. I’m working through the N2 stuff now. I giving major focus to vocabulary and a more deep understanding of the grammar. I’m not sure what you are personally struggling with as far learning goes, but for me, it’s the listening. When I took N3, vocab, grammar, and reading were all easy; the listening was the only thing that jerked me from behind.
Upon knowing this, I know that my studying habits were good for the other areas of the test, and I’m just using it as a bigger motivator to continue what I did in the past and rearrange how I approach the listening comprehension section. The best thing that came from it is that I now know what an actual JLPT test is formatted like and how it is proctored. I think this will be the nail in the JLPT’s coffin, and I’m going to hammer it in when July comes.
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N4… In Kobe, Japan 
I kinda figured that all the instructions being in Japanese was part of them testing us on Japanese, rather than just…the fact that I’m in Japan, lol.
I’m still trying to cover all my bases, to be honest, because they all need improvement. I’ve got Wanikani for kanji (and vocab, let’s be real), and I’m hoping to try and work my way through some manga I bought for reading. Listening is mostly my daily life and whatever movies/shows I try to watch these days, lol.
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I think we might have passed by each other depending on when we arrived. I took mine in Ann Arbor. You and I are on the same boat with the listening. The star questions become easier with time and the more you learn about the Japanese sentence structure. I was horrible with them to the point that I would get more than half of them wrong inside of my JLPT study books. Over time, and especially through exposure of sentences through bunpro, I started to get better at it. It just takes time, and we have about 7 months until the next JLPT. We’ll do it!
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I’m simply taking the test as a goal to pursue and to track my progress. Now I know that I need to speed up my reading comprehension, so I’ll do a lot of that, as well as work on my listening. Even though the reading section of the test was easy, I just wasn’t fast enough to finish it all in time. That said, listening is definitely my weakest point, which I knew even before taking the test given I rarely watch anything in Japanese. The weird thing is that I do perfectly understand some Japanese people, but others I’m like…what?? It could be a dialect/slang thing though. Either way, I need to find interesting content in Japanese. That’s the main reason why I don’t watch much of it in Japanese (outside of Japanese teaching videos, of course), and prefer watching content in English instead.
However, I’m not retaking the N3 exam if I failed it. My plan is to use this information to prepare for the real goal, which is passing the N1 level test. Obviously things will get a lot harder, but at least I have a better idea of what I need to do. Plus, I’m giving myself 2 years to prepare for it, which is plenty of time. Anyway, that’s the plan.
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My main takeaway this time now that I am much closer to N1 level is that the N1 questions are not particularly difficult but the time limit puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on you and that extra pressure gives you no time to think rationally about your answers. I made lots of mistakes just because I was rushing. I think if the test was an hour longer then the pass rate would increase significantly. For me, it doesn’t feel like I’m being tested on my Japanese ability now but rather whether or not I can beat the clock or not. I mean, in real life does it really matter if one person can read an article in 2 minutes but one person has to spend an extra few minutes to understand it?
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That’s kinda how I feel about the time limit too. On the other hand, I understand why the test has to be that way. They are meant for people who want to work in Japan, so they require people to be able to have native level comprehension skills, which matter if you’re in a field like Medicine were messing up could be deadly (though that might be an extreme example).
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As JLPT doesn’t test any output I think it isn’t particularly useful for working in Japan either. I use it as a means of motivation to keep studying slightly more advanced words and grammar, but really the best thing for anyone who wants to work in Japan is to drop the JLPT study and work on output. If you can express your ideas clearly and use keigo and so on, that would demonstrate a considerably higher level of skill than N1.
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Agree with this so much.
The JLPT definitely has its place and may be used to gauge someone’s overall ability roughly/quickly, but being able to output Japanese consistently on a high-level is something that is not being tested and arguably drastically more difficult than just passive understanding, since you would need to be able to use grammar patterns, vocab, 敬語 and so on with the correct nuances for the respective situation either spontaneously in conversation or more methodically and deliberately in writing.
Not trying to throw any shade whatsoever, but I’ve met people who passed the N1 but their speaking ability was, considering their JLPT level at least, severely lacking e.g., weird/stiff Japanese, wrong pitch-accent, and I’ve met people with N4 - N2 who were able to naturally and fluently communicate their thoughts and feelings while sounding great in regard to pitch-accent.
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Sure, but you guys can’t deny that having the JLPT N1 certification on your resume will give you a serious advantage over other foreigners who don’t have it, especially when a company has to sift through hundreds, if not thousands, of applications. And even more so when you also have to compete against Japanese people. Anything that makes you stand out in a good way, is worth pursuing.
I’m not completely disagreeing with you guys. Just saying that there’s merit to completing at least N2 level (though N1 is really what people should aim for) if you plan to work in Japan in any industry that calls for it. At least initially you’ll gain an advantage. After that, it’s up to your communication and writing skills (at least in terms of the language itself), of course.
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Precisely. The problem with having actual meaningful certificates is, that the jlpt isnt one. Like most japanese certificates. Thats why I find it amusing that they value the papersheets so much, when they can`t even evaluate them properly in the first place.
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Same, took N4 and the listening part destroyed me. They speak natural fluent to each other, so i guess the only difference between n4 and higher level is the pool of vocabulary they can pull from.
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To add on this, when I took the test in Norway last year it was both in English and Japanese. Now, in Japan, it was only in Japanese.
I am obviously pretty used to stuff being only told in Japanese by now, but the partly annoying part was that they did not at all try to explain it in a semi-simple N3 way, but used many specific and advanced words and grammar. Moreover, they spoke very fast (and the mic turned on and off) and long, so in order to understand anything at all I had to really focus. However, I did not want to waste energy on understanding pretty useless instructions when I was already exhausted from the test, so I basically just did not pay attention most of the time.
Judging by the majority of people who used their phones in the breaks, despite the instructor repeating tens of times that the phone needed to be shut of outside the lecture hall, most of the other N3-takers also did not pay attention to this.
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Ah, I want to add something I found pretty annoying.
Before the grammar and reading section started, there was a silence for about three to five minutes while waiting for the exact start-time to be reached, which was suddenly abrupted by the instructor semi-shouting "始めてください！！"This was so loud that I got socked, and this also happened at the end of each section when the silence was abrupted by a loud “時間です！！”, without any prior verbal or physical sign or warning. Very unnecessary to startle the test-takers with these instructions when they could have just said it calmly.
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We had the explanation of the routine for the day all in native language, and since its not part of the test itshelf, i find it fairplay to be that way. Imagine the taxidriver who drives you there starts speaking japanese with you, if you get my point. We had to put our handys at the frontdesk, and if the handy of an participant would go on or vibrate, you would be exterminated from the test.
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Yet another useless point: The listening section was accidentally started three minutes early, which made the instructor decide to rewind it and wait a minute to start it again. It was a bit unclear what happened at this time and if we had to close our tests again, but suddenly the other instructors kind of aggressively gestured everyone to close it. Somehow the test finished 4 minutes late…
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Aren’t you glad though? Imagine how much harder the JLPT test would be if they also included a writing and speaking section when it appears that a lot of us are already having trouble with the listening section 
. I don’t know what the percentage of people passing N1 is, but I’m sure that number would be significantly lower if they included those two skills as well. Personally I wouldn’t mind the speaking part as much as the writing part since I don’t plan to live in Japan, so that’s a useless skill for me.
Anyway, I’m sure part of the reason why Japanese companies value the N1 certification is because it shows dedication, and that you’re serious about working there. That’s besides the reasons I mentioned earlier (them having to sift through hundreds of resumes and picking the ones that stand out from the crowd).
EDIT: I did a quick search for the JLPT pass rate and it’s pretty low lol. People overseas seem to have a slightly higher passing rate than people in Japan, which is interesting:
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For me personally, it wouldnt benefit me much, since you would need besides a good jlpt certificate, also work in the right workfield to have a realistic chance.(As me for example, who works as waiter, I wouldnt be appreciated at most workplaces there.)The Jlpt N1 as you descibed, is so hard and get failed so often, because you get even very unusual things teached aswell, which even japanese people often don t know, and that on a very ornate language. Its just that you dont get half the language not tested.I find it a little sad to see people who go to language school courses in japan for 2 straight years, specialise to aim only for the jlpt 1, pass it, get the certificate, and get hired by a japanese company with complete broken japanese. Its not like I want to say their japanese is bad, its more that i want to say that its a complete joke in what state u can pass, if you keep in mind that it should be the highest level you can absolve. Yes, you need to require atleast jlpt 2 to get anywhere in japan if you plan something there, but thats the reason why i think, the test should improve in terms of quality in the first place.
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Just want to add a story in regarding the star questions before I forget to tell it:
I showed N2 star question example from the JLPT website to my friend’s kid and a few of their friends who happened to be over playing their Switch. There were about 3 of them and all 3 came out with different answers and I suspect the one kid that got it right really only got it right because he just guessed and chose an answer his friend didn’t.
I also showed the same question to my girlfriend, a native speaker. She got it right and I asked her to explain why and she just laughed and said “no!”
I kind of feel like that section may be just kind of weird in general.
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