I took the N2 in July as well! But I found it the exact opposite. I found the first half much easier but the listening was brutal.
I also felt like there wasn’t a question where I definitely knew the answer except for in Question 4. This was really weird as listening is usually my best 
I’m pretty sure I failed the N3, unfortunately. The vocab and grammar sections were easy, but the listening was extremely hard. It’s strange to see so many other people saying the same thing here. I really don’t understand any good ways to increase listening comprehension besides listening to podcasts and watching videos in native content, to be honest. I was doing these things as well as studying through kanzen master books. The words just come too fast and blend together, and I don’t know what was said. Well, hopefully I’ll be better prepared next time. Not sure if I should retake N3 or start studying for N2.
If I’m being honest my listening score on the N3 shot up after I got my shit together and really focused on studying vocabulary using Memrise (back when I still used Memrise).
I live in Japan and speak it everyday so I have an advantage. However despite that being the case I was only passing the listening sections whenever I took N3 only by a few points (34 points and then 34 points again). It was only after I started consistently studying and reviewing vocabulary did I hit 44 points and finally passed.
The decks I used were fairly big, and I’m not sure where they got them but I suspect it was the list of N3-tagged vocab on jisho.org or something. I also continuously reviewed a large N5 and N4 deck as well.
In this time I actually did very little listening practice. The biggest thing that pushed me over the edge was vocabulary and being able to quickly recall it.
I took N3, which was my first time taking the JLPT test.
The Vocabulary section was VERY easy, but the reading section tripped me up because there were grammar questions (including the star one, which was actually easy, except for one) that I did not expect to be there. I found it weird that they weren’t in the first section, and was thinking that perhaps we got lucky. NOPE! Anyway, if it wasn’t for those damn grammar questions I would’ve been able to finish the entire reading section. Now I know that I need to get faster at reading comprehension. I still think I did decent though.
However, the listening comprehension section was hit or miss. There were few questions were I was confident I got the right answer. I just hope I got lucky, and managed to still get enough points to pass the test. It was a good experience though. Next time I take it, it’ll be the N1 test in two years.
BTW, even though the instruction sheet said that we weren’t going to have a Clock in the room, we actually did!! And the proctor even gave us 5 min warnings during each section. That was such a relief!!
My N3 went pretty fine, but taking this test is extremely exhausting. They spend so much time explaining the strict rules in Japanese, and because of little time you have to deeply focus for the entire time.
Vocabulary went great, reading was pretty good (some difficult questions and little time), listening was rough. If I fail, it will probably be because of less than 19 correct in the listening.
By the way, we had a clock, but it was placed all the way right of the front in a very big lecture hall, so the four person sitting in the front to the left could not see it, including me! I am very glad I got to borrow my friends watch.
That sucks dude. You guys got it rough with instructions being explained in Japanese, on top of not being able to see the Clock properly.
My focus was not there either by the time we got to the listening portion. I kept catching myself getting distracted, for no apparent reason. I can only conclude that it was due to being a little stressed out by the fact that I wasn’t able to fully complete the last few questions of the reading portion. Oh well, it’s not like I need to pass the test or anything. I’m just doing it for myself.
N5 went ok. Kanji section was a breeze, the reading and grammar was oookk, I struggled for time and the questions where you have to rearrange the words to make a sentence I find really hard.
Listening didn’t go well at all. I panicked a bit. It’s because you only get one shot at each question. I’m pretty gutted as about 90% of my studying went into listening practice.
My sister, who I’ve been waiting for 3 weeks to call me about who is hosting Christmas lunch this year, decided that it was the perfect time to call me during my exam. Thank goodness I’d turned my phone off otherwise it would have been a very frosty family gathering
N3 was really interesting this time. It felt a lot harder than it was in 2019… the star questions were a bit brutal.
Overall I finished everything on time…
The listening section was quite interesting / difficult in sections.
Very 50 / 50 if I have passed or not haha
My N3 feedback is similar to others.
Kanji and vocab quite easy.
Grammar OK, reading OK even if I panicked a little bit at the end because of time. I managed to answer only one question randomly.
Listening: catastrophic. It was very hard, I only tried to guess the answer most of the time.
Honestly I am not sure to reach the 19/60 score in that part…
Didn’t say what a great life experience it was though. Being a bit older it was lovely to be back on a university campus surrounded by other people interested in the same thing as you. There was a nice sense of camaraderie with people wishing each other good luck. It was such a wonderful mix of people. I guess it’s pretty ageist of me to say but I found the number of really young people fantastic. I spoke with a girl and her mum chaperone. She was sitting N4 and is the same age as my kids. She was quite shy but seemed really touched when I asked which test she was sitting and made noises of admiration when she replied. The girl sat in front of me in the test was only a year older than my daughter.
If you’re reading this thread and you’re on the fence about sitting an JLPT test, as I was at one time, I would say definitely go for it.
N4 in Detroit went as I expected. Our room was very spacious, quiet, and nice. Our proctor and aides were also very pleasant and gave us 5 minute warnings. I think vocab went fine, grammar was OK, but I also immensely dislike the star questions. As I expected I bombed the listening. I just can’t yet comprehend full speed Japanese without getting hung up. It’s like my brain buffer fills up trying to figure out a piece and throws the rest out.
Wait did they explain the instructions to y’all in English?
Yeah I find that one of my biggest issues with listening is when my brain gets caught on a word I don’t know – because then I tend to miss the rest of the sentence while I’m stuck going “wait what does [x] mean”.
To be honest, I haven’t found a full-proof way of avoiding that particular pitfall yet, but I try to keep a mental eye on myself when listening to something. If I notice I’m sticking on a word, I try to refocus on listening to the rest of the sentence rather than stewing on that one part. Sometimes the rest of the sentence gives me context to figure out the missing word!
And sometimes it doesn’t. And then I just mentally cry a little. 
We had the instructions explained in English, yes. I guess we had a very kind proctor, and a Japanese teacher. What level were you taking?
Yes, over in NY they read over the instructions in English
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
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.
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.
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!
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.
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?