Sure I’d love that 
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Sounds awesome.
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Yeah in London they run out very quickly. I missed out for the July session because when I tried to register the same morning they opened the applications it was already all sold out :(. This time I was ready to register at 8am sharp 
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Had exactly the same experience, made sure to set an alarm for 7:45 this morning so I was there in time. I’m registered for N3 now, hopefully the motivator I need to get it together in time!
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Surely they could lower the price and accept more candidates …
It just seems like a win-win.
They make more money overall, more potential candidates are satisfied, the test gets a better reputation, etc.
Yeah it is not exactly cheap at the moment
Candidate numbers are presumably capped by available space at the location. Accepting more might mean needing to increase the cost per candidate to cover additional operating costs.
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Yes, I guess my point is that they should find more locations or hire more rooms at existing locations. There are plenty of rooms available on a Sunday all across the earth. Cost per candidate should only go down on average if more candidates take the test (e.g. the cost of hiring 8 rooms should be less on average than 8 times the cost of hiring 1 room).
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SOAS uses its own venue for the tests. More candidates and locations would have other costs/requirements (eg people to actually run them on the day) that might be limited or harder to scale up.
It may well be possible to run things for more candidates at a lower cost per person, I would certainly like to see it, but I doubt it is an obvious win-win.
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I signed up the min the N5 went live and was able to get my spot in Boston. Its a three hour drive but still the best location for me to go to. I’ve been mostly using WaniKani since February and just started to really get into Bunpro the last couple weeks even though ive been signed up for months. If i can get grammar up to par i think i may be alright. Listening will probably be the hardest part for me.
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Awesome see you in December!
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Great see you in December! Can post on here closer to the time to sort out a meeting place seeing as we’ll all be finishing different times.
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It might be worth to make a dedicated post to not bother all those who are taking the exam in other cities and hence are not interested
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Ok maybe for your particular venue it’s too difficult and there’s nothing they can do and it’s totally justifiable that it gets sold out within hours and leaves huge numbers of people unable to take the test and they can do nothing about it.
Zannen.
Come on though, surely it’s not beyond the realms of possibility to enable more people to take the test.
I’ll leave this here, because clearly we will not change each other’s minds.
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What I found particularly disappointing is that many venues don’t do the exam twice a year. It’s already annoying to have to wait six months, but one year is really far too long. When I missed out on London I was willing to travel to a few other places, but none of the cities I could go to that weren’t sold out already offered a session in July.
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I feel like SOAS has a number of rooms that are already set up with audio equipment for the listening section, like it’s their standard language teaching classrooms. Additionally, a lot of the rooms seemed to have Japanese support staff, presumably university placements? I remember because the lady in our room went crazy at someone still writing after the time limit. Would not mess with her! Slammed her hands down on the desk top, ‘STOP WRITING!’ I properly clutched my pearls!
These are probably the soft-cap’s at the moment. Having also missed out on July’s by 20mins, I completely get the frustration.
They do seem like solvable problems.
I’ll have a chat with the staff when I’m up there registering and see what’s what. I wonder if there’s been a spike in demand since covid lockdowns. I wonder if they are cognisant that it’s a problem. I wonder if there is a secret conspiracy to limit the number of japanese speakers in the greater london area for when godzilla bursts out of the thames and destroys Canary Wharfe and the only way he can be stopped if is 1000 N5 level Japanese speakers all cry だめだ in unison, and we’re not able to because the numbers were capped.
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Good luck! Sounds like you’re definitely on track to pass N5 in December.
I just took N5 in July and am from Boston myself (but live overseas, hence being able to take the test over the summer). Fwiw, I finished Bunpro N5 just before the test and found the actual grammar section on the test to be much easier. Listening was definitely a different story!
Anyway, good luck again!
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Good luck to everyone who managed to get a seat in December’s test!
I feel like I just wrote a message in the thread for the July test. Time flies!
Anyway, I’m going to sit N4 in Hong Kong. Little nervous because there’s only a few months until test time and I’m way behind on grammar and I’ve got a tin ear for listening. Fortunately, I’ve got my kanji down quite comfortably (Mandarin is my 2nd language).
Let’s see how it goes!
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If you want an extra resource to prepare yourself for the test I wholeheartedly recommend Migii. it has hundreds of exam questions (including the dreaded listening section) and there is a feature to plan your study to review everything in time for the exam.
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Glad to see someone else recommend this. I found this app through different means and was hoping it would be good. I signed up to sit for N4 in December though and really wanted the practice. So I am glad to see the recommendation for this!
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