JLPT December 2024

Japanese
#182

stuttgart germany n2 reporting in.

this was the worst jlpt experience i ever had (my 4th). not only was the test itself superhard. a few rows behind me somebody seriously started munching cornflakes or something. iam serious. i looked several times to the officials who did NOTHING. but that wasnt enough. during the listening part there was some protestmarch right before the testing site. i couldnt understand 3 listening part questions because of wild angry shouting next to the building and the proctor didnt do anything. no pause.

god damn if i fail and its a close call…

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#183

I do wonder if there is anything about contingencies in proctors’/invigilators’ guidance.
I get the impression that there isn’t and they just either ignore anything that isn’t in their guidance or make up what to do on the spot.
I have accumulated a few stories about it.
This time, I got the seemingly semi-obligatory random “JIKAN DESU!” 45 minutes into the 105-minute paper, and then absolutely no apology, no time compensation for the confusion and loss of focus while trying to read, etc. Just totally pretend it didn’t happen and expect everyone else to do the same.

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#184

How long were the breaks for everyone? I feel like ours were super short, about 8 people got disqualified because they didn’t come back in time after a break.

Also, I definitely think I failed the N3 reading section, which is a real shame since I felt so confident after vocab. It felt like I suddenly couldn’t understand the laguage at all.

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#185

Dude on the table next to me was slamming his eraser on the desk all throughout the listening section to the point I couldn’t hear some of the questions…

It was a しょうがない moment when no proctor does anything

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#186

I felt the same way. Absolutely crushed the first portion then fell apart.

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#187

I think I’m pretty lucky about my test location. It’s at an institution with a strong Japanese language program so the proctors are very serious about ensuring timeliness, consistency, and especially silence during the listening.

I’m disappointed because the N2 listening wasn’t terrible this year (compared to when I took it two years ago) but I had no time for practice tests this past year (new job, lots of work travel, etc.) so I was completely out of test taking habits. My stamina was shot and by the time we got to listening and everything was just blurring together. Oh well. At least I anticipate being able to allocate more time to preparing for next year.

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#188

Done with N5. I would say looking at stuff that the University of Hawaii had an excellent Japanese Language program. Like everyone I am scared the listening sections kicked my ass but we will see in March. Now two more days of Honolulu before frozen Alaska again

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#189

I got my breaks for the most part but the 2nd was 9.5 min cause we started 30 seconds late.

I kinda wish they would just make one test sheet. Doing my name, registration number, and birthday 3 times was a bit unnecessary

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#190

I honestly don’t know if I got enough in listening and the funny part is you can almost get 33 percent by guessing but gotta guess a bit better

#191

Around 30-35 minutes each.

#192

That’s so sad and inconsiderate, especially with the protest march! My proctors (Stuttgart, too) even offered to pause the audio if I had another coughing fit and they paused it when one of us had a question.

Also, the grouping was very interesting? There very several large groups (N1, N2 I think) and N3 was just 6 people in each room.

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#193

At least I’m not the only one who had that impression of the N5 listening test!

Walking out of the room, a couple of guys behind me were all like “man, that listening test was the easiest of the sections” and I was torn between bursting into tears or turning around and punching them.

(I took my test in Perth, Australia, which had 215 people taking tests. A record apparently!)

2 Likes
#194

Oh man, that’s seriously inconsiderate! I was in Stuttgart too. (Oh yeah, and our proctor sitting next to the radio was eating something also during listening). They should’ve paused at least for that… but at least now I know the reason for all the police presence after I left (N5).
True that it’s kinda strange that the hardest tests had the largest group sizes, ours were just about 8 people per room too.
Fingers crossed you got a pass mark, protest and all!

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#195

I can guess what the protest was probably about as well … so inconsiderate

1 Like
#196

Well its done (this time I actually made it). I wish I was more confident but at least I’ll get a result

#197

I also thought the listening part of N5 (for me at least) was too difficult.
I don’t know if it was too hard or I was underprepared (or both) but my test was increasingly bad. On the first part I was very confident. The second part the first few questions were hard for me, but a bit better on the rest of the Grammar. Then the Reading was a bit difficult, but I think I got a few correct ones, but probably just barely enough to don’t fail the test so i need the first and third to be better. And the came the listening… I think half of my answers were mostly random, and a few others were just barely understood or with a 50% chance, and on very few I was confident with the answer. So I’m not confident on passing the test. But anyway, I will keep on learning!

#198

There was? I didn’t hear a thing lol

The first brake was something like 30 minutes and the last one was 50 or 60, not really sure. Nothing long enough to actually leave the building and come back in time.

My lack of reading ability killed it for me. Different font and reading too slow made me guess a lot of the answers :confused:

Yeah, my group was 6 people, first N3 group, but I thought the other groups were bigger? I think some of the N1 -N2 groups were 50+ people iirc.

Damn guys I did not notice a thing. And I am kinda surprised there are so many people here that went to the Stuttgart test. I asked on WaniKani for a meetup but nobody replied xD
Should have asked here :smiley:

What also surprised me were the hafus taking the exam lol

#199

Maybe your group was finished by the time the protest came to the VHS? We did some shorter breaks of about 20, 30 minutes so we got lucky and finished early (before 5). When I left, the protesters were a few hundred meters down the road.

I was surprised by the sheer number of protors, to be honest! So many N3 groups and each had 2 people watching over 5 - 6 students :sweat_smile:

#200

Yeah, we finished something like 17:30 or so.

Yeah there were indeed 2 people watching us but I believe one was from the VHS while the other person was from the JLPT or some Japanese organization because one of them didn’t know anything about Japanese or the JLPT.

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#201

Guess I’ll go ahead and share my experience, too. Took the N2.

Grammar/vocab was actually a little easier than I expected. Ripped through it, and was feeling pretty good.

The reading was absolute brutality. On the official Japan Foundation practice exam, I scored ~80% on the reading section. Same with the shinkanzen master practice exam. I have no idea what I got on this. Maybe it was the (un)luck(iness) of the draw, but this was significantly more difficult than any prep materials out there. Generally the actual exam is less difficult from what I’ve heard.

The spiral continued into listening. I know plenty of people will pass so this is just an excuse, but I genuinely couldn’t understand half of the conversation because it was played on a tiny portable radio from 2002. Sounded like I was underwater. Guess I shouldn’t have done all my listening practices with noise-cancelling headphones…

Honestly have no idea if I passed or not. If I did, it’ll be close.

Also, everyone was extremely respectful and the test was handled very professionally at my testing site so props to them!

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