First of all congrats! As for listening it depends on what you’re getting wrong, but for mistakes around that level it could be that you’re missing verb endings when they’re giving instructions, etc. The verb endings reveal who is supposed to do what without specifying a subject. This all may sound obvious, but in English that information is front-loaded, whereas if you zone-out at the end of Japanese sentences you can miss all that important stuff in the blink of an eye. Also, as far as I know, they always use the same format for the types of questions they give, so mock exams from a reputable source would help you practice looking for the type of information you’ll be asked for.
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Passed N5! It makes me feel even more motivated now.
Thank you Bunpro. N4 here I go!
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Passed N2. Was really worried I bombed the listening section but was much better than expected 
(still the worst section tho). Just very happy to be over that CEFR B2 mark which was the goal 
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Absolutely delighted to see so many passes in the thread.
Especially all the N5 and N1 takers.
I did not pass the N1 this time round.
Passed every section, but did not reach 100 points overall.
Got almost the exact same number of points in each section, so I guess I’m doing something right 
Gonna focus on native input for the year and retake in December.
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The positive attitude is the way to go. Also having similar scores is like you say really no disadvantage I think.
I think if you have like one weak point and focus on that too much you might neglect the other sections, while you can just focus on improving your general ability now (which is way more fun than drilling one section imo). Good luck with your next JLPT!
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Should I be redacting my registration number? All it gives away is where and when you took the test right?
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Exactly my thinking. I’m taking these results as “you’re doing fine, just do a bit more of it”, so that’s what I’m gonna do.
Unfortunately, my results have meant I get to explain how JLPT scoring works to everyone, because the first thing out of anyone has been “how can you pass every section but fail the exam?”
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It’s good practice online to redact things that uniquely identify you, even if the information is something that feels arbitrary like “what your seat number was for a Japanese exam you took in December of 2025”.
A lot of people redact because they have done things like share details regarding the exam online, and they don’t want JA or JEES to associate their registration number with the potentially flaggable posts they’ve made. Even in this thread, people have mentioned having read exam leaks, which both orgs frown upon.
You should decide your own risk tolerance, based on what you post and what you think the risk to you actually is.
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Lol I just realized I didn’t post my screenshot in this thread anyway
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N4 – did all my grammar study with Bunpro.
Also just want to say again that the Bunpro mock tests were amazing for getting comfortable with the test format and judging my ability in advance. Looking forward to trying N3 or N2 this year.
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By the skin of my teeth I passed N4.
2025 was a massive catch up year. I spent most of the time building back up my vocabulary through Anki. Halfway through the year I remembered I still had a lifetime BunPro subscription, so spent the second half of the year getting the N5 and N4 grammar decks done, although I regret rushing the N4 deck as hard as I did as I burn out around November and had to mad dash review before the test. Those Bunpro JLPT practice tests the night and morning before the test were incredibly helpful.
Last year was really a test to see how far I could get with just vocabulary and grammar. I also wanted to test if I needed to bother with dedicated kanji study, and apparently not. I only remember a few questions on the test that even seemed built to trip you up on similar kanji. Maybe it gets worse for N3, but using the Kanji Grid Kuuube addon for Anki, I seem to be absorbing a ton of kanji purely through my vocabulary decks.
This year I’ve started finally ripping the immersion band-aid off and am just trying to read and listen to whatever I can. I feel like I’ve finally clawed my way out of the forever beginner hell and it feels so good.
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Congrats! What do you use for listening practice?
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I passed my N4 and surprisingly it was better than my N5 score! At this point I’m aware of my weakness in grammar (it’s baaad) but I’m glad to see my strength in listening still remains a constant at least 🥹
Hopefully I’ll be ready for N3 by 2027! Not so confident I’d be able to finish all my N3 decks by this year I also just bought a journal and I’m excited to log all my Japanese-related studies in it! I have a lot of N3 vocabulary to discover this year.
Congrats to everyone who passed! And to those who didn’t, continue moving forward because you started learning this language for a reason, and I hope you keep holding that reason close to your heart! I personally started taking the JLPT after several years of procrastination (I wanted to take it when I was 18. I’m 32 now!), currently I’ve only taken the N5 and N4, and I probably could’ve gotten much further had I dedicated more of my time to studying, but sometimes life happens. And that’s alright! We’re all going through our days at our own pace, so it’s okay to take it slow 
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Congratulations. I feel the same way after passing N4. I can finally tell myself, hey, I know something
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Passed N5! Going for N4 (or maybe even N3) this December!
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Not ashamed to admit I beefed the reading big time. I thought I could do better there but I just didnt have the speed to read everything, and ended up blind guessing on most of the second half. I’m leaning towards skipping the July exam and trying to get a really confident passing score in December (seeing as I’d have to go to Canada just to take the July exam anyway, I might as well save some money).
in short: Didn’t expect to pass, learned a ton from grinding N2 content, wish I had done better
edit: how the hell listening was my highest scoring area, I have no idea
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I somehow passed the N2 with 123/180. My weakest was reading with 29/60, the rest were around 45-ish if I remember correctly. I’m pretty happy but I wish I had at least half marks in the reading. But hey a pass is a pass!
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Passed N3!! I took N3 maybe 3 or so years ago, it’s been 10 years since studying Japanese in college (just as a minor) so it feels really great to get this under my belt. N2 this December feels much more achievable now.
And thankfully they are adding Charlotte NC to the December USA test sites, which is local to me!! Seems like Atlanta pissed them off enough to just pick up and move cities XD . I’ve been making the trek to DC to take the exams the past few years so this feels super lucky.
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I passed N4!
2 down, 3 to go!
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All sorts of things I suppose. I have learned slowly since it was just a hobby for a while. I started partially because of music about 3-4 years ago. I listen to Japanese music daily. If that helps or not could be up for debate, but it has helped me reinforce and learn some words before and I just like the music anyways. Having lines from Japanese music stuck in your head a lot probably doesn’t hurt. For a while I would watch anime with English subs and just listen behind the subs and catch words I knew occasionally or look up ones that sounded interesting. I also watch 歌枠 streams sometimes and listen to the talking between the songs. I have only listened to a couple podcasts and those comprehensible input videos compared to everything else, but I think that might be good. I have even watched Japanese ASMR.
I guess in general I would say I just listened a lot where subs weren’t as convenient or not available and that reinforced anything I learned through reading or flashcards more through audio. I have been trying to work on pure reading more though, there are still words I would know spoken, but are a bit fuzzy if I just see them written in kanji.
Moral of the story is any audio content that interests you is good. Of course I also went through the official jlpt question collection audio and also bunpro’s tests as well as a random youtube video on jlpt listening or two. The majority of my flashcards also have audio, but I don’t drill it specifically there. Now I also do listening practice with random Crunchyroll seasonal anime because I am too lazy to pull the subs from somewhere else sometimes.
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