Yesss, I got a place for the N4 exam in December. This was a much needed pick-me-up after missing out on an N5 test in July due to the exam center’s embarrassing failure to maintain a working website. I’m strangely happy right now.
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Biggest issue is working under the time pressure. Do a few mock exams, see which types of question you’re good at, and which not so good, and come up with a exam strategy.
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Current status: Waaah! 
overwhelmed!
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We all are bro (or sis, or non binary steel bending robot). It’s just how it is! Exam time cram mode is not for the faint of heart, but we all knew this before we started. So heads down and back to cramming, we all run the same race here, we all run it together!
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Filling in blobs… pretty accurate explanation of every exam ever
I’m in
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Was really worried about getting my listening to where it needs to be by December, and I still am, but I gotta say, forcing myself to actually do the tedious work of listening to something until I can actually hear and understand all of it and then listening to it some more has been working wonders; I’ve seen a noticeable improvement to my listening after just a couple weeks of that. Not sure if I’ll be able to get it good enough in the next two months, but I actually have hope now.
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Missed your reply until now somehow, thanks a lot for the advice 
I tried a few sessions of Bunpro’s new tests with the N5, which confirmed that my strongpoints are vocab (especially kanji) and listening. I will probably switch to the N4 tests in a few weeks, after I’m done strenghening my grammar
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Oh boy here we go again 😵💫 N1 part 2: electric bugaloo
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Passed an N1 practice test! I took one a few weeks ago and failed, then a couple weeks ago I took one of the Bunpro ones but let myself replay the audio because I wanted the badge so I don’t really count that. This is the first time that I felt like I understood a decent amount of the listening section, and passing it was a much needed morale boost, because now I believe that I actually have a chance in December.
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Took another practice test today, had huge gains in my listening score since the one a couple weeks ago (30 points → 46 points). The SKM Choukai and immersion grind paid off. Now my weakest section is grammar, gonna try to make it through the SKM Bunpou book before the test to help refine the base that Bunpro gave me. Feeling pretty good about December though, feel like I have enough wiggle room between my practice test scores and the required scores that even if I preform worse on the actual test I should hopefully still be able to pass.
I also have a hard time not running out of time on the language knowledge and reading section, I’ve been experimenting to try to improve my speed but I still have had to guess on the last few questions every time. If I can get my speed up a bit that should help my score by a few points hopefully.
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My migii practices tests for N3 have been about 135 to 140 or so lately but I’m still worried about the weird JLPT scoring meaning it’ll probably be a lot closer so I’m trying to grind as hard as possible. I think grammar is my weak point in drills but I’m not doing too too bad on it during practice tests. I’m basically able to speedrun the vocab section in a few minutes and get near perfect scores on kanji/orthography so that’s promising.
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Out of interest, what are the Migii practice tests like, and how about Migii as a whole?
I’ve heard some good things about Migii, but tbh I went on their website and saw quite a lot of typos, so I didn’t venture further 
I know there are quite a lot of typos on Bunpro too, but the team usually fix most of the ones I point out at least, so I wonder how it is over on Migii 
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I do like migii overall. Their English explanations do have some typos and oddities but are generally helpful though not every question has a detailed explainer. Some of the listening exercises are poor quality which people ding it for but I think it’s actually helpful to try questions with sub-par sound since I’ve heard the real test audio can be kind of echoey. I think Migii kinda gets questions and audio from all the big practice books so there’s a pretty wide pool of questions.
Their practice tests I think are the real magic since they’re actually timed and it does give you a good breakdown of what to practice. The desktop website even has official JLPT tests from prior years, some of which have missing images or don’t have the underlines for the star questions which is annoying, but they’re useful. Their own tests are pretty rigorous and I feel like they’ve been a good crucible to train in.
Overall it’s a little janky and buggy but I do like it a lot for really drilling down over and over. If you can handle some jank I think it’s a good resource and I feel pretty happy with my purchase of the lifetime sub.
I also recently found a nice website called List of Jlpt N3 exam questions for the years - dethitiengnhat.com which has prior real-world tests and the audio there is better quality and has the timing of the real audio so might be more realistic training. They don’t really track your scores and the scoring split seems a bit different than the real thing/migii but I think in the month leading up to the test I’m going to do one of their tests every day as well and just write down the scores.
In general people say that Migii is a bit harder than the real test which I think is a good thing, and it does seem harder than the tests on the other site so hopefully I’m overtraining and can really ace it.
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Thanks! It’s great to hear your insight, and I might give it another try 
I second that the audio quality is pretty horrific for many questions. To the point I made some Japanese people listen to the same audio and they couldn’t understand it either.
I tried the roadmap feature out where it gets you to study different parts of the JLPT each day, such as vocab and breakdowns of the different reading section questions. The vocab it would throw at you though were very often just repeated words.
So now Bunpro has practice tests and the practice tests on a different site, Todaii are available, I felt like there are better alternatives now to the price you pay.
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Thanks a lot! It’s really useful to know.
The thing I like about Migii is (I think?) they have a whole bank of JLPT-style practice questions for each part of the exam.
So, for example, if you want to practise the grammar “star” questions, there are loads of them for you to keep trying until your heart’s content.
However, I’m just trying to find them on the Migii website and clicking “JLPT Practice”, but nothing is happening
UPDATE / お知らせ
Due to a major surgery I had to take some time off from lessons and because of that my tutor and I both agreed I wouldn’t be ready for N3 with how much more content we have to cover before December.
HOWEVER, the goal is now N2 for next year’s JLPT!
I’m excited to take on this challenge, but I’m taking it a step at a time.
みんな様、頑張りましょう！！！
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Health is the most important thing. JLPT exams will always be there waiting. Wishing you a speedy recovery.
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Of course. That’s why I took the break I needed. I fell behind a little, sure, but I was in no state to focus for a little while. Now I’m back at it!
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Got my test voucher in the mail today lets go 
Been a super busy september and early october but I’m taking some weeks off of work to focus on practice exams and clearing my bunpro queue.
A question for anyone who already did a JLPT: Are you only allowed bring a pencil or are mechanical pencils ok too?
Also what do you recommend to bring to the exam with you that people might not be aware of?
Food/Drinks/Emotional Support?
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