Hah! Perhaps we’ll end up in the same test center. Though I’m just a dispatch company scrub. 
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Are you registering for N2 or N3? If your listening for N2 is 13/60 on Bunpro mock test, then improving it is truly neccesary, because the actual listening is way harder.
I improved my JLPT listening by mostly getting actual transcript of the real test audio, reading them again and again, takes note of special and frequent phrases and just like that I get better at JLPT listening (mind you, this is not so much for improving actual Japanese listening, but it does help). I feel like JLPT has its own patterns and ways of testing.
For reading and grammar/vocab sections, I suggest that you get an actual N2 test of recent year, and really try to do them in 100 mins, and then you can judge yourself on your passing chance. Many people can do well in reading/vocab/grammar part if they can take their time, but JLPT does not give you such time leniency. Time management is actually a huge part of JPLT.
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thank you for your advice! i’ve practiced some of the n2 listening on youtube as well, but it’s very here and there for me. because i haven’t learned in a graded way per-se, a lot of my bases feel patchy in some areas and not in others. i’m going to take your advice with the listening and scripts - i have the shin kanzen series for n2, the reading is good for me speed wise as i’m a fast reader, but i’ll start practicing more seriously with the listening.
i think i will keep studying and register for the n2 and see what kind of score i get, as i don’t think it’s worth it to take n3 just to get a paper saying i’ve passed (i don’t need it for anything immediately, this is just for personal achievement, and being able to use it as a marker for japan/japanese things in the future: i’m pretty sure only n2 or n1 are relevant?)
Yeah, most work permit from foreigner requires N2 at least. And yeah, taking on N2 is the better choice I think.
Just work on a solid base of vocabs and speech patterns, and you can achieve N2 in no time.
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When you take N2 it has two portions of the test with no breaks and looking at the same booklet. 110 minutes of Vocabulary, Grammar, and Reading is the first portion, and then 60 minutes of listening is the second portion.
There is a break in between.
The Vocabulary, Grammar, and Reading portion will count for two scores, a “Language Knowledge” score out of 60 points, which includes the questions from Vocabulary and the questions from Grammar, and a “Reading” score out of 60 points, which only includes the questions from reading.
The Grammar section includes some medium length reading passages, but each of the three subsections of the non-listening portion of the test are marked on the side of the page as which section they are, so that you will know which medium length reading passage is counting towards your Language Knowledge score, and which medium length reading passage is counting towards your Reading score.
You need at least 20/60 on each of the three sections to pass, and you need 90/180 overall to pass (so you need to average 30/60 on each section).
The question scores are weighted by some unknown method, so the scores are not straight X% of questions answered correctly (one reason to aim for at least 80% on practice exams).
Despite reading the exam guidelines many times, there were some of these things that I didn’t understand until I took the test.
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頑張ります！I made some anki decks today based on collocations, argument patterns, 評論語彙 etc. hopefully this will be of assistance with the reading in both speed and getting past the notorious ‘trick’ types the N2 seems to be famous for.
thank you for your encouragement and belief!! i found a great playlist on YT with scripts too for listening - drill timeee
this is a great breakdown, thank you. the scoring indeed seems mysterious so aiming as high as possible is the key. do you have any other advice for the timing? i think it’s only half an hour break here in finland between the reading and listening - how to recharge? i will tackle the long questions first in the reading paper for sure, bc i can do kanji etc in a flash and it’s not much mental effort thankfully.
edit: even if we don’t pass, we get our score right? does it give a breakdown of that or just ‘you shall not have passed’ vibe
Regarding timing.
The break was around 20 minutes here, but there was some drama with the rules at the start of our test which delayed the start of the test, so maybe it was supposed to be 30 minutes.
For pacing. I also was able to speed through the vocabulary section, but then I got caught up trying to get everything correct on the grammar section and I didn’t have enough time for reading. I even looked ahead at the beginning at all of the questions, and still didn’t leave enough time for reading.
However, I have a feeling that some of the more difficult grammar questions could be some of the “heavy hitters” in terms of time efficiency to weighted points scored, so I don’t think my strategy was the worst, I’m just not very fast at reading yet.
If you have the Shin Kanzen Master books I think it explains these tactical ideas.
Regarding scoring.
Yes, you get to see your score breakdown even if you failed, but note that vocabulary and grammar are not separated there.
For the break recharging: drink water, get some sweet and salty snack at minimum and use the toilet. If you have some time and the other people in the room seem nice, chat with them, a little mutual cheer up in tough situations always helps.
I brought a sandwich with me since the exam started at 11 and people just started to chat in the break periods, we shared some snacks, it was a good experience.
I’ll go for N2 for the first time this year, this will be the first time I do the JLPT in Japan, so this will all be a new experience for me. I’m only half way through N2 grammar according to BunPro, but with the experience of N4 and N3 test I know that not everything will appear on the test but covering as much as possible is best.
Been studying for ~6 years, no real goals. think I’m gonna finally give the N5 a shot this year. even though I’ve been studying for a while and this is the easiest level, I’m bad at tests so I am not so confident. Still, gonna try and sign up and give it a shot.
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Hey, looking at your level I can’t do anything but think that your level could be somewhat above N5, what do you think about trying out one N5 and one N4 mock tests here on bunpro?
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I probably oughtta. Like I said, I am not good at tests and even though I’ve a pretty high level (and ~level 47 on WK), I’m still not too confident. I went to Japan last year and it was like getting punched in the gut. I remember trying to drunkenly hold a conversation with a bartender when I was the only dude in a bar late at night and even though it was kinda fun with me speaking broken Japanese and him speaking broken English, I knew I had a waaaayyysss to go.
But yeah, I’ll try and give some mock tests a shot before the sign-ups in late August, thanks. Like I said, this is all for fun, not looking for a career or anything with these tests.
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I don’t know you of course, but I think you’re way underselling yourself by only aiming for N5. I highly recommend going for N4 - unless you have all this time been purposefully restricting yourself to N5 material, for whatever reason.
The JLPT is a test you can practice for really well - and I don’t just mean the contents of the test, I mean the test itself. The bunpro mock tests are a good start to get to know the test, but there’s other mock tests out there, both paid and free (there’s official mock tests for sale too, I’ve tried one for N4 before taking the test). The test structure is always the same, so you’ll know exactly what to expect.
After the first few you can make your test experience as close as possible - stick to the time, listen to the audio only once, have some background noise during the audio (because there may be some at your test facility, too - mine was next to a church which had bells going every 15 minutes…).
Your experience in Japan is not unexpected, and I’m pretty sure that if you managed to have a conversation with a native at all, you’re above N5 (no matter how broken it was). N5 is really the basics; with your bunpro and wanikani levels, you are 99% certain at N4 level at the very least.
In the end it’s your choice of course, I just think you could push yourself a little bit more and gain that confidence of doing the test at a higher level than you were expecting!
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Yay, just mailed in my application for the December N3.
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After passing N2 last December, I’ll be taking N1 in Stuttgart this year. They have a new venue, so let’s see how it compares to the old one 
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For those in the southeast US, Atlanta is (actually) back this year and Charlotte has been added 
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After my first attempt at the test last month, I knew I had some work to do around grammar, and that I was doing the listening portion of the test incorrectly. I meant to re-take the first test with some of these things in mind, but life got busy and I didn’t get around to it. Today was the day I had scheduled for myself to take the second practice test. I’m freshly home from a week long vacation visiting family, and was pretty far behind in reviews. I was doing them as I was able, but not enough to keep the review queue managed. I haven’t quite gotten fully caught up on reviews, but I should be good to go tomorrow.
Took the practice test today anyway, just to see how I’m doing, and I passed!! I clearly need to work on listening practice some more, but that is not surprising to me at all. I did way better on grammar than the first practice, and only missed one on vocab!
Registration for the N5 for my area is on Aug 28, so I’ll definitely be registering and going to the test with confidence. I have 3 more practice tests that I can take on here over the next few months, and I aim to strengthen my listening and grammar, with the larger focus on listening.
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That vocab score rocks. Very nice! With more than three months left to keep improving, awesome to see that you’re on course for a big win.
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Initially I didn’t want to attempt the JLPT this year and was intending to take N2 (assuming I could get there lol) in December 2027, but I have been thinking about whether taking N5/N4 this year wouldn’t be a bad idea to test the waters. Basically to see what the testing environment is like. Since the place I intend to take the JLPT in only holds it once a year, I would probably be sad if I failed next year because, let’s say, I didn’t anticipate the speakers sounding horrible or taking the seat in the middle of the classroom wasn’t sufficient to listen properly lol.
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