FYI: They provide special accommodations for disabilities if you request it in advance (being hard of hearing should qualify if you can provide medical documentation).
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Yeah, Iāve been meaning to get a hearing test over here in Japan anyway, since itās been uhhh. Probably about 18 years since my last one back in the UKā¦ I donāt think Iāve had any since primary school.
Having a look at the last complete test data from Dec 2019, it seems that N4 was the one with the lower pass rate, but N1 was the lowest in Japan.
Anyone heard anything about results day?
They said 8ęäøę¬ but I know they sometimes come out a bit earlier.
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@matt_in_mito Hey 
From the official JLPT site:
āThe online Test Results Announcement for the JLPT 2021(July) is available for viewing from 10:00 am on August 23 (Mon) to 5:00 pm on October 31 (Sun) (Japan Time) 2021.ā
So 11 days left until the results announcement 
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ćŖććļ¼
I looked at the homepage of the JLPT site but thought it would be the top news article.
I never understood why it takes so long, since all they do is feed the answer sheets into a computer.
Anywayā¦ looking forward to seeing how I did.
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Iām so relieved! I was really worried I would fail the listening part because of my trouble hearing that CD player. I canāt believe my listening score is actually quite good, maybe it got scaled up.
First time taking the JLPT after 100% self-study, feels like a big personal milestone to finally try and pass one of these tests even though itās only N3.
I took a break from grammar study after the test so I guess I better stop neglecting bunpro and start tackling my mountain of reviews.
I hope everyone else is happy with their results.
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Pretty much exactly what I expected. I lost all my concentration during that reading section. Anyway itās fine, bring on December!
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@Moyga ćć¤ććļ¼ļ¼
Congratulations, thatās actually a pretty amazing score! Now time to make a start on your N2 textbooks!
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I failed N1 too. I improved on reading and listening but went down in vocab and grammar. Sometimes happens haha.
Getting 100 points on N1ā¦ Man, I have no idea how to get there - haha. I havenāt felt any progress in my Japanese since passing N2. Doesnāt help I am balancing a full time job and essentially the time of a part-time job doing some other skill learning on the side to help me get a better job. 
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I was literally the exact opposite to this haha
I think this is pretty typical, because we just donāt use the N1 stuff in our daily lives, so you almost have to live and breathe JLPT.
Tried to pass JLPT N4, got 89/180.
I feel like destiny is trying to tell me something.
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Thanks! I bought two N2 reading textbooks but I havenāt even opened them yet. Iām pretty curious to see how different the readings are in N2 and N1 but also kind of dreading it.
I know 3 people who tried N1 this time and only one person passed, but he graduated from JET last year into a full-time translation job at a Japanese company so I guess he has basically been studying Japanese all the time every day through his job.
When I study for N1 I imagine that I would probably need to read real news articles a lot and try to make flashcards for all the words I donāt know. Not sure what kind of readings are actually in N1 but it seems like there is an expectation you can read native news?
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Just reading news isnāt going to cut it for N1. News is very straight. Itās mostly just about delivering facts in a concise way because that is what news has to do. N1 reading is a lot of pondering, opinions and metaphors which you have to understand and interpret the meaning of. I would attempt to read some light Japanese philosophy, opinions pieces and some wordy and descriptive stories. For example, I found Murakami Haruki bad reading practice for N1 because his writing style is very straight, but something like Bokkochan by Shinichi Hoshi would be better because he isnāt so literal.
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Thanks for the advice thatās really interesting. I didnāt know they put more abstract and poetic writing styles in the higher JLPT levels.
Looking at the sample questions here: For Examinees: Let's Try Sample Questions! | JLPT Japanese-Language Proficiency Test thereās one piece about being prideful, one about how humans are similar to machines, a comparison between doctors and artists in terms of the need for criticism, then two different articles about a new dictionary compared in terms of tone(one plain and one critical), a piece about the intelligence of crows, a piece about history largely recording major incidents but that most peopleās time is spent avoiding incidents and finally a document about scholarships for an indonesian farming student.
All exciting stuff.
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Congratulations! Now Iām curious - did you ever take any practice tests for the N4 or N5 along the way?
Thanks! I never took any practice tests for N5 or N4, I mostly studied Japanese without thinking about the JLPT until a few months before the N3 exam and then I bought some of the Somatome and Shinkanzen Master N3 books and some practice tests and ran through them which mostly felt like reviewing and consolidating.
I did try to add all of the entries from N5-N3 on Bunpro and I did learn all the words in a few vocabulary books though.
With regard to grammar knowledge, Iāll say that I find studying grammar painful and I have never run through a textbook like Genki and I didnāt even use the Somatome or Shinkanzenmaster grammar books either. I also havenāt learned most of the grammar points in my Bunpro reviews properly. I just added them all to be aware they exist at a very shallow level. My explicit knowledge of grammar points and rules is very weak.
Despite that, from just learning a lot of words and reading and listening to Japanese, I found that I was able to understand all of the readings in the N3 textbooks, practice tests and the real test and almost never got answers wrong.
So, Iām just throwing that out there for people who struggle to study grammar.
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I think news articles are good for N2, but my take is that N1 has more specialist stuff. When I did mine, there was a scientific article about the mating of butterflies, a psychological article about how children react to people around them (Iām paraphrasing - it was almost 2 months ago and I canāt remember clearly) and a guide for buying season tickets for a theatre.
I donāt have any recommended authors since Iāve never been a big reader (in Japanese or in English) but obviously recommend the Kanzen Master textbooks.
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I also scored highest in listening in my N3 when I expected it to be my lowest. Shouldnāt have taken my regular listening to podcasts and music for granted.
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