JLPT July 2025

Japanese
#104

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. @Moegie84, congratulations on getting in! Nice work! And thank you very much for the tip too, I appreciate it very much, but it looks like I’m definitively too late. I had my sister over yesterday and we had a great time playing games and eating pizza, and I only saw your message just now, the next morning. I don’t see a way in anymore.

While I’ve resigned and accepted that there’s no JLPT for me this summer, I’m still somewhat in disbelief over the amateurism of Leiden U’s work. This concerns people’s futures, you know? You’d think the oldest and possibly most renowned university in the country would take things more seriously. What a disgrace.

Well, I’d be remiss to let this discourage me from working toward the future I want, so time to grab a drink and hit the books. And it does give me a sense of comfort to be able to read everyone’s nice comments here. I’ll be rooting for everyone without regrets once July comes around. :+1:

5 Likes
#105

And don’t forget Dublin looks very nice in December! All the lights, decorations everywhere, live performances in the pubs, Guiness :stuck_out_tongue: I finished another study at the UCD and will be in Dublin in the first week of december for the conferring ceremony… and from what i’ve read on the UCD website, the JLPT exams are also held in the first week of december. If i manage to study up to level N4, I may take a shot at the N4 exam at UCD!
Hotel is being paid for by my employer so that should work out :slight_smile:

The earlier you book your flight, the cheaper it gets! Same goes for booking hotels, there are some nice affordable options on Booking (depends on your budget of course).

I got in at Leiden U but i’m seriously considering to take future attempts at the UCD.

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#106

Agree on that man, really disgraceful…

Spending some quality time with family is always a win haha :smiley:

You could still keep an eye out for the Belgian sites, they will be testing in december or if you’re feeling bold- fly over to UCD at Dublin.

In the meanwhile lets keep on studying! Maybe it’s my age, but N5 ain’t that easy for me :open_mouth: The structure of japanese sentences and grammar is quite a challenge because it differs so much with English (or other north-west european language). I’m sure i’ll manage eventually! Going strong with WaniKani, Genki 1 and BunPro :facepunch:

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#107

I’ve indeed got my sights set on Ghent, Düsseldorf or maybe even Dublin. :wink:

Indeed, let’s keep working at it! :muscle: I completely agree. I, too, find that the fundamentally different structures make Japanese hard to learn. But when I see that through hard work and passion it does gradually start sticking, it feels very motivating.

I was planning on taking N5 too. I guess N4 is going to be my first shot at the JLPT now. Maybe even see you there when December comes around. :slight_smile:

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#108

Ah nice, good luck with the ceremony and congrats on your masters! I did my bachelors in UCD and my masters in the Netherlands, we’re sort of opposites. But yeah if you’ll be there anyway it makes perfect sense, if you feel confident enough to do N4 by then. I’ll hopefully be there for the December exam this year, N2 this time. Not too confident but I should at least have covered all the N2 grammar points on bunpro by then.

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#109

100% agree. I had the same issue with the website, spent 2,5hrs getting my registration through…

What worked for me was logging in with the account that was already registered. For some reason the English website would keep on saying registration was full, but after logging in and out again and changing the language to Dutch it somehow worked.

It’s too late for now, but if next year’s the same nonsense (which I guess is quite likely), this may be something you could try.

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#110

Taking the N2 in July and hopefully the N1 in December, scored right on the edge of passing for one of the N1 practice tests but did terrible on the grammar, so now I have myself in the antsy “oh my maybe I can actually pass both but I don’t know” state.
Think I’ll work through the N2/N1 Shin Kanzen Master books while finishing off the N1 grammar points in Bunpro this year, feel like I’m cutting it really close for prep. Good luck to everyone else on the July, looking forward to taking it in London, never been.

4 Likes
#111

Definitely keeping this tip in mind. Thank you very much!

3 Likes
#112

Hi, and apologies as I’m new to bunpro, but I see people comment on not only the July test, which there isn’t one in the states, but there is a December test.
I’ve been studying for a few months now and I believe by Dec, I’m on pace for the N4 test. Would anyone recommend that I skip the N5 test and see about taking the N4 when registration opens up?
I plan on taking N5 practice tests in another month or so to really see where I stand.
Any advice is appreciated. My overall goal is to be at an intermediate level (or better) by February 2027 as some friends and I are planning a trip to Hokkaido.

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#113

Personally, I would happily choose which level to sit based on practice test results. Last year, I found copies of past tests and sat them like I was genuinly taking the exam; The results were consistent and quite accurate to the score I actually received when I sat the real test.

In terms of practicality, the N5 is not really useful for anything other than tracking your personal progress. If you have a chance at skipping it and getting n4 instead, I definitely think you should.

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#114

Hey all,

I finally got off my butt and registered for the N1 this coming July and while I feel really good about kanji and grammar, I’m still looking for more reading practice.

With that in mind, does anyone know of any good YouTube channels and or other resources available to help prepare for the N1? Of course I’m going to start doing some practice tests when May rolls around, but for now I want to continue to focus on pounding out reading practice and more and more vocab.

Any comments/resource recommendations would be super helpful! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

3 Likes
#115

i still am not sure of the significance on december 7th. im am not american and neither is the JLPT

#116

However it does relate to Japan, but I honestly don’t see anything wrong with having the test that day. That was a different era on both sides of the Pacific. But I do think it’s important to the world. Had it not been for that day, we would probably all be living in very different times.

#117

That comment was a case of my fingers being faster than my brain when typing. Obviously in hindsight I shouldn’t even have pointed it out. I’ve no intention of derailing the thread topic, so please just disregard it.
Sorry.

#118

Best thing to get better at reading is actual reading. So I’d recommend picking up a Japanese book and maybe join a book club on BunPro, WaniKani or Lear Natively forum.
Also, it wouldn’t worry that much about finding a N1 or N2 level book since you are already familiar with the grammar and kanji. Since the reading speed for basic is probably one of the bigger points in the N1, anything should do. And then 1 month before the actually test do as many tests from previous years as you can.

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#119

Absolutely I agree with you there! That’s why I’m currently reading a couple of Japanese books for that exact purpose :sweat_smile:
(星の子 by 今村夏子 and バンクーバー朝日 by テッド・Y・ フルモト)

I’m just wondering if there are any resources that explain little tips and tricks for the reading sections of the exam. Just in case I’m running out of time and I don’t have the freedom to read the whole passage I was wondering about ways to just skim and look for precisely what the question is asking me (fake it til you make it sort of 感じ)

Thank you for your advice!

1 Like
#120

I think you might find the Shinkanzen Master Dokkai textbook useful. It is split into sections based on the question types that comes up on the test. If you’re struggling with reading quickly enough then my suggested study strategy would be to calculate how much time you want to spend on each question type (the front of the textbook explains what question types come up and how many of each type normally appear) and then, when doing the questions, first try to answer within your goal time limit and then stay on the same question after the time limit until you’re 100% sure you’ve got the question right. Make a note of the time it took you to answer the question confidently vs the ideal time at the top of each page and also note if you changed your answer after the goal time limit. If you complete the whole textbook you’ll be able to see which question type is giving you problems both in terms of time management and in terms of relative difficulty. For example, if you live in Japan then the final information finding question tends to be extremely easy as you probably navigate more difficult forms of information finding on a daily basis so a valid strategy is to immediately answer this question when you start the exam.

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#121

Came here to recommend the 新完全マスター読解 book, but @CursedKitsune beat me to it.

I’m not sure if they still do it anymore, but the Mori no Nihongo YouTube account used to post reading questions leading up to the JLPT, and then would go over the reading/answers in videos later that week. They also have a few videos such as this one outside of those posts where they go over reading questions, but might need to hunt for them a bit: https://youtu.be/0pLkn0q0ErE

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#122

@CursedKitsune I’ll definitely have to check it out if it’s split conveniently into sections. That’s kind of exactly the type of textbook I was looking for! Shouldn’t be too hard to find if I search for it online either eh?

特にこの助言ってすごい役に立った。ありがとうございます！

first try to answer within your goal time limit and then stay on the same question after the time limit until you’re 100% sure you’ve got the question right.

@nminer That YouTube channel looks great! I haven’t watched the video yet because 常勤 sucks (RIP me), but it seems like it’s a full explanation from a native speaker. Absolutely golden little mine you’ve helped me stumble upon!

Thank you both so much :sneezing_face: :pray:t3:

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