Journey to JLPT N2

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Todays Update

Date: 2026-04-14
Topic/Title: Start of the Climb

This is going to be a bit of a long one.

TLDR:

I am making a big push for JLPT N2 this upcoming December. I will graduate in the Spring and want to have passed the JLPT N2 so I can more easily get Software Related Jobs in Japan and because I think it will be fun to really challenge myself. I plan on documenting my journey to either success or failure.

Background:

I am currently living and working in Japan as an intern at a software company until August. I’m really enjoying it and I’ve decided I would like to move here for at least a couple years after I graduate in May 2027. The thing is I can’t come back and work at my current company because they require a strict level of JLPT N1 for anyone who isn’t natively Japanese. I’ve come to accept that but it’s got me thinking about all the other jobs I would be unable to do because of a lack of certification. Because of that I have decided to take the JLPT N2 this upcoming December

Study:

I am currently studying to take the JLPT N3 test in July and then the N2 in December. I am working my way through the N3 with 4 new grammar a day and have been backtracking to catch up on the Bunpro vocab. After porting about 30 levels of WaniKani over to the app. I am at around 700/1100 vocab in N4, 820/2000 in N3, and 350/2000 in N2 vocab. At my current pace of 20 words a day I should finish all of the vocab for the N3 test just before the exam and then can dial it back a little bit and should be able to finish all of the vocab for N2. Along with that I am reading for about an hour or two outside of my reviews and then watching shows and interacting in daily life living in Japan. With all of the things I have done outside of and before Bunpro I am less concerned about passing the N3 test but I figured that it would be a good way to measure my progress and I just personally want to take it to have a goal to shoot for in-between the N2.

Reason For Post:

In the past couple weeks I have been coming to the forms here and reading through people’s talks about studying and the ups and downs that come with that and I really find a lot of value in knowing that other people struggle and succeed in the same way I do. Because of that I wanted to add something that could show people the journey of studying through my perspective. Regardless of if I pass or fail I think just seeing what it’s like to work towards something is really inspiring and I hope that this can be something that helps others and myself for those days where studying is extra tough.

Past Entries

There will be a link to a long term storage of all past entries once I set it up because

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Good luck! You might know a lot of them already but if you’re working in IT then it might be worth checking out the tech worker deck out.

I think it’s worth skipping a lot of the rarely used vocab on WK to maximize your time making N3 solid and pushing on to the N2 vocab/grammar.

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I honestly haven’t touched any of the decks outside of the Bunpro made ones I’ll have to check it out! I honestly am putting WK on the back burner and just doing the reviews for now while I do all the Bunpro Vocab cause I feel like in terms of tests that’s the best bet but I do plan on returning cause I feel like I gained a lot of reading ability just from knowing so many kanji.

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