Looking for exercise books to practice with

[SteveB]

I have just recently reset my whole (nearly complete) N3 progress back to 0 as I felt I hadn’t learnt them anywhere near well enough to move on. In fact I completely forget 90% of them exist when trying to make basic conversation with myself or my tutor. I find I just don’t use them enough in-between Bunpro reviews, and even though I’m doing a little bit of reading, I’m not seeing them enough to really learn them.
I don’t have the time (ok mainly knowledge) to set up a decent system for myself and just want something I can sit down when I have time and grind through for reps . That’s mainly why i’m doing WaniKani as it just spoon feeds me the kanji (I know cram exists but its limited to the 10 sentences without adding your own). I’ve done a lot of academic/formal study and actually do well with ‘boring’ textbooks (preferably electronic), but books/pdf, websites or anything with exercise sheets or lists of activities, essentially Genki but for N3 would be great.

My goals are not specifically JLPT orientated, but speaking and listening (conversation), reading, and then writing.

[apaul]

I hear Tobira is very popular, although I don’t have much experience with it.

Marugoto is good as well, its online and free too.

[VegasVed]

For exercises, there are not many options. Here are the ones I am aware of that aren’t totally crap:

This exists for higher levels too.

This exists for higher levels too.

JPDrills Confident Japanese.

jlptpro.com

Traditional textbooks are rubbish at providing sufficient practice.

[jrmr50]

@VegasVed please could you share the ISBN for the book in the first screenshot, thanks.

[VegasVed]

Found it on Amazon: https://a.co/d/e0ttEOT
The ISBN is in the details section.

[jrmr50]

much appreciated

[Daru]

@VegasVed

This exists for higher levels too.

Can totes vouch for the 500問. Helped me pass N2! It’s more of a “make sure you know what you’re supposed to know” tool, but sounds to me like anyway that’s what you’re aiming for.

[VegasVed]

Yeah, that’s what it looks like to me too. That’s why I’m not using it yet. Will start it after I finish all N4 content.

@SteveB, @jrmr50
I will repeat that www.jpdrills.com is really good, because I think it’s severely under-rated.

[SteveB]

@VegasVed @apaul @Daru Thanks for the suggestions and links, super helpful
I will check those out over the new few days.

[jrmr50]

I took a look yesterday. Yes it looks really good. Thanks for the headsup.

It did however, send me down a ばかり rabbit hole after I got a review wrong.

I also took a look at the listening drills on jlptpro.com as well (as jpdrills doesn’t have if I’m not mistaken). They were of the photocopied and bad audio variety that’s clearly been ripped from somewhere else, so I’ll pass.

[VegasVed]

Yeah, I wouldn’t know about the audio stuff. It’s the written questions that interest me in general.

[LennartHespenheide]

if you have the Dictionary of Basic Japanese there is the even pricier Multimedia Exercises for Basic Japanese Grammar from the Japan Times Press (Genki). It uses Power Point slides which sounds ridiculous but the density of practice content to price ratio is actually quite fair. Also the practice book mostly resorts to Japanese language. Sadly there is yet just one for the Basic dictionary and not the intermediate and advanced ones.

[jrmr50]

Can I just post a thought I had about this topic?

I like the translate this from English to Japanese drills in my Genki exercises more than the ‘come up with your own sentence’ ones. I find it easier and there is a ‘correct’ answer to check.

But also does it, and these types of exercise, encourage ‘think in English and then translate into Japanese’ which I think might be hindering my spoken Japanese as ‘construct sentence in wrong order I do’.

By way @VegasVed forgot to commend your hand modelling. Is this something you do professionally? If not, maybe it’s a new avenue to explore.

[SteveB]

I agree @jrmr50 , E->J seems like obvious practice, and is of course completely necessary, but has the pitfall of ‘thinking in English’. Also the ‘open ended’ way in which you can answer as there are many ways to say the same thing, some of which may sound completely unnatural to native speakers. Its good practice, but also why I was looking for more ‘closed’ answer questions that I could drill and have a definitive answer.

Tobira looks good, especially with that page Daru linked in another thread that has all the exercises online. There’s plenty of questions to practice, and open ended stuff, aimed at ~N3 level

[podbod]

I love the Tobira activity book. It’s useful for studying grammar points via writing, but it is also useful for using for conversation practice with someone who speaks Japanese