What's a good way to practice JLPT exam one month prior to it?

Japanese
#1

The title might be misleading,
I’m aiming for JLPT N3 next month.
I’ve started learning japanese 2 years ago and ever since I’m following the same routine for practicing:
-Anki for vocabulary
-Bunpro for grammar (since october, I was using genki and minna no nihongo before that)
-Immersion through podcast
-Reading on book aimed at teenager (currently reading Houkagou no jikanwari)

I’m halfway through N2 and I paused new items in order to focus on N3 since I’m taking JLPT N3 exam next month.
Right now my bunpro routine is : doing around 10-20 reviews (I’ve stopped adding new items), cramming the whole Bunpro N3 deck on reading mode and making sure I can guess everything in the sentence (meaning the grammar and the vocab used in the sentence). So far it’s quite fun as I’m focusing on things I already now and I’m solidifying my N3 Knowledge.

I was wondering if what I’m currently doing is a correct approach to undertake N3 exam next month ? it’s my first official JLPT exam and I tried 2 mock exams and it went pretty well, time management wise.
Mock exams can get a bit expensive so I don’t really want to spend money on that, plus it takes a few consecutive hours to complete which I can not afford with my 9-5 social lifestyle.
Also I recently realised that I don’t know the whole spectrum of vocabulary in the JLPT N3 list (around 300 missing) should I speedrun them ?
Any advice is more than welcome,
thank you for reading me and I hope you’ll all achieve your goals one day
Tony

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#2

What helped me with my N4 beyond well rounded studying was getting really used to the exam question types and what’s expected, I can recommend the Migii JLPT app (https://jlpt.migii.net/en/) - it’s fairly cheap and you can pick individual lesson types so don’t have to sit through a whole exam each time. It might also help with highlighting some areas where you might still need more practice as the examples are from real tests from the past (I think) so you can check your performance across the different sections.

Good luck with the JLPT!

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#3

I can recommend a paid Migii JLPT subscription as well, or in the case of offline practice, any JLPT practice book with lots of exam questions.

Also I recently realised that I don’t know the whole spectrum of vocabulary in the JLPT N3 list (around 300 missing) should I speedrun them ?

You’ll probably be fine without them. There is no official list or guarantee of any words to appear on any JLPT level, and the distinction between N3/N2 vocabulary in particular is infamously arbitrary.

Instead focus most of your time this month on practice questions. If you don’t have time for full mock tests, you can use practice books like 新完全マスター読解 and 新にほんご５００問 that allow you to complete problem sets in bite size chunks. Migii as well allows you to do 5-15 question randomly generated problem sets instead of full exams.

I think your current approach to Bunpro is great. Not adding more items is a good idea, because at this point it’s more efficient to study the kind of questions that will be asked on the test specifically and not Japanese in general.

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#4

Gonna mirror what everyone else has said. At the end of the day, its a test, and focusing on the Reading/Listening will have a big effect.

I would, money willing, pick up both JLPT books that the Japan times puts out. I happen to like them and they feel, like the real deal. Its pretty nice tbh. They also have, starting at the jlpt 3 something the “JLPT buddy” but I havnt used it myself. I intended to take the jlpt this winter so Ill take it for a test ride come maybe October.

But in terms of getting other jlpt books I do recommend that if only because the grammer questions can be a bit wonky imo. I dont like them. I currently have 新しいにほんご５００ by ASK publishing company that Sorega mentioned. They break questions up into days and weeks with the intention of using it a month in advance of a test. Im using it to gauge my N4 testing level before jumping into N3 content.

I cant speak for the online tests that were mentioned but Im willing to bet they work pretty well.

Everyone also tends to get riled up during test season so remember to breath and the day before, eat lots of veggies and take the second half of the day off to relax. Weather permitting go to a beach/lake or a local park and touch grass. But thats getting off topic.

Good luck!

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#5

Get really used to the style of questions the JLPT exam has and have an approach/strategy for every kind of question. JLPT is a test of your language knowledge, and not necessarily a test of your innate ability so it requires an understanding of the exam beforehand and its unique peculiarities.

You don’t want to get to a question and have your brain get all scrambled because you didn’t understand the logic of the question, or know how to approach a long reading section that has multiple questions etc.

In other words, don’t go in blind especially on the grammar, reading and listening questions.

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#6

Thanks for all the tips here everyone. I was wondering if there are any good YouTube videos that go through question types and general JLPT tips & tricks?

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#7

I have a reading tip that I learned in school and continued to employ throughout my life that I rarely ever see mentioned. Works in all languages where you have to read through a block of text and answer a question.

Basically at the start of short or long essays, read the questions first and make sure you understand them. Then go into the essay, as such you will have the questions in your mind as youre reading, and when you come across the answer it takes a second to jot it down. Then you continue.

I have found this way to be the most beneficial because trying to remember the specifics of several paragraphs gets messy, but a couple questions is easy. I sped through my reading questions and rarely get more than 1 or 2 wrong, mostly because I didnt understand the question properly.

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JLPT exam practices and tips
#8

Don’t forget that Bunpro also has JLPT practice exams, and they’re completely free! I’m also planning to take N3 in July, and my intention is to do one practice exam each every weekend leading up to the JLPT.

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#9

I’d say do the Bunpro practice tests. It reminds me what one test taker told me last year. He had never done a JLPT practice test before, and thought the grammar and vocabulary sections were separated. He only realized he had a whole reading component to do with 10 minutes remaining. Needless to say, he did not pass.

1 Like
#10

I think the only thing you can reasonably do to meaningfully alter your score is practice tests/questions (Shinkanzen Master is good), learn how to strategies/pace yourself for the test and learn how to metagame the test. If there’s any grammar points you aren’t familiar on then cram them. Learn to read fast.

Any vocab/kanji you haven’t learned yet isn’t going to meaningfully alter your score, but it doesn’t hurt to keep learning new vocab.

#11

I really liked the idea of buying migii, but I wonder if I can buy it and in share with my fiend who learns for N5 so we can use it on different levels :thinking:

#12

Has anyone mentioned youTube videos of the listening sections from previous exams? If not, they are helpful, you get to learn the format of the exam and the types of questions. There’s the possibility that JLPT police might have had them removed :man_shrugging:

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#13

Any tips to learn how to metagame the test ? If that can help me bypass at least 2 questions that could be awesome.
it’s an old post btw I passed N3 last july, so this 2026 July I’m challenged with N2

#14

100% possible, you just need to use it on your browser and your friend on his phone and you’re good

#15

Wow, it’s good that you’ve wrote this, the idea was to buy it and use on two devices in browser, but now I’ve tried that and it consistently removes the session from the first logged in device.

Using it on a phone is kind of not ideal because there are no copy past moves to Anki and tabs switching, again with copy past, to Gemini that would explain the answer (which I can copy and paste into Anki again, if I want to do Anki that much)

Actually resource is cool, and after using it’s free version for a few days, I can say that 40$ is a normal price for it, but we’ve already decided to share it, so mentally it’s already divided it further in two

#16

I wouldn’t know. If I did I wouldn’t have spent 5 attempts on it. At the 5th attempt I just read the questions and passages in sequence.

Doing a lot of practice tests helps. Proper time management is crucial. Mental fatigue is real so it can be a nice idea to prioritise reading over grammar as the first thing in the exam. Generally speaking if you can read/understand the question and responses you can save a lot of time on the reading. Narrowing down options to a 50/50 is helpful.

#17

Can definitely throw in another recommendation for Migii. It was my only JLPT-specific resource and I started it about 6 months before the test and I ended up getting 143/180 on the real N3 when I took it last december. If you really wanna cram you could take a full-length practice test every day or every other day and then grind out practice for whatever your worst section was. The practice tests actually go a lot faster than the real thing because you don’t have the breaks and you can shotgun through it. I typically finished my Migii n3 practice tests with 40 minutes left on the clock. Their listening questions are kind of bad with low volume on some and some being text to speech but the n3 ones were acceptable for practice. Their N2 listening questions are a bit worse with a higher number of text to speech questions.

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#18

I want to give credit to the shinkanzen master books, some question from migii are extracted directly from these book, but having them physically (or numerically) was what cemented all my JLPT notions together, especially nuances between one grammar and another. I use Gemini in parallel to help me grasp the nuances faster (and also have explanation directly in my mother tongue)

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#19

I have a similar situation, i know this is an year old. The post itself gives me a little idea that i might be on the right track.
Thanks for sharing.

Also, i wanted to share what i am doing and my thoughts as well.

For Dokkai, I am using Shinkanzen and sou mato, and planning to re-do both the books again.
For kanji, i was practising kanji by making my own notes and reviewing it everyday by writing. But since two months i haven’t touched the kanji. I know around 500-600 kanji for now.
For Chokai, I am planning to practice basic Jlpt videos which are available on YouTube. Currently, i just join discord conversation and try to understand what native Japanese people are saying.

Not even watching any anime for now, as I have a travelling 9-5 so i barely get time.

For Goi, I am using Anki but I am still weak with vocab for N3.

For grammar, bunpro has been a great help, i know about more than 50% of the grammer points by heart and i keep reviewing (trying to do it daily). PS: Its been a month only since i started Bunpro

For Kaiwa, I would say i am not even n4 level. I try to join in between conversation but it doesn’t work.

I have around 2 months for jlpt n3.

Looking forward to suggestions and improvement points.

Thank you for even reading till here.
I appreciate the help.