Last year, I decided to take the JLPT. However, I am not too confident that I will pass it since I spent a lot of time doing WaniKani and doing some Bunpro along the way. My only immersion was a handful of JDrama and many Manga volumes.
While I knew that passing the exam at the N2 level would be a stretch, I may have a better chance of passing N3, but I am up for a challenge. Here are my thoughts on the JLPT N3 exam I took at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. I took the exam to see my progress in my studies.
What is the JLPT anyway?
The JLPT is the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (日本語能力試験), is a test that tests your Japanese skills, primarily your vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension skills. N5 is the easiest, and N1 is the hardest. N2 is the upper intermediate level, which Quartet 2 and Tobira usually cover up to. Most Manga and light novels fall between N3 and N2 levels, with only a handful at N1.
The JLPT N2 consists of two parts. The most significant part is the vocabulary, grammar and reading section. The second half focuses on listening to various situations with questions that go along with them.
The Results
It doesn’t look very pretty, but let’s focus on the positives. I did well on the vocabulary part of the test. The score doesn’t surprise me since I have spent much time doing Wanikani and just finished all the Kanji needed for JLPT N2. I aced the vocabulary section, which is only a few pages.
As for the Grammar, it’s just average. I think this is because I’m not too familiar with the fill-in-the-correct grammar part in the blank, but it is still not bad, given that I only covered a handful of grammar points in Bunpro. That may explain the lower-than-expected score in that section.
Well, here comes the part I did the worse on. I did terribly on the reading comprehension section, scoring only 9 out of 60. I think most of this has to do with not focusing on longer text and focusing just on reading Manga.
The problem with Manga is that it focuses on conversational sentences, which may be much easier to read, but not on the grammar points you would see in an essay, a news article, or the language used in light novels. The reading comprehension section has many long essays asking questions about what you have read in the passage. I feel this was the weak point as I only focused on the easy stuff, such as character dialogue. That won’t get you too far. I plan to rectify that by doing the Shin Kanzen Master Reading comprehension book and perhaps focusing more on reading light novels while reading more news in Japanese.
The second is the listening comprehension. I’m surprised that I did better than I thought. Believe it or not, I didn’t do that many preparations for listening and only watched a handful of JDrama in Japanese. By no means is it any good, as it’s not a good score. Listening in Japanese is an afterthought for me, at least.
While I can cry like Umika and say, “I didn’t realize it was this bad,” there is a positive side to this. Some people would just give up after seeing a bad score as they believe their Japanese is terrible and it’s a waste of time. That is not me since I want to see my progress after I resumed learning Japanese in late 2021. I have spent years learning Japanese and don’t want to throw away that effort.
Although I took the test while being unprepared, not having taken a practice test beforehand, I now know the format from taking it. I will be better prepared this time when I retake the test this year (and hopefully get a spot). I have 8 months to improve my reading and listening comprehension.
The test results show what areas I need to improve to pass the test next time. I’m 31 points off from passing the exam (besides needing at least 19 points in the reading comprehension section), so it’s not too far off. You only need a total score of 90 points and at least 19 points for each section.
Moreover, I’m taking the JLPT at a higher level for the first time. Most people would probably take N5, N4, or even N3 before taking the higher levels. So, the result is more of the glass half full, half empty. Since in the United States, JLPT only happens at the end of the year, I have plenty of time to improve on my weaknesses.
Doing more immersion and output should be my focus. Also, I need to do a better job preparing for the exam. After all, I did many practice tests to pass the CompTIA Security Plus and CySA+ exams, so I need to do the same here. However, reading and listening to more stuff in Japanese will bring more dividends than just doing SRS (Space Repetition System). Most of it comes to understanding native Japanese content. If you can understand native Japanese content, you can pass the test.
With that, now that I have shared my failure on my first attempt at the JLPT, I wonder if you have taken the JLPT. What are your experiences taking the test, what level did you take, and how many tries did it take? Feel free to give any tips that can help me pass the exam next time.
@chikorita157@chikorita157.com it’s been many, many years but my results were kinda opposite of yours when I did n2 on a whim. Listening (near full) > everything else (very sad scores). I didn’t pass, but someday maybe I’ll take it againAll the best for the next time you take it!
The listening part doesn’t seem hard as it doesn’t use a lot of literary grammar. Maybe it’s because of me reading a lot of manga make it seem it’s not too bad.
That said, I probably need to do a lot more reading. As I gone through more of the N2 grammar in Bunpro, quite a bit of the grammar are formal or literary, meaning to get used to them, one needs to do a lot of reading.
I guess reading will help with reading comprehension, and everything else. Hopefully the second try will be better.
When you decide to take it again, good luck.