JLPT N3

Yesterday, I took the JLPT for the first time. I have not mentioned the JLPT before, but I feel it is appropriate to write about it, since I just took the test. I decided to take the N3 earlier this year after completing my Japanese major. At first, I wanted to aim for the N2, but I quickly realized that would not be a realistic goal; thus, I decided to take the N3 instead.

I remembered hearing about the sou-matome (日本語総まとめ) JLPT (日本語能力試験) prep series from somewhere and purchased all of the N3 books (kanji, vocabulary, reading comprehension, grammar and listening comprehension). I used that series in addition various other non-traditional study habits and apps on my phone such as sticky study to prepare for the exam. To make a long story short, I did not finish any of the books I purchased, although I did put a huge dent in many of them. I also was not as diligent in my studies as I originally planned to be, hence not finishing any of the textbooks I purchased for the test.

Luckily, I was able to do a day before the exam cram session with a friend, which was fairly productive. Walking into the exam, I did not know what to expect besides the general three tests (vocabulary/language knowledge, reading comprehension and listening) we were going to take.

As I did not study vocabulary as much as I originally planned to, that section was fairly hard for me. It started out deceptively easy and then I saw kanji I knew individually, but I did not know them in the compounds they appeared in the test. It was not super hard; it was doable and if I had studied more, it would have been easy since the JLPT books and material I used sufficiently prepared me for the exam.

Reading comprehension also started out easy and I quickly became overconfident believing I had plenty of time (70 mins) and soon the proctor called out 5 more minutes and I had not even read the last reading!

I was a little nervous about the listening comprehension, because the JLPT book I used had some quickly spoken dialogues and business dialogues that I had to refer to the transcripts to understand. But it was not really bad and some of the dialogues were actually funny! The only problem I had was that we only were able to listen to each dialogue once and then the test was over.

I am not sure if I passed the exam or not, but I think I did well considering it was my first time taking the exam. We were told our results will be available in February. Even if I did not pass, I plan to complete the N3 books I purchased and begin studying for the N2 so I can take it next December. Have any of you taken the JLPT? What was your impression of the test?