Hi Hilal,

If your teacher says that your listening is good, then you should be ok for the test. The recordings they have are quite clear and the speed isn't too fast. They are also restricted to the N3 vocabulary list so if you're used to listening stuff online or conversing with a teacher, you shouldn't find the listening part too hard.

The kanji are a big hurdle for me too and they were why I chose to go for the N2 test instead of N1 although in hindsight I might have been able to barely pass N1 back then. I've used Japanese daily for a long time so my grammar and spoken language are good but not the kanji. The one thing that got me in the test was the quite long passages of text that came after the kanji and word recognition, grammar, etc. questions. They also had relatively few questions after each one, which was annoying after a page of text on some random topic. Since I'm a slow reader in Japanese I used way too much time with the first text and ran out of time with the last one so I had to just scan it quickly and jot down some answers that felt good.

I don't know if they have that reading comprehension section in N3 but if they do then it is more important to get through the kanji, vocabulary and grammar stuff quickly so you can have as much time left as possible. Maybe check the number of areas in the test, divide the allowed time for them, and then check the clock regularly during the test and just coldly move to the next section if the time that you allocated for yourself runs out before you answer all the questions. You can always come back to them later if you still have time but in order to get as much points as you can, it is very important to do some kind of time management.

Hi,

If there is only a few days left and you are especially concerned about the listening part, maybe it would be good to concentrate fully on listening stuff that is close to your level so you can gain confidence in your listening ability as much as you can. Maybe book a lesson or two with a Japanese tutor or a teacher here. I also think you can find the listening materials for past years tests online. It would be good to listen to those and do the practice tests.

Also sleep well before the test and be there well on time so you'll be as alert as possible and don't have spend energy on searching for the place in a hurry.

I took the JLPT N2 a few years ago. It was my first time to take a JLPT test and didn't quite know what to expect but it went well and I got a good score. I'd like to take the N1 sometime but the test is only done here once a year and when I remember it, the application period is always over.

The test takers were divided into groups by level and escorted to classrooms where bags, cell phones, etc. had to be put away for the duration of the test. It was allowed to have a pen and a sharpener with you and the test itself was mainly multiple choice questions. In the listening part they played a couple of discussions and then there were multiple choice questions about those. I suggest you read all of the listening questions beforehand so that you'll know what to pay attention to in the audio. If I remember correctly it was also allowed to make notes but you have to leave them to the class room when you leave.

Also the time can be quite short so I suggest you first go through all of the questions as quickly as you can and only answer the ones that you know the answers for right away without spending more than a couple of seconds thinking about them and then start from the beginning again to answer the hard ones.

Great to hear!

Congratulations! :)

Hi! こんばん はPetteriさん!

Today I finally got my results from the JLPT exam. And I passed the test! The reading part was the most difficult one and I really had a bad feeling about it. I thought that I failed, but I really passed it. I'm so happy :) Thanks again for the great tips. It was really helpful. ほんとう に ありがとう ございました!

Hi Petteri,

Thank you very much for your great tips and advice! I will definitely pay attention on them.

I frequently take classes on italki and my teacher told me that my listening skill was good. But still, I can use more practice. So I will sure do listening tests online as you said. I think that will be very helpful.

Actually I'm more concerned about kanji. I'm really bad at recognizing and reading. So have to focus more on that I think.

Wow you passed N2, that's really amazing! I wish you also good luck with N1! I'm sure you will pass that too.

Thanks again! 本当にありがとう ございました!