This is for the JLPT N4 that took place on 3rd July 2016.
I am going to say this first. I might not clear the exam. Nonetheless, it was a great experience as usual. I came to know a lot about my strengths and weaknesses and yet again, some awesome resources to study the language (last minute prep)
*I still can’t believe I took N4 and I knew half the stuff in it!!!* (I had to come back and edit the post once I saw I had actually written N4 there)
The test: The info about the sections and all would be available everywhere I am guessing. All I remember is, there were 3 sections: Kanji and vocab, Grammar, Listening.
Kanji and Vocab consisted of 5 questions I think, with various sub parts to it, in total 35 questions as far as I remember. Time given was 30 minutes. There was a 20 minute break after this, but no one was allowed outside as this break was just for the teachers to bring the second exam question papers.
Grammar section had 9 questions with many many sub parts, I don’t remember the total number of questions. Time given was 60 minutes. There was a break of about 25-30 minutes after this where we could go freshen up ourselves.
Listening section was of 35 minutes. There was some problem this time with the audio, so they repeated whole first and second questions for us.
For us in New Delhi, India, the reporting time was 8:15 a.m. but they didn’t let us inside the test center before 8:40 a.m. Listening to people talking to each other because they belong to the same Japanese learning academy and you being alone can be a little intimidating. So, I would suggest myself to go a little late next time because the exam, anyway would start at 9:00 a.m. XD
Difficulty: Well, I don’t really know. The grammar was difficult for me, as usual. Kanji and Vocab were kinda breeze thanks to WaniKani. People around me were afraid of Kanji and I was the most confident in that only. Although, some type of questions were frustrating, especially the one with 4 blanks and a star mark to fill that particular blank because in some of the sentences more than one sequence was making sense to me. Of course, that can’t be the case, even so….
Listening section sometime seemed a joke for N4 level and sometime too high leveled. One of the questions was like the introduction of Genki 1. I thought, “Really? Is this N4 level?” And then in the last questions, they spoke so fast and the options were so confusing, again two options seemed apt for the answers.
Reading comprehensions were long and many in number, again, as usual. But this time, I could read faster and understand better (is it translating the manga effect? I don’t know). The content of the comprehensions was interesting as well, not some academic or news article. I really like JLPT that way.
Resources: Well, as I said in my earlier posts, I got really bored with Genki (although, on close scrutiny, one can find the resemblance between JLPT and Genki easily. Hence, if you can put up with it, it’s the best resource to study for JLPT). So I switched to Tae Kim’s guide. It is a nice resource, especially for learning particles, but I got distracted from there too. For grammar, one of the best resources I found was renshuu. It is again a paid website if you want to use it fully (some free resources are available as well), but I think I have become a fan of gamification of stuff. This one is a fun site with various hankos to earn on achieving different stages (thank you for that word by the way renshuu. It was a part of the test as well 😉 )
Another resource for kanji and vocab is Wanikani (which I have been thinking to do a separate post on, for a while now actually but you know...) It is SRS based website and really effective in learning kanji which many find hard. Not to mention the amusing and out of this world mnemonics. At least I remember them now….
In the end, there were a lot of things I could have done before taking the exam. I wanted to take mock tests starting one week before JLPT but ended up getting fever, so couldn’t do it. I don’t blame my cold though. I had enough time to practice from renshuu, but I didn’t. Life happens and I can now, up my game for I can finally call myself at beginner intermediate stage of Japanese (if you take out speaking skills actually). Intermediate is not far enough! *pats her back*
Then, until next time….