What are /r/jlpt's favorite Products & Services?

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This is the link to the sample tests: https://www.jlpt.jp/e/samples/sampleindex.html I just checked them and they work.

You can also find books with only practice tests. Some come with CDs for listening section.

For grammar, I recommend looking for “kanzen master” series. Find/buy N5, N4, N3 and it will cover all your grammar needs.

New Kanzen Master Grammar Japanese Language Proficiency Test N3 (New Complete Master N3 Grammar) https://smile.amazon.com/dp/4883196100/

There’s a lot of resources online you can also find. For cheaper books, I’d check eBay/Amazon used books parts. These books are not cheap so unless someone is very charitable, it would be hard to find them cheap.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ocoder.grammar.vocabulary.japaness.jlpt.n5

This app was helpful when I studied for n5 exams It covers every sections with answers. There is a similar version each levels

日本語のチャレンジN4 There's 2 books. 1 is grammar, the other is vocab.

Both books give example sentences based on certain themes/scenarios.

Both use as little English as possible, so you maximize JP exposure.

Both books are divided into sections and within each section you have little practice questions kind of similar to what you'd see on the N4 exam.

http://www.amazon.com/Nihongo-Challenge-N4-Kannji-Japan/dp/4872177576

If you're in Japan, you can find it at a decent number of bookstores.

Hi there! For the official past exam you can use this book practice test and i used the 実力アップseries as well, they are really good! Jitsuryoku Up! You can pick and chose which ever section you need to work on and get just those!

Your mileage may vary, but personally I found Nihongo So-matome N5 really helpful (alongside Genki) because it gave me a good idea of the structure of the exam. I also recommend making use of the official mock exam material because it helps a lot to be comfortable with the test style / structure at beforehand.

As far as test specific prep for reading, I went through the kanzen master N1 book starting a couple months before the test.

Outside of that I generally spend a fair bit of time reading Japanese content online, through video games, texting friends, etc.

As long as I was taking the JLPT it was pretty straightforward, I just used pre-existing vocabulary decks for each levels (I used this app on Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mytimeeducation.mytimejlptn5 , it is pretty basic and any Anki deck could have done a better job but I was confortable with it).

Now that I am done, it got a little trickier as I have to find the vocabulary myself but there is a few easy ways to do that.

I have been reading a lot of Japanese novels since around the time I passed the N3, there is certainly quite a lot of words I learnt that way without even taking notes but now I making flashcards out of them to maximize my memorization. If I were to find more than 10 words that I didn't know in a single novel (which is hopefully the case), I only turn 10 of them into flashcards and keep the others on a list for when I struggle to get my 10 words for the day. The idea is to avoid accumulating unseen flashcards, it could really get on your motivation if the deck becomes so big that you can't finish it anymore.

Obviously, Japanese words I encounter in my daily life while listening to radio or TV are also turned into flashcards and reading the news every morning really has made the task of finding vocabulary easier while keeping me in touch with what is happening in Japan (I am used to reading the Asahi Shinbun https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asahi.tida.tablet but any newspaper would do the trick).

It is a pretty lengthy answer now that I look back, I hope that it proved useful to you and I am open to questions here or by private messages if you want to know more about my experience or want more reading recommandations. Best of luck.

For N3 I used the Japan Times' boldly named The Best Practice Tests alongside the second official mock test.

I found the Japan Times' book was harder for all sections, apart from listening. That gave me a false sense of security as listening was my weakest skill.

The official mock test was easier, apart from listening.

The official mock test should be accurate, as it's a compilation of previous test questions. In the real test I also struggled with listening.

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I actually used a variety of resources but the two most prominent sources were:

Kanji Tree (Mobile App) - Excellent app for learning Kanji. You can also cover your vocab with this.

JLPT Practice N1-N5 (Mobile App) - Very buggy app and weird English translations but tons and tons of JLPT-style practice papers. (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=hana.nihongorensyu.team) When I tried to work out those papers, I always had the browser open so that I could look up the grammar rules/vocab that I didn't know (I just google them, mostly a japanesetest4you.com (or similar sites) link comes up in the top)

I also recently discovered this app, Bunpo - for grammar. It's still in its early stages of development, but the content is very good with bite-sized lessons.

I hadn't finished the content for N4 in these apps fully, so I'm still doing them. I plan to move on to the next level only when I complete these.

Thanks for the recommendations, will surely look into them ^-^

About the resources I used for studying Japanese. I had been learning Japanese (very casually) for almost a year before I decided to apply for exams. So I used a variety of resources like:

Official Memrise Japanese Series (web and mobile app) - Completed 3.5 courses - for vocab

Kanji Tree (Mobile App) - Excellent app for learning Kanji

JLPT Practice N1-N5 (Mobile App) - Very buggy app and weird English translations but tons and tons of JLPT-style practice papers. (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=hana.nihongorensyu.team)

Tae-Kim's Japanese Grammar guide (Book) - read some 150 pages.

And some random websites ig.

Hey I'm in the same boat trying to study for N2 in a short amount of time. I am studying by using the Nihongo Sou Matome books. They are really good but can be hard to get in a short amount of time. Ganbatte https://www.amazon.com/Nihongo-Grammar-Japanese-Language-Proficiency/dp/B003N87WH0

Thankyou, I actually found a review of these on youtube last week and ordered on next day delivery. I have done 5chapters of the kanji one already it's really good!

If any other UK buyers come across this I got them here http://shop.jpbooks.co.uk/product.php?id_product=80252

I also have the older addition of this and it has even more questions to test you http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Kanji-Power-Mastering-Characters/dp/4805308591