Recently, I took the December JLPT N4 exam, and while awaiting the results I figured I’d give my takeaways on the overall experience. I’m not too sure if I passed or not, but regardless, I figured I would share my experience of testing.

The Testing Site

I took this year’s JLPT at the Showa Institute in Boston. I never knew that there was a dedicated language institute in this general area, so visiting this location was a new experience for me.

Showa Institute in Boston (via https://www.showaboston.edu/)

Vocabulary/Kanji

At the start, I felt as if I would ace this exam based on this section alone. It felt as if I knew basically every answer, and nothing felt challenging. In fact, after I was done with the section, there was plenty of time left. Normally, during my mock exams I would finish this section just in time or with a few minutes to spare. Instead, here on the actual exam, I was left with a solid 5-8 minutes. I’m curious as to others thoughts on this section because I overheard mixed reactions regarding this section from the people sitting nearby. Overall, if I had to guess, I would say I had around at least 23 questions right of the ~28 questions, and at this point, I was feeling highly confident for the remaining sections.

Grammar/Reading

This is the section where things became a bit more tough. From my practice, I recall that grammar and reading weren’t too bad, but here, on the actual exam, everything felt very difficult. For instance, on quite a few questions, I would blank out on the grammar term and be unable to answer entirely. Though, as far as the reading, I felt pretty confident. The passages were understandable and it always seemed like the last question was typically an easier question: the one where they give you some information on a magazine/advertisement and you need to answer what some person should do based on that information. For example, if the given prompt has information regarding the opening times for some aquarium, the question would ask what the ideal time for a sample person to go to the aquarium is (based on information provided about this person). Overall, I would say I probably answered a little over half right here. The good thing about the JLPT passing score is that getting over half right is usually a good sign.

Listening

The listening section is where things really got interesting. After studying abroad and spending so much time in immersion classes, I felt like this would be a breeze. It was not. There were definitely questions that were fairly easy, and I was confident in my ability of getting those right. However, the issues came, not with understanding the speakers of the listening section, but remembering everything they would say. I had no issues understanding the conversations; however, when it came to answers, I would forget which person said or did what. Typical JLPT listening sections like to throw different loops in the listening parts. For instance, maybe person X wanted to go to the grocery store at 12 PM but then person X remembered that they needed to visit a friend instead at 12 PM. But then, they remembered the friend had canceled the day before. But wait—now person X realizes they instead need to go to a doctor’s appointment first and then go to the grocery store after! Then, the question would ask something about what person X did first. Understanding all of that was not the issue. Putting it into the context of the question and remembering all the intricate details tended to be my issue.

Overall Thoughts

I think that after studying abroad and stretching my language abilities, I have a solid shot at passing; however, with the JLPT you can never be too sure. One of the common issues that I’ve found with my studying habits through the years is that I’ve not always had the most time due to school commitments. As a senior in high school, though, I’m planning on committing far more time to pass future JLPT exams after I graduate. I’m not sure how long it will take me to pass the upcoming exams, but I’m assuming my growth should rapidly increase in Japanese with more dedicated time to studying the language. I hope to track my progress through 2024.