JLPT Level 5 questions

[jcgraham969229]

I have been studying Japanese for about two years, though the first year was very sporadic and mostly I learned the very basics including hiragana and katakana. The last year I've ramped it up quite a bit -- I live in Los Angeles and now I take a weekly class and also study quite a bit on my own (and watch Japanese Television, like "Jin"). My classmates and I (there are only three of us) would like to take the JLPT level 5 next July. I noticed that no one here talks about level 5; is it very easy? I am not studying for any particular reason but the fact that I love the language, the culture and the history of Japan. It's a personal best kind of situation for me, and I would love to pass the N5 as a personal benchmark.

Please let me know anything you recommend to do to get ready for the N5, which for most people on this board seems like a piece of cake, or at the very least a distant memory...

[Psy]

Surprised no one has responded to this. Basically, N5 is cake for anyone who has studied an entry level Japanese text. You won't really be tested on honorifics, the kanji will be very basic (maybe 120, if that?), and verb conjugations/complex vocabulary are kept to a minimum. I haven't taken the N5, but back during my JLPT prep days a few years ago I drilled through some 4q exams, and remember that they liked to try tricking you with traditional Japanese counters (e.g. knowing the difference between 八日 and 四日, 一つ、二つ、三つ、四つ, etc.）. Other than that, if you have any real degree of written proficiency, you should be set to go.

Good luck!

[mwbeale6642]

I personally haven't found studying for JLPT N5 that easy. I'm hoping that I'm now up to the level - as the test is tomorrow! I've mainly been studying on my own for nearly a year, using Jpod101 and Japanese for Busy People. I think that before I started studying specifically for JLPT N5 that I probably knew something like 1500 words and 130 kanji, but I only knew something like 500 (out of 800) of the words that are required for JLPT N5 and 70 out of the 100 required kanji. Hence I'm really glad that I had some JLPT N5-specific resources to study from so I could get the extra 300 words and 30 kanji (and the extra grammar).

Some of the resources that I found really useful are:

- a Unicom N5 book (maybe only available in Japan)
- skritter.com and a Wacom Bamboo tablet for learning the kanji 21st century stylee
- books with practice N5 questions. The listening comprehension sections were particularly useful

So I think that JLPT N5 is useful as a benchmark and if I pass it will be really nice to know that I am on the first rung of the ladder towards being able to use Japanese. However I am a bit concerned that it has diverted me from how I really want to learn (via Japanese for Busy People and Jpod101) and that I have been working towards a fixed and somewhat arbitrary syllabus.

I had seen advice on forums that you might as well go straight for N4 and skip N5. If I had taken that advice, it would have been a disaster area for me: I know that. It may be that some people are full time Japanese students, or really gifted at languages, and they find N5 easy. However if you are a beginner who is studying in their spare time or not particularly gifted at languages, then passing JLPT N5 would be a real achievement.

Good luck!

[mwbeale6642]

Having just sat JLPT N5, I reckon that out of a room of 30 people in the test (there might have been 3 other rooms also doing N5), I was the only one there who wasn't a student. Maybe one other person was of any age similar to mine. わたしは　おじいさん　であした！

If you're studying on your own or doing evening classes, then I think JLPT N5 is the cutting edge. I concentrated harder for the two hours of JLPT N5 than for anything else I have done in the last 20 years.

I'm looking forward to studying Jpod101 rather than JLPT, but doing JLPT N5 was useful.

[moncada8118]

I took the N5 this year, and I definitely used the various resources of JPod 101 to help! I used several other resources, too, of course.

The other people in my test were fairly evenly mixed of male and female, but age wise they tended to be younger. We had 31 people listed for my test site. As far as the test content, it matched my expectations from my practices with the material on the official website and several other sites with old test questions.