Is there anyone taking jlpt after covid restrictions? In my country, host institution changed and they put some new regulations and they accept limited number of registrations. At first, it was rational. Now that there are not many Covid cases anymore, when will they change the system into back? Some regulations make my application impossible. For example, they don't want any bags, purse or cellphones on the test. But they are necessary for me. Because the test place is 585 km away from where I live. Is there anyone like me here?
There’s a reason why I’ve never taken any JLPT exams, despite decades of studying: they’re expensive, they’re inconvenient, and I have no practical use for a certificate. But you might.
COVID restrictions come and go, usually more in response to political pressure than any assessed levels of risk. I advise you to continue protecting yourself as much as you can, but it’s your life and your choice.
When the travel time to the test center is more than an hour or two from your home, it’s not easy to make it a day trip. If I were you, I’d probably make arrangements to stay somewhere near the test center, if only to reduce the stress of getting there on time. Yes, I know this adds to the expense.
Failing that, perhaps you can convince a friend or family member to travel with you, to keep your belongings while you are taking the test, and to take care of you afterwards.
The certificates are (unfortunately) extremely useful (if not outright necessary) for university and job seekers in Japan, depending on what/where they are looking at. So for many, it's a necessity :(
N2 is often mentioned in some job requirements and *very often* in university applications. I'm sure that some require N1, but when I was helping non-native high schoolers apply to uni in Japan, the majority of schools that they were interested in basically said "N2, or don't even spend time applying."
The physical certificate? I do not think I've ever seen something requiring one of those, but I have no doubt that there are situations where passing one of those has the ability to communicate one's (at the least) interest and hard work towards Japanese.
That aside, though, a test can be not-so-great and still have a ton of value. It is used as a tangible goal for many who need something to work towards. While there is certainly criticism to be leveled at parts of the content in the JLPT tests (vocab in particular), I often tell others (and have received largely agreement by other JLPT takers) that the grammar and sentence structures taught in N5 through N3 are almost entirely "you're going to hear/see this every single day if you are living/working in Japan". The N2/N1 tests have a much higher level of overly-specific content that is not going to help the majority of people, but looking at N5/N4/N3 as a whole, it is very useful Japanese.
And since it's the main test that everyone takes, there is (renshuu, other apps, tons of textbooks) a ton of supplementary materials available to help you.
I'm actually taking my JLPT, but because of covid, I don't know when I'll be able to take it since there aren't any available centers to take them in my area as of the moment. If you're taking yours, I wish the best of luck to you and I hope you do well!
