Hi all. I just got myself renshuu pro for a lifetime cuz it’s so goated and helpful.
I’ve been learning Japanese for about 180 days straight by now and I do atleast a little (sometimes a lot) every day.
I started with Duolingo and I’ve heard bad things, but I have to say when you’re “as far” as I am in it, it can supplement renshuu pretty well. And vice versa.
I am planning on taking the N5 test in December. I can read any and all kana (albeit slowly sometimes) and I think I know all 80 of the kanji that renshuu has posted under the N5 category. I probably don’t know every single way to pronounce each of them, though.
I’ve also gotten through the entire “basics for Japanese” circuit on renshuu here.
I’m wondering if anyone can direct me in a more technical way about how to utilize renshuu to for this exam. I’d love to ace it tbh.
I was about to just go through the basics lessons again one by one then move through the N5 circuit.
Unagibun has N5 and N4 practice tests you can take for free.
TBH, I wouldn't recommend spending money to take the exam for real, not at N5 level. Unless you're living in Japan and an employer wants you to take the test (in which case they probably want you to be further along than N5), you probably don't need it to be official. If you're just looking for a personal milestone to measure your own progress, which is all N5 really should be, you can get the sense of accomplishment for free off a practice test. Save your money until you're ready for N3 or N2.
Unagibun has N5 and N4 practice tests you can take for free.
TBH, I wouldn't recommend spending money to take the exam for real, not at N5 level. Unless you're living in Japan and an employer wants you to take the test (in which case they probably want you to be further along than N5), you probably don't need it to be official. If you're just looking for a personal milestone to measure your own progress, which is all N5 really should be, you can get the sense of accomplishment for free off a practice test. Save your money until you're ready for N3 or N2.
Thanks for the reply. I’ll check that link out. I don’t mind shelling out some $ to take the test. It is a personal goal to see how I do.
To make sure you have all the vocab you'll need in your N5 schedule click on add materials -> made by renshuu ->and add everything that says N5 (especially the "JLPT - N5" list)
Do the same for your kanji schedule.
SENTENCE SCHEDULES
You may want to consider adding a sentence schedule and adding N5 sentence to it
If your goal is to pass the N5 test, you probably would want to turn on the structure and listening vectors for that schedule, with the "Star Selection (JLPT Style)" option selected.
This will help with listening, reading speed and comprehension, in addition to the test format.
CONJUGATIONS SCHEDULES
Additionally, you might also want to consider adding verb and adjective conjugations schedules.
LEARN N4
When you are confident in your N5 skills, start working on N4. It's usually easier to pass an exam when your knowledge exceeds what appears on an exam. It will also help you in the event that they decide to add more challenging material on the exam.
N5 is spread across the two main schedules: Japanese Basics and Beginner Japanese. Those cover the N5 plus a lot more, so should be considered comprehensive in terms of kanji, grammar, and words. You can add both of these from Manage your Schedules > All Schedules. :)
I completely unserstand why you would want to take the exam if not only for its power to motivate you to study more. One piece of advice - spend as much time as you can preparing for the listening and the reading comprehension part of the exam. Listening is disproportionally harder than everything else on the test and reading is also quite difficult (mostly because you have to read the texts quite quickly to make it in time). I took the teat a couple days ago and I think I didn't make any mistakes in the vocabulary/kanji/grammar section (thanks Renshuu!), reading was hard but I think I did fine, but I'm pretty sure I will fail because of the listening. Good luck!
