JLPT results are out; congrats to everyone who passed! I bombed the N1 in December 2024, and this time, December 2025, I barely failed (95/180). Full breakdown is 33 on grammar/vocab, 27 on reading, 35 on listening. Basically, I’m at a loss and am not sure what I should do. Surely 5-6 months is enough to bridge the five points I need for July 2026, but I really put in effort leading up to this test and I’m not sure where I went wrong.
For some context: I’ve lived and studied in Japan for over 3.5 years now. 3 years was studying the language and since April 2025 I’ve been at a regular Japanese university where all of my classes are taught in Japanese, I write reports in Japanese, etc. I’m not taking any Japanese language classes currently. I think I read six novels within the few months leading up to December but reading was still my lowest score. I’ve done all of RTK, and was acing N1 grammar practice questions leading up to the exam. I have pretty bad test-taking / interview anxiety, which certainly doesn’t help, so tips on controlling that are also welcome.
Any advice at this stage would be greatly appreciated! Was it all nerves, or should I have done something different?
by AirborneCthulhu