The JLPT- 2025 July N2

Over the course of the past year or so I have been working towards studying for the N2 level of the JLPT

A brief overview of my study so far;

I have been studying the language for 8 years, and have stayed in Japan for about 5 months. I was self taught between 2017 - 2020 and have had a Japanese tutor since 2020. Most of my study comes from reading books and news, and playing games in Japanese in my free time. Alongside speaking Japanese in lessons and reading textbooks for them (Big reccomend for Joukyuu he tobira.) My Anki cards are divvied up as such:

• 1,681 Cards - Games
• 1,167 Cards - Reading
• 835 Cards - Situational (Practise tests, irl experiences, job hunting)
• 777 Cards - Lessons
• 93 - Anime
• 60 - Textbook (Outside of lesson)
• 14 - News (I plan on doing more of this)

There are some other cards that aren't in any of these categories, the total is 4,725 words. Before I took the JLPT this was at about 3,800. I only started using this Anki account in 2024, so it isn't a true amount of how many words I know, I haven't been adding words I already know.

The exam in Australia

The JLPT is kind of internationally hard to get to
I thought this was exclusive to Australia before I did some research for this post. In America the exam is held once a year, and only in some states. It looks like it's held in most places in Europe, but it is very expensive there, costing £100 in London or €65 - €70 in Italy. In Australia it was $100 AUD to take the N2 exam.

The difficulty for the exam in Australia comes from far apart the test sites are; this is a problem that comes from being in a very large country with a very small population. The exam is held twice a year; but only at a few select capital cities. This time I took the exam in Canberra, which was an 8 hour drive from Melbourne. The cost of fuel and lodging was much higher than the exam entrance fee itself.

We stayed at a very cheap hotel, not much to say there, Canberra had a shockingly good range of gluten free food which was a pleasant surprise. I normally struggle to eat in Sydney / Melbourne / Canberra!
Canberra itself is a very strange city, they set it up to support many more people than the amount of people who ended up moving there. There are a few suburbs, but they are separated from the center and eachother by kilometers of Australian bushland. But the bushland was mixed in with European deciduous trees which gave the area a uniquely non-Australian feeling.

Taking the exam

Going to focus on things that aren't readily available on the JLPT site for brevity. The exam was held at the Australian National University on a very stormy day, we showed up an hour or so early and they let us read in the exam room before the test. Electronic devices were banned and we had to place our phones in paper envelopes which would be stored at the front of the room. If someone's phone went off they would be disqualified. I read some of the book I've been working through since March; 帝国第１１前線基地魔導図書館、ただいま開館中.