This was in my todo-list for a long time. Last summer I finally decided to sign up for the JLPT N1 (Japanese Language Proficiency Test, level 1 - 日本語能力試験１級 in Japanese). I then took it in the beginning of December.
In my mind, this was a way to assess the level I managed to get to from living in Japan and speaking Japanese in my everyday life for more than 10 years. I decided to take that test without preparing for it, so no textbooks, no cramming…
I was rather pessimistic before getting to the test location, but once I got out of the test room, I felt more optimistic. There was a chance.
For N1, one needs at least 19 points out of 60 per each of the 3 sections, and a total above 100 points (out of 180).
言語知識 (language knowledge - vocabulary/grammar) is the section where I felt I had the highest risk to fail (lots of Japanese words and expressions I’ve never heard or read in my 10 years here), so a score of 24/60 is in line with what I expected, close to the bar.
I was way more confident about the 読解 (reading) and 聴解 (listening) sections. To be frank I expected a slightly better score in listening…
Anyway, as the title already revealed, I passed! A score of 111 out of 180 is not much to brag about, but I’m very happy to now be able to say I have the JLPT N1 , and I got it thanks to real-life practicing!
