Why take the jlpt

A JLPT N1 certificate is required for overseas nursing school graduates who want to take Japan's assistant nurse exams. Exams for assistant nurses are administered by each prefecture.

For more details, please contact the prefecture of interest. A test subject is waved on accreditation exam for completion of junior high school level education in Japan. All levels of the JLPT cover only listening and reading, not speaking or writing. So it is a comprehension-based test rather than an assessment of your pronunciation or handwriting.

Of course, here at Nihongo Master we like to practice all of those things together! The JLPT is offered twice a year in Japan, and once or twice a year in over 60 countries around the world. Check out this list to find a testing center near you. Since you must register well in advance, and it takes up to 3 months to receive your scores, you should be looking into test dates at least 6 months before you need your results.

But many people WANT to take it to prove to themselves that they are developing as Japanese speakers. For many, passing subsequent levels of the JLPT keeps them on track with their studies and motivates them to learn all the vocab, grammar, and kanji that is required in order to pass the test.

Try to get a visa doing something else teaching English comes to mind and then after acclimatizing to the country, go out and make your mark. This has since been replaced by another slightly easier test. If you are interested in going to school in Japan, you should check with the specific school you want to go to and review their entrance procedures.

There are other private conversation schools out there that will use the JLPT test levels as benchmarks. For example, they will have classes named Intermediate N3. Sometimes these classes will require a student to first pass the corresponding JLPT level, but these can also sometimes be waived by a written test at the school.

Pretty much. However, it serves as a great benchmark and guide to the different classes out there. If you are looking to eventually going to some kind of Japanese language school, the JLPT will help you decide what level you are. This is because there is an incredible amount of disparity between what the different levels are.

But, in Japan, advanced is actually N1 or dare I say above? So, taking the JLPT will help you get a good idea of your level and what to expect out of these classes.

This is just the start of a two part series on why you should take the JLPT. Image by Horia Varlan , available under the Creative Commons 2. I am more interested in using it for goal setting. Thanks Bob for commenting!