BOSTON — Critics of high-stakes testing are urging voters to approve a proposal to remove the MCAS exam requirement to graduate from high school, but critics say the move would eliminate a crucial tool for measuring students’ progress through public school.
Question 2, one of five referendums on the Nov. 5 ballot, asks voters if they want to scrap the decades-old mandate requiring 10th-grade students to demonstrate proficiency in math, English and science through a series of standardized tests known as the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System.
A “yes” vote would still require students to take the 10th-grade MCAS exams, but they would no longer need to earn a passing score or other state approval. School districts would need to set their own criteria for graduation based on statewide educational standards.
A “no” vote would keep the status quo, requiring students to pass the 10th-grade MCAS exams to graduate.
Each year, about 500,000 students take the MCAS — the benchmark “gold standard” standardized test in the state for nearly 30 years.
The testing begins in the third grade, but students in the 10th grade are required to pass the math, English and science exams to graduate from high school. The tests are also designed to identify under-performing schools and districts as candidates for state intervention.
Backers of Question 2, which include the Massachusetts Teachers Association, argue that Massachusetts has become an outlier as one of a handful of states that requires students to pass a test to graduate from high school. They say the testing isn’t a complete picture of a student’s abilities, and often leaves those who don’t pass the test behind.
“Massachusetts residents are ready to join the vast majority of states that have scrapped the use of standardized tests as a graduation requirement and instead use authentic, educator-designed assessments of student skills,” MTA President Max Page said.
“The MCAS will still be taken, as is required by federal law, but it will be used for diagnostic purposes, and not as a high-stakes test required for earning a diploma.”
Supporters of the graduation requirement, including the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, argue that the exams are necessary to expose inequities among students and school districts, measure trends in student outcomes, and gauge readiness for college and the workplace.
John Schneider, chair of the Protect Our Kids Future: NO on Question 2 campaign, said eliminating the MCAS graduation standard “will effectively weaken the proficiency we expect students to meet, and that is disastrous for both employers and students.”
“Employers in Massachusetts understand the importance of maintaining high standards in education — not only to provide an educated workforce for our growing industries, but also to provide equal opportunities for students from every community across Massachusetts to fill the jobs our companies are creating,” he said.
“Without a statewide standard for graduation, our public education system could easily fall back into mediocrity.”
The Massachusetts Superintendents Association, which represents school administrators, also opposes Question 2, citing a key concern that the proposal “fails to stipulate a replacement for MCAS as a statewide standard for earning a high school diploma.”
Both sides have raised and spent millions of dollars for TV and digital ads to convince voters to keep or do away with the MCAS requirement. They’ve also traded barbs about claims of misleading advertising.
Recent polls have shown a slight majority of the state’s voters support Question 2, but pollsters say opposition to the referendum could tighten as the election draws closer.
A recent report by Tufts University’s Center for State Policy Analysis suggested that allowing school districts to set graduation requirements could start a “a race to the bottom” because districts with poor or falling graduation rates “would be tempted to compensate by lowering expectations.”
But the report’s authors, who didn’t take a position on Question 2, also said that scrapping the MCAS graduation requirement could free up teachers to focus less on test preparation and more on knowledge and skills that aren’t covered by a standardized exam.
The Tuft’s report also points out that despite claims by Question 2 supporters, state educational data shows the MCAS requirement “rarely” prevents students from getting a high school diploma. Most students eventually meet the requirements to graduate, the report notes.
The debate over the graduation mandate comes as the latest MCAS results show students’ test scores are still lagging behind pre-pandemic years.
Among 10th-graders, science scores increased but math and English Language Arts scores dropped slightly, according to the results of the spring exams released last month by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Not surprisingly, supporters and opponents of Question 2 seized on the data to back their claims that the high school graduation requirement should be scrapped or maintained.
State education officials blamed chronic absenteeism for the across-the-board drop in MCAS scores, with a high percentage of students missing more than 10% of the school year, or 18 days in the previous school year. Those numbers have dropped below 20% since the pandemic, but remain high, state officials said.
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him atcwade@cnhinews.com.
BOSTON — Eighth-graders would be required to take a new MCAS civics exam under a proposed $180 million contract with a Georgia-based private company that oversees the state’s hallmark standardized tests.
The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on Tuesday will hear details about the proposed five-year contract with Cognia and its subcontractors — including Texas-based eMetric — to provide a series of standardized tests known as the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System.
The current MCAS contract, awarded to Cognia in 2016, expires on June 30, according to state education officials. The new contract would cover the MCAS test development, customer service for school districts that administer the tests, scoring of the exams and reporting.
In a memo to DESE board members, acting Education Commissioner Russell D. Johnston said new contract has updates to the MCAS program, including a new 8th grade civics assessment that “measures students’ understanding of civics and the foundations of the Massachusetts and U.S. governments.”
Other changes include “revised” 5th and 8th grade science exams “that encourage the ‘doing of science’ in the context of real-world storylines and interactive simulations, he said. The English language arts MCAS tests in grades 3-8 would be revised “to continue bringing down the amount of time spent on testing.”
Johnson said the new MCAS system would also include more Spanish language tests to accommodate students with limited English skills.
Another feature of the new exams would be “improved turnaround times for assessment results through the increased use of automated scoring and a new reporting portal to inform students’ families and caregivers,” he said.
Johnson said the recommended changes are based on focus groups, information from surveys, other “stakeholder engagement” to get feedback on the current MCAS program, and suggestions for “additions, improvement, or changes” that might be included in a new contract. Consideration of the new contract comes amid renewed debate over the MCAS high school graduation mandate with a referendum to scrap the requirement inching towards the November ballot.
The proposal, which would appear on the November ballot, asks voters if they want to scrap the decades-old mandate requiring 10th-graders to demonstrate proficiency in math, English and science.
Each year, about 500,000 students take the MCAS — the benchmark standardized test in the state for nearly 30 years.
Students educated with Massachusetts public funds in grades 3 to 8 and 10 are required by federal laws, the 1993 Massachusetts Education Reform Law, and state law to participate in statewide testing.
The testing begins in the third grade, but students in the 10th grade are required to pass the math, English and science exams to graduate from high school. The tests are also designed to identify under-performing schools and districts as candidates for state intervention.
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com
Students across the U.S. have fallen behind in both math and reading in the past three years, illuminating the drastic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress exams released Monday.
The exams, often called the “Nation’s Report Card,” sampled about 450,000 fourth and eighth graders in more than 10,000 schools across the country between January and March. The last exams were administered in 2019, just before the beginning of the pandemic and a widespread transition to virtual learning.
In the past three years, math scores showed the steepest declines ever reported by NAEP since its initial trial assessment in 1990, according to Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics. Eighth graders’ scores sank by eight points since 2019. Fourth graders’ scores were slightly better, but still declined in 41 states. Just 36% of fourth graders were considered proficient in math, compared to 41% in 2019.
“Eighth grade is that gateway to more advanced mathematical course taking,” Carr said, according to CNN. “This is what these students are missing. They’re missing these important skills that will prepare them eventually for (science, technology, engineering and math) level careers.”
Last month, the national assessment released results showing that math and reading scores for 9-year-olds have declined since 2020 at a level not seen in decades.
Compared to math scores, students’ reading performance was less affected, possibly because students received more help from parents during the pandemic, The New York Times reports. Still, reading scores declined in more than half the states, continuing a downward trend that had already been observed in 2019. No state showed improvement in reading, with only about 1 student in 3 meeting proficiency standards.
All students across the country were affected by the pandemic, as reflected by the report, but there was a disproportionate effect on certain marginalized groups. Eighth-grade math scores declined across most racial and ethnic groups, among low-, middle- and high-performing students. Fourth graders’ math scores in 2022 declined at the lower and higher percentiles for Black and Hispanic students, students of two or more races, and white students compared to 2019, and scores declined at the lower percentile for Native and Asian students.
“What we’re seeing is (lower performing) students… dropping even faster and we’re also seeing students who were not showing declines ― students at the top, meaning students at the higher performing levels ― they were holding steady before the pandemic or even improving,” Carr said. “Now all the students, regardless of their ability, are dropping. That is the point we need to be taking away from this report.”
The results show the ways that school closures during the pandemic affected students. But researchers indicated it doesn’t necessarily follow that states where remote learning lasted longer experienced dramatically worse results. Factors like poverty levels and individual state education policies may have also played a role.
More analysis is needed to understand the pandemic’s role in the declines, said Carr, along with examination of other factors like teacher shortages and bullying.
“If this is not a wake-up call for us to double down our efforts and improve education, even before it was ― before the pandemic, then I don’t know what will,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said Monday, according to CNN.
The federal government invested $123 billion in American schools last year to help students catch up from learning lost during the beginning of the pandemic, according to The New York Times. School districts were required to spend at least 20% of the funds on academic recovery.
The funding is due to expire in 2024, but research suggests billions more dollarsmay be needed for students to truly recover.
If you’ve been studying Japanese for a while, you might have heard of the JLPT, or Japanese Language Proficiency Test. A lot of Japanese study materials are marketed toward people who plan to take this exam for school, work, or personal purposes, so the acronym might look pretty familiar.
I took the JLPT N2 once in 2021, and think it’s a fairly decent gauge of your on-paper Japanese skills. It’s also a handy little qualification to have if you want to live/work/study in Japan, or get a Japanese-related job regardless of where you live. But before you burn the midnight abura cramming for the JLPT, you should know whether it’s right for you or not. In this article, I’ll give you a general overview of what the JLPT is, why people take it, and what you can expect when you saunter confidently into that testing room.
What is the JLPT Anyway?
The JLPT stands for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. It’s a timed, paper-based standardized test designed to gauge your reading comprehension and listening skills in Japanese with five difficulty levels.
Who do we have to thank/blame for this? Well, it was devised by the Japan Foundation and Japan Educational Exchanges and Services (what a mouthful!) in 1984. Hundreds of thousands of people take it around the world every year, so it’s currently the most common test of Japanese language proficiency.
The test was revised in 2010 to be more difficult — looking at you, N1 — and thus was born the current version of the JLPT we know and love today. And you don’t have to be in any special Japanese program or classes to take the JLPT; it’s open to anyone who signs up. While the JLPT is intended to test non-native speakers, native Japanese speakers can take it too. The exam’s five levels go from N5–N1 in order of increasing difficulty, with test-takers choosing which level to take.
Why Do People Take the JLPT?
Why would people voluntarily subject themselves to standardized test-taking, you ask? Believe it or not, there are actually all kinds of reasons why people sign up, depending on their Japanese language goals.
According to a survey by the Japan Foundation in 2018, overseas applicants take the JLPT for two major reasons. One reason is for work — to get a job, promotion, or salary increase, inside or outside of Japan (33.4%). The other is simply to measure their level of proficiency in Japanese (33.2%). Another big motive is to gain admittance to a Japanese university, for those want to enroll in a program taught in Japanese.
In Japan
In Japan, I’ve found that people often take the JLPT for practical reasons. Almost every listing for a full-time technical and/or office job that will require you to operate primarily in Japanese requires applicants to have N2 or N1 certification. However, it tends to be rare that you have to show proof, as often the most important thing is demonstrating in the interview that you’re capable of performing the job at the desired Japanese level.
Almost every listing for a full-time that will require you to operate primarily in Japanese requires applicants to have N2 or N1 certification.
That said, you obviously shouldn’t lie about having passed the JLPT, since occasionally employers do ask to see your certificate. Plus, if you say you have it on your resume, you may need to show a copy upon receiving a job offer. Also, for some professions, there’s a higher chance that it really will matter. For example, medical practitioners, dentists, veterinarians, speech therapists, assistant nurses, some caregivers, and many other medical workers licensed overseas must pass the N1 before taking Japan’s medical licensing exams. So if you’ve got white-collar dreams in Japan, or simply aren’t sure what level to call your Japanese skills, you might want to start boning up on verb conjugation.
Without a passing score on some level of the JLPT, it can be tough to get into a Japanese-taught university program as well. There are language schools dedicated solely to progressing students through each level of the JLPT, from N5 to N2/N1, hopefully culminating in their acceptance to a Japanese trade school or university. (I went to one of these language schools!) And hey, for all of you looking to prove you passed middle school? N1/N2 certification can also get you exempted from the Japanese-language test on the accreditation exam for completion of junior high education. All in all, there are quite a few doors you can open by waving an N1 or N2 certificate around.
Outside of Japan
On the other hand, more people outside of Japan sign up just to test their knowledge of Japanese, even if there are fewer concrete rewards for passing the exam. Students of Japanese are sometimes encouraged to use the JLPT as something to strive toward in their studies, or at least use as a general framework to gauge their abilities as they progress. For example, university professors sometimes design their courses around material for certain levels of the JLPT, and a lot of online study material is divided up by JLPT level. And for some self-learners, it can be a helpful goalpost as well. If you’ve been grinding it out at the WaniKani reviews mill for a long time, it can be extremely gratifying to pass the JLPT and prove to yourself how much you’ve learned.
If you want to live in Japan at some point, the JLPT is one tool that can help you do that.
But even if you are overseas, there can be some practical benefits and added bonuses to passing the JLPT, such as improving your resume for Japan-related programs like MEXT or getting a Highly Skilled Foreign Professional visa. Passing the N1 earns you 15 points toward preferential treatment for this visa, and the N2 gets you 10 points. You can find more information about this point system on the Immigration Bureau of Japan’s website. But basically, if you want to live in Japan at some point, the JLPT is one tool that can help you do that.
That said, not every student of Japanese has to take the JLPT. In fact, standardized tests are only one measure of language proficiency, and an imperfect one at that. So if you’re not trying to get a job or go to school in Japan, you can decide for yourself whether it’s worth it!
How Can I Take It?
Alright, now you know what the JLPT is. But how do you get your Japanese-learning posterior in one of those chairs to take it?
Be sure to take note of the dates you can sign up, because the registration period is notoriously short!
The JLPT is given twice a year in Japan, in July and December. Overseas, it’s given once or twice a year, depending on your location. And it’s not offered online, so you’ll have to hike out to a testing site and take it on paper. You can look up your testing site and sign up online on the official JLPT website and MyJLPT registration portal. Be sure to take note of the dates you can sign up, because the registration period is notoriously short! The window to submit your application is usually about two to three weeks long for each test date. I’ve managed to miss this window twice in my life, so be vigilant.
Each host city has its own designated testing site(s). In Japan, it could be anywhere that has the capacity to host crowds of nervous foreigners — for instance, I took it at a huge hotel in Nagoya. However, overseas, it may be your local Japanese embassy/consulate or university.
The application fee can vary based on your location and level, but it’s generally 5,000–6,500 yen in Japan and $50–60 in the US. Before you cough up this change, make sure you’re actually available on the test date. Unless the test is canceled due to circumstances like COVID, you don’t get a refund if you miss it. The Japan Foundation has certainly profited from my negligence in that department (read: skipping the test to go to a concert or take finals), so don’t be like me!
What’s the Test Like?
So what exactly are you and your number two pencils signing up for?
Well, the JLPT is an in-person test that lasts about three hours, with some slight variance depending on the level. You’ll be in the same room as other test-takers for the entire time. The proctors will read the instructions aloud to you, time each section, and watch to make sure you’re not cheating off any secret kanji scribbled on your bottle of Pocari Sweat.
You’ll need to bring your photo ID, test voucher, and handy dandy pencils and erasers. It’s worth mentioning that the anti-cheating rules can be pretty stringent, meaning no pencils with designs on them, erasers with wrappers, water bottles with labels, or clothes/bags with Japanese characters on them. How well these restrictions are enforced might vary depending on your proctors, but best not to take any chances. They’re also not supposed to lend you extra pencils, and there may not be a pencil sharpener available, so bring multiple!
Since the test is quite strictly timed, I recommend bringing or buying a cheap analog wristwatch for the occasion.
Additionally, since the test is quite strictly timed, I recommend bringing or buying a cheap analog wristwatch for the occasion. If your testing room doesn’t have a reliable or easily-visible clock, you’ll be glad you brought it. Digital watches are okay too, but make sure they don’t beep or make any sounds that might get you disqualified. Then they’d have to shred your test and feed it to the wolves. 🙁
Overall, the JLPT is a pretty straightforward experience — highly standardized and some amount of nerve-wracking, depending on how much you’ve got staked on it. Taking the test once was enough for me, but don’t let that stop you from sending the Japan Foundation fifty dollars twice a year if you want to!
Levels of the JLPT
So now you should have a pretty good idea of what taking the JLPT is like, but part of the experience will depend on your level. So, what level of the JLPT should you take?
The JLPT has five levels: N5-N1, with N5 being the easiest and N1 being the most difficult. As mentioned, N2-N1 are often regarded as qualifying a person to be able to work in a business-Japanese setting or get by in an all-Japanese academic program. About 90% of international students looking for jobs in Japan are reportedly N2–N1 level, according to Jump Japan Media. Conversely, N5–N3 are geared more toward basic, “everyday” Japanese.
Your mileage may vary, of course, but here’s a rough breakdown of what you might be able to do at each level:
N5
Read and understand short, common Japanese sentences using kana and basic kanji
Understand Japanese conversations that are about familiar everyday topics and spoken slowly
Work part-time doing jobs that don’t require much Japanese, such as manual labor, cleaning, delivering mail, etc.
N4
Read and understand Japanese materials about familiar everyday topics using basic kanji and vocabulary
Understand Japanese conversations that are spoken slowly
Work part-time doing jobs that require basic Japanese, such as kitchen work, catering, etc.
N3
Read and understand Japanese materials about everyday topics
Understand Japanese conversations spoken at nearly-natural speed
Qualify for some full-time jobs and internships (especially at international companies) involving Japanese, in fields such as IT, customer service, consulting, tech, etc.
Work part-time doing jobs that require smooth verbal communication with coworkers and customers in Japanese at a convenience store, cafe, restaurant, retail store, office, etc.
N2
Read and understand newspapers and other Japanese materials written in a straightforward manner
Understand native Japanese spoken in a variety of settings at nearly-natural speed
Qualify for some full-time jobs at Japanese companies doing web development, engineering, translation/interpretation, HR, etc. fully in Japanese
Get accepted to some undergraduate or graduate-level programs in Japan taught in Japanese
N1
Read and deeply understand complex, abstract Japanese materials
Comprehensively understand native Japanese spoken at natural speed
Qualify for full-time jobs at Japanese companies doing highly technical and/or academic translation and interpretation, medical services, etc. fully in Japanese
Get accepted to some undergraduate or graduate-level programs in Japan taught in Japanese
To determine which level you might want to take, I suggest looking up videos and resources of study materials for each level to help gauge your knowledge. You can also refer to this official “JLPT Can-do Self-Evaluation List” of comprehension tasks based on what examinees who passed each level of the exam reported they can do (e.g. read novels, understand TV dramas, etc.).
Choose the level that speaks to you, or that you have to take in order to meet any school or work requirements. Keep in mind that you can retake the same level whenever you want, as long as you pay to apply again. You can also start low and work up to a higher level over time. Just know that if you have N1, N2 won’t be of much use to you, so you can skip from N3 to N1 if you want to go for it without worrying about failing. Even if you don’t do well, you’ll gain the real-life experience of taking the test in person, which can give you a much better idea of what you might need to do to pass it next time. But it all depends on your priorities and situation. I took the N2 instead of the N1 because I valued passing the first time over gaining experience. So it’s up to you!
Sections of the Test
You know about the levels of the JLPT now, but which skills should you be brushing up on to prep for it? Well, pretty much everything except speaking and writing — vocabulary, grammar, reading, and listening comprehension — because there are no speaking or writing sections on the JLPT. So at least you’re safe in those regards!
In general, all levels of the JLPT test you on three main categories: Language Knowledge (Vocabulary and Grammar), Reading, and Listening.
In general, all levels of the JLPT test you on three main categories of Japanese language proficiency: Language Knowledge (Vocabulary and Grammar), Reading, and Listening. The Vocabulary section is pretty straightforward: you’ll choose kanji readings in multiple-choice questions, fill in the blanks in sentences with the correct words, and pick which sentences have roughly the same meaning. The Grammar section will have you choosing the correct particles to use in a sentence and puzzling out which sentence order is correct. As you might expect, the Reading section contains passages of varying length and style with accompanying comprehension and fill-in-the-blank questions. And the Listening section mostly consists of short, medium, and long conversations you have to remember the details of in order to answer the comprehension questions that come after.
The chart below shows you the section breakdown of each level of the JLPT.
Level
Section Breakdown
N5
Language Knowledge (Vocabulary)
20 mins
Language Knowledge (Grammar)・Reading
40 mins
Listening
30 mins
N4
Language Knowledge (Vocabulary)
25 mins
Language Knowledge (Grammar)・Reading
55 mins
Listening
35 mins
N3
Language Knowledge (Vocabulary)
30 mins
Language Knowledge (Grammar)・Reading
70 mins
Listening
40 mins
N2
Language Knowledge (Vocabulary/Grammar)・Reading
105 mins
Listening
50 mins
N1
Language Knowledge (Vocabulary/Grammar)・Reading
110 mins
Listening
60 mins
As you can see, unlike the N5–N3, the N2 and N1 group Vocabulary, Grammar, and Reading into one long test section. This means you can complete them in any order no matter which one comes first in the booklet. The time allotted for each section can vary depending on the year, so be sure to check the JLPT website’s time schedule for the most current information.
Time Limits
Aside from the content and difficulty, did you notice the other main difference between JLPT levels? That’s right, the length of each test varies quite a bit, with lower levels taking less time than higher levels.
The N2 and N1 last approximately three hours overall, while the N5–N3 only take between one to two hours. Basically, the higher the JLPT level, the longer you’ll be sitting there Christmas-treeing the answers. (Just kidding…maybe.)
It’s worth noting that the time limit on the Listening section tends to be a hard limit. The proctors generally are not supposed to replay any questions no matter how pitifully you beg. So make sure you use the paper they give you for note-taking while you listen, because it’ll likely save your life. Other than that, all you can do is listen up the first time around and hope no one around you coughs or squeaks in their seat.
The time limit of the JLPT makes it partially a test of endurance.
The time limit of the JLPT makes it partially a test of endurance. Granted, during my N2 exam, there was a short break in between the Language Knowledge and Listening sections during which you could go to the bathroom and have a snack to replenish your test-taking juices. But even so, I found it difficult to sustain my energy levels enough to stay 100% focused throughout the whole test. It’s easy to drop off after Vocabulary/Grammar/Reading and snooze through the Listening section – the worst section to take a nap, since there are no playbacks. So make sure to prepare for the time limits and get a good night’s sleep beforehand!
Scoring & Results
Okay, you’ve gone through the testing gauntlet and hopefully made it out the door with your dignity intact. Now, how will the almighty Japan Foundation decide your fate?
Well, there’s a certain benchmark of points required for every section in order to pass, meaning you can’t bomb any of them. On average, you have to get at least a ~32% on each section and a ~50% on the whole test to pass. However, each level of the JLPT is scored a little differently math-wise, so I recommend viewing the breakdown for yourself on the JLPT’s “Determination of pass/fail” page.
But how exactly do they decide how well you did on each section? That’s a complicated question. The way the JLPT is scored is actually kind of convoluted. They use “scaled scores,” meaning your score isn’t a direct one-to-one reflection of how many questions you got wrong. Instead, the Japan Foundation calculates results using Item Response Theory (IRT), which is based on your “answering patterns.” This means they take into account which questions you got right and throw out questions everyone tended to get right or wrong. You won’t be notified of your raw score, only this scaled score. And good news: there’s no penalty for getting questions wrong, so try to answer them all!
They use “scaled scores,” meaning your score isn’t a direct one-to-one reflection of how many questions you got wrong.
Presumably because of all this fancy arithmetic, the exams take about two to three months to score. So just sit back, watch people gossip about the test on Reddit, and wait for the results to roll in. You can see your results online on MyJLPT, and your Score Report will also be physically mailed to you via the institution where you took the exam. The Score Report tells you your score on each section, but doesn’t go into detail about which questions you got wrong. Overseas examinees get to see their percentile rank compared to other test-takers, too. And if you passed, you’ll also receive a nice little Certificate of Proficiency to obnoxiously whip out next time someone doubts your Nihongo prowess.
Happy Testing…!
Hopefully after reading this, you have a better understanding of what the JLPT is and whether you’re interested in taking it. If you do decide to sign up, best of luck!
Whether you’ve been diligently studying for months or slammed a bunch of grammar into your noodle the night before, I’m proud of you. Even if you gave up after twenty minutes and doodled a picture of Colonel Sanders on your answer sheet, at least you know more about where you’re at now. Remember, the real achievement is in showing up and doing the work to better your Japanese, no matter your score.
