What is the new level N3?
A new level N3 Ehas been created as a lot of students passed N4 but then weren’t able to pass N2. There are three test papers: vocabulary (30 minutes), reading/grammar (70 mintutes) and listening (40 minutes).
Vocabulary
The vocabulary in these includes many more words/phrases that are frequently employed in daily life. Some of them are onomatopoeia, katakana-words, or related to science/school life/geography/business.
Reading/Grammar
The reading/grammar test requires candidates to understand a 300-400 word-long text about things such as:
- one’s impression of trains in Tokyo
- an email to inform friends about a farewell party for their respectful teacher
- a simplified newspaper article about how urbanisation affects the waay childen play outside.
Listening
The listening test is summarised as testing the ‘skills to understand the gist of informal/formal conversations in everyday life at a natural speed’.
Some of these 30 or so conversations Eall of which last for about 40 minutes Eare listed below.:
- A conversation between two people who discuss how to get to a hotel to start a meeting at 9.30am when they are likely to get involved in a traffic jam.
- What to do first after listening to the message from a friend on a telephone answering machine.
- A conversation between a man and a woman at a supermarket as to why this man is buying a pre-cooked lunch box.
- An informal converstain between a student and the man in charge at a university as to why this student is not qualified to do a home-stay.
- What you should say to a hotel receptionist when the television in your room does not work.
- What you should say (in a polite way) to someone who is senior to you when you would like to open the window as you feel hot.
- What you should say when you are told not to be late for a group tour that starts at 8.30am the next day.
