The battle plan and some backstory

My main form of immersion for Japanese language learning is through reading. So far I've mainly only completed manga and children's books. My plan is to keep up with reading each day and progressing with harder and harder material.

I'll be using Natively for their grading system. Starting at L20 and ending at L26 this is their N3 level range.

I hope that I can get to a comfortable high N3 level by December for the JLPT.

I prefer reading physical manga/books so I'm hoping that I can find some good books at the local library to fill in the level gaps.

The biggest thing that struck me from the 2025 JLPT N3 was the much longer paragraphs for the reading comprehension section.

This is probably a good point to say that I'm hoping to pass every level of the JLPT even if it means taking a much easier level of test (like I did for the N5). Or taking the test when I feel certain I will fail (like last year's N3).

Last year a ton of just awful and stressful events started in February and just wouldn't freaking stop for the rest of the year. I pretty much stopped with studying/immersion and was just trying to survive.

I'm really proud of myself for still registering for the test (thinking it would get me back on track (it didn't...)) and for still taking the test. I did lose a good chunk of my reading speed and my listening comprehension score was pretty bad, but I didn't fail the test by all that much. As long as I get back into a slow and steady habit I should be able to at least pass the test this year.

Week of 3/23-3/29

Manga: ふらいんぐうぃっち 4

Level: L20

Week of 3/16-3/22

Manga: ふらいんぐうぃっち 3

Level: L20

Notes: Vol. 4 was the next one on my to read list but I realized I might not have actually finished Vol. 3 and if I did it was the night before the JLPT last year and now 2.5 months later I don't remember nearly anything. So I figured re-reading Vol. 3 was the best option. Re-reading this should be a nice jumping off point; not a dive straight into the deep end but also not a slow step into the shallow end like if I went back to N4 level material.

I finished Vol. 3 early and thought I would catch up on the most recent volume of よつばと! which is vol. 16 I bought it right after taking the JLPT and walked over to the nearby Kinokuniya and haven't had a chance to read it. The reading level is L17 N3 and it is the most often recommended manga to get into when starting to read in Japanese which I mostly agree with. Come Monday I'll switch back to the ふらいんぐうぃっち series

Completed