Revised Test

A new revised test was originally scheduled to begin in December 2009. However, it has been postponed until 2010. The revised test will consist of five levels: N1, N2, N3, N4, and N5. N may be interpreted as being the first letter of either “Nihongo” (“Japanese”) or “New”.

* N1: generally the same as the original level 1; however, slightly more advanced
* N2: the same as the original level 2
* N3: in between the original level 2 and level 3
* N4: the same as the original level 3
* N5: the same as the original level 4

In addition, the tests will be offered twice a year: July and December. This will go into effect in 2009. The July test will only be offered for levels 1 and 2; by 2010, this will be only level N1 and N2.

The revised test will continue to test the same categories as the original. It will not test oral or writing skills.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jlpt#Revised_test

Here’s their homepage:

http://bonjinsha.com/

And here’s a link to their JLPT materials including the Kanzen master (完全マスター) series:

http://bonjinsha.com/examination/jlpt/

Note that there’s a search bar on top of that page that you can use and search for other books, and they have a lot. The Donna toki dou tsukau nihongo series (どんな時どう使う日本語) isn’t listed on the JLPT page but it’ll come up if you do a search for it. What I did back then was check books at Amazon Japan and other sites (for easy English surfing) then return to Bonjinsha to look for the books and place my orders.

Hopefully this comment doesn’t get marked as spam because of the links. Hehe.

http://www.amazon.com/Languages-Japan-Cambridge-Language-Surveys/dp/0521369185/ref=pd_sim_b_2

The way that the book is layed out is “Kanji de manga [wo yomimashou]“, or “let’s read manga through kanji.”

The difference between the two is in the order of the particles/words. By putting “kanji” at the head of the sentence, it gives it slightly more stress than if it was at the back end of the sentence.

For a very painful, but informative read:
http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Japanese-Linguistics-Blackwell-Textbooks/dp/1405110651/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217867618&sr=8-1

You could always just obsfucate the translation to “Learn how to read manga that has kanji” (where the implication of learning kanji makes either title work).

Personal Recommendation though, “A Dictionary of (insert level here) Japanese Grammar” was one of my favorites though…along with the ALC 「どんな時どう使う日本語表現文型５００」 was also awesome.