Deep Dive helped me figure out my weak point — reading speed

visa_panic

I passed N4 in December and honestly I was relieved more than happy. The whole time during the reading section I kept running out of time. After the exam I kept thinking about it — like yeah I passed, but barely, and if the reading section had been any longer I would have been done.

So I bought a Deep Dive report to see what it would say. And sure enough, it flagged reading speed as my biggest bottleneck. Not comprehension — speed. I was spending too long on individual sentences, re-reading stuff I already understood. The pace graph showed me exactly where I was losing time compared to other test takers.

I would have failed again in July if I had not fixed this. Now I am doing timed reading drills every day — 15 minutes, no going back. It is painful but it is working. My practice scores went from barely passing to comfortable in about 6 weeks.

Anyone else deal with this? Feeling like you understand the material but just cannot move fast enough?

coffeeandkanji

The pace graph is the most underrated feature. Most people focus on the score breakdown but the pace data is where you actually find the fixable stuff. I had the same issue — decent comprehension but hemorrhaging time on the first few questions. Once I saw the graph I realized I was spending 3x longer on passage 1 than passage 4. Now I force myself to move on after 90 seconds per question regardless.

herewegoagain

I passed without it but I am curious now. Might grab one to see where I actually stand for N3. My gut says listening is my weak spot but I have been wrong before.

robert_t

I think I will get one for my N5 attempt. Maybe it will show me what I keep getting wrong. At this point I have failed twice and I am not even sure what to fix anymore. If it can tell me where my time goes that alone would be worth it.

thirdtry

Ahora que pase capaz que compro uno para ver como fue, che. De curiosidad nomas. Igual me da miedo que me diga que pase de pedo jajaja.

bayarea

Reading speed is a real thing. I had the same issue with N4 listening — I understood the words but couldn't process them fast enough in real time. Timed drills sound painful but I might try that approach for N3 listening prep.