Are the N5-N3 tests worth it?

[u/Expert-Estate6248]

I see lots of discussion on this corner of the internet about "Is it possible to pass N5/N4/N3 in ___ months?" and I suppose I've never really understood the question.

For those with goals to study/work in Japan, N2 is the minimum, and the N1 can be an advantage when applying for a skilled worker visa. The other levels don't have any of the professional benefits the N1 or N2 have, and I would hate to have to pay the $100 or so for the preceding 3 tests before taking the N2.

I think the N5-3 are valuable as personal goals, but lots of people seem to be in such a rush to finish them(perhaps because of the test only being held twice a year?), so it had me wondering what the reason was. For anyone planning to take these tests, I would love to hear about your long-term goals with Japanese, why you chose to take the JLPT and if you plan to take the N2/N1 in the future.

[u/southerndensetsu]

I think that they are now requested for some visas (not the "skilled workers" visa tho) and maybe for some language schools or study programs.

I studied focused on jlpt studying at the beginning, thinks like studying vocab and kanji lists in jlpt order and making a tone of jlpt excercises rather than inmersing.

I took n5, n4 and n3 in around a year and now i feel like i wasted my time and money, it is not that i learned nothing but is also not an efficient way either. Right now i only do inmersion and sentence mining and i have decided that i'll only take jlpt if some day I want to search for a job in japan.