Gokaku Dekiru

[Bleaky]

I want to study for the JLPT N3 and stumbled upon this book. I am on a budget so I don't want to spend too much money. Does Gokaku Dekiru have explanations or is it just a practice test guide/workbook?

[Mikkabozu]

Never held it in my hands, so can't say for sure, but looking at the book on Amazon (Amazon Japan has the option to preview the book), it looks like it's just a collection of practice questions.

The Kanzen Master (完全マスター) series is an old stand-by. It's pretty thorough, but is all in Japanese. I also don't know if they've updated their materials since the introduction of the new test.

A new series called the Nihongosomatome (日本語総まとめ) is designed for the new test. It also has translations in English, and is very well organized (similar grammar grouped together, kanji and vocab grouped by some sort of theme, etc.), but is a bit sparse on examples and test questions.

If you're looking for more than just a list of questions, I would suggest looking at either of those two books. Again, if you go to the Japanese Amazon page, they both have options to preview the contents of each series.

[notdaijoubu]

I bought Gokaku Dekiru for N2 and N1. The Gokaku Dekiru series is a good resource to train yourself to deal with JLPT questions, the level of said questions, and the kind of questions you'll be getting. It is not very good as a general study aid. The listening comprehension section is especially helpful if I were to point out a specific benefit of the series, but everything else (vocabulary, reading comprehension) is stuff you'd have to learn from other sources in my opinion.