Some rare sad news…. I failed the Kanji Kentei level 4 exam (漢字検定試験４級) by enough points to actually say “ok, this was not just bad luck”)
Level 4 is 315 kanji, significantly more than level 5 which has 220 or so kanji. Subsequently I spent much more time studying for level 4 than I spent on level 5. What’s a bit vexing is that although I spent all that time, I think I mainly failed the exam because of kanji from earlier levels (such as 5, 6 etc.) for the following reasons:
- I just can’t remember all of them since I’m not actively using them
- There is a lot more vocabulary derived from kanji combinations than in previous levels
What’s not so vexing is that the exam is “only” 3500 yen per taking. Could have been much more expensive.