HOW TO STUDY I'd say ideally with a teacher. The explanation and examples are mostly clear, but it's better to have a teacher explain to you when you can use that grammar and when it's considered weird.
TRANSLATION The grammar rules are explained in English. Other than that, it's all in Japanese.
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ABOUT THE BOOK
it has 11 chapters (most of them are in 2 parts, for example chapter 11 (1) and 11(2)). Each chapter has a paragraph or a dialogue, which contains the new grammar points that are tackled in that chapter. Then it explains each grammar rule separately with examples and exercise questions. Each chapter also has a bunch of questions at the end that cover all the grammar rules together that were covered in that specific chapter, including listening exercises.
It comes with a CD that has the paragraphs and the listening questions. It also comes with an answers' booklet which is great if you want to practice without a teacher.
I think the book is excellent as a resource for all the different grammar rules in N3. But I do believe it's better to learn from it with a teacher, which is what I did.
For someone who wants to pass N3 (Japanese intermediate level, mostly required JLPT level to graduate from university OR to seeking a job in Japanese Corporation in Indonesia), I really recommending this book to learn grammar that usually used for intermediate level.
What I like from this book is, a lot of 専門用語 are used as reading passages, sample sentences, or questions THAT actually used in Japanese daily life, compared to similar books that offering for JLPT N3. The topic itself still related to current lifestyle despite it is 2014 published book.
This book’s grammar and words are a bit harder than the real JLPT test but it is really helpful to understanding the patterns because the explanation is easy to understand.
Overall very helpful. Great example sentences, but sometimes the explanations of the grammar points were a bit unclear and I had to reference outside sources to ensure I understood the grammar point’s usage. Easy to work your way through and feel yourself progress though, so I would recommend!