JLPT N3 in 7 months?!

I have started learning Japanese this October and I want to attend the N3 exam at July 2016.

First of all, I'll start listing how much Japanese I know. I am following the Minna no Nihongo book 1 and now I am at lesson 6 and Basic Kanji vol. 1 at lesson 7. As for my listening skills I have watched anime for the past 2 years and listened to over 3400 hours of conversation. So from there I have picked a lot of words and doing the MNN vocabularies are very easy for me now as I know almost 95% of them in each lesson. I can understand almost 80% of the conversation without any subtitle. So I know a lot of words used in daily conversation. I don't have much fear of Kanji as I learned Chinese for 6 months and passed HSK2(300 Hanji, know around 400 and can write). That's where my confidence comes from. It's more like I learned Japanese by watching anime before learning formally. All these was not to brag so please don't think of me as a weeb or otaku as this was to give you an idea of my Japanese level.

I study Japanese everyday and can finish a lesson in MNN1 and Basic Kanji vol. 1 in 1 day. I think I'll finish upto lesson 15 of each within this this year. Now I'm in need of suggestion of which books I need to read for N3. I am pretty sure that only completing till MNN2 & Basic Kanji vol. 2 won't do me that good. I don't find grammar that interesting and don't have to think about them when writing or talking as they come to me naturally most of the time. So which books should I follow for grammar and other things to become able to attend N3 in next July. I can spare at least an hour each day or more if I get too much into it. For listening practice I watch 1 hour worth of conversation(anime) everyday. I want to start on the books that I may need for N3 already and study all these simultaneously. Is there any credible online course or guide? Can you please kindly suggest which books I should follow and how I should approach.

You talk a lot about listening practice, but how good is your reading? 7 months at one hour a day isn't much time, so you should already be able to understand and answer at least part of an example N3 test (this is not the complete test, just the part that focuses on grammar - other parts can be found here).

I'm not sure how much of an edge your knowledge of Chinese characters will give you. Firstly, characters that are commonly used in China may be used barely or not at all in Japan (and the ones that do reoccur are not necessarily used in the same way). Secondly, the N3 test still has lots of furigana

Out of curiosity, did you drop Mandarin or are you attempting to learn both languages at the same time?

It's possible but I would recommend a lower level than that first.

Going to a Japanese language school might help if you really want to pass n3 in 7 months

Continue studying as you are until the application period nears. Then take one of the past exams at home to see if you think you will be ready to pass N3 by examination time.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/日本語能力試験-公式問..._UL160_SR113,160_&refRID=1E5C7E80FN43HG1DHZ73

Fairly doable, but as lanthas pointed out, go check your reading, also 400 kanji are a bit low for n3 I think.

lanthas said:

You talk a lot about listening practice, but how good is your reading? 7 months at one hour a day isn't much time, so you should already be able to understand and answer at least part of an example N3 test (this is not the complete test, just the part that focuses on grammar - other parts can be found here).

I'm not sure how much of an edge your knowledge of Chinese characters will give you. Firstly, characters that are commonly used in China may be used barely or not at all in Japan (and the ones that do reoccur are not necessarily used in the same way). Secondly, the N3 test still has lots of furigana

Out of curiosity, did you drop Mandarin or are you attempting to learn both languages at the same time?

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I am working on my reading skills and I don't know how to measure how good I am at reading but I can read pretty fast than others who started with me at the same time.
I have put studying Chinese on hold until I can pass N4/N3 in Japanese. But I will resume learning mandarin after I've learned Japanese upto N3 then continue both of them simultaneously as I want to take the HSK4 exam.

Davey said:

It's possible but I would recommend a lower level than that first.

Going to a Japanese language school might help if you really want to pass n3 in 7 months

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I am attending a school that teaches Japanese but their progress is slow. The first course is of 1 year and they will only complete MNN1 within this time and they won't teach us any Kanji. I am attending classes for 3 months and they have come upto lesson 5 only. So, I started by myself.

Kraise said:

Fairly doable, but as lanthas pointed out, go check your reading, also 400 kanji are a bit low for n3 I think.

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I knew 400 Hanji(Chinese charater). Of course I will read Basic Kanji vol.1 and vol.2 which should be 500 kanji but I still need to read from other materials to know 600 kanji.

Mike Cash said:

Continue studying as you are until the application period nears. Then take one of the past exams at home to see if you think you will be ready to pass N3 by examination time.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/日本語能力試験-公式問題集-N3-独立行政法人-国際交流基金/dp/4893588192/ref=pd_sim_14_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=413TBXWW5fL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR113,160_&refRID=1E5C7E80FN43HG1DHZ73

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Will do. I plan on doing that for each level's syllabus I complete from N5.