More or less an year ago I decided to learn japanese for various reasons.

It mostly boils down to the desire I want to challenge myself but also because i have grown up reading manga, watching anime (before they were called anime in the mainstream so this reveals a bit of my age i suppose...) and I thought "how cool would it be to just pick a manga and read it in the language it was originally written? and wouldn't it be even cooler one day to go to Japan and speak with them in their language?"
That's more or less... it. That's the reason i have decided to take this "hobby".

Actually a couple of months after learning the first grammar rules i also thought "how hard could that be?" and i just got crushed by a little doraemon story. I understood the word "Nobita" :\

Anyway, so here i am now... In a month I'll try to pass the JLPT N5, the very super basic exam I'd like to pass just to prove myself that I can do it and I can move on to the next level.
I know that i could just skip it and keep on studying but after an year i feel i need a sort of... I dunno... a sort of token given from others. And if doraemon has proved something is that my mind alone cannot be trusted :)

I have seen that some of you know this language and I suppose, some of you have already tried and passed this exam.
So... any suggestion?
Is there anything i need to pay attention in particular? Anything i need to consider? Some hidden rule i do not have to break?
Something i should focus on in the last few weeks?

I'm open to suggestions because i keep on studying after dinner for an hour or so but, honestly, i am starting to feel a bit of tension.

p.s. I suppose my Achilles heel is the listening and comprehension. While i can read at a normal speed, I understand them only when they speak slow and sometimes, when a word is not immediately recognized boom... i just lose the flow trying to remember what that word meant and if i have ever heard it before.

I am especially asking for English thesauri suggestions. But curious for any resource in general.

The reason I use Goldendict is that I can host a lot of local dictionaries that I do not physically own without relying on the internet.