It might not be so challenging for Chinese speakers to learn kanji, but it's not easy for non-Chinese speakers. To pass JLPT N5, you need to remember about 100 kanji characters, and 300 for JLPT N4.

It may be difficult but please don't give up. There is a special kanji reference book for non-Chinese speakers .

'Learning 300 Kanjis Through Stories' is a very interesting book as you might expect from the title. And all the explanation is well translated in 
1) English, Bahasa Indonesia, Thai, Vietnam and
2) English, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish 

To pass JLPT N4 and N5, please study kanji by this book. And to pass JLPT 3, you can use Learn Kanji through Stories Ⅱ 301-500~.

http://nihongo.9640.jp/english/books/books-story.html