ariariari Wrote:Yay - I just finished my kanji book's まとめ問題２, which finishes all of 第２部. They introduced a new, sadistic type of kanji question at the end. They wrote out 4 short sentences, underline 1 hiragana word with each, and then ask you to pick which one is a different kanji character. The example is:

道のりょうがわに土産物屋が並んでいる。
彼女はりょうしんと一緒に住んでいる。
転んでりょうほうの足をけがした。
すーぱーでしょくりょう品を買った。

To be honest, I had never encountered this type of question before, and did very poorly on this section.

Jawful Wrote:So is the answer #4 as りょう is 両 in the first three but 料 in the last one? Is that what the question is? That's quite a challenging question but great practice for understanding kanji! I enjoy those types of problems as they are kind of like puzzles to solve. They often have questions like these on Japanese quiz shows.

ariariari Wrote:Yes, that's exactly right. I wasn't sure whether to include the answer or not, but now I realize that I should have. To be honest, I'm just glad that I encountered this type of problem for the first time now as opposed to on the test day. When I took JLPT N4 last year there was a lot of stuff that I saw for the first time when I actually took the test.

redshoulder Wrote:There's a sample paper on jlpt website as well as small sample paper on jlptbootcamp website.

Just a a question regarding うちに and ついでに since I find them quite similar.

散歩にでかけた( )スーパーによって買い物をして帰った。 ついでに is used because of past tense.

if we change sentence to

散歩に出かける ( )... うちに is used.

Is this correct?

ariariari Wrote:Where do you get the practice tests?

redshoulder Wrote:There's a sample paper on jlpt website as well as small sample paper on jlptbootcamp website.

Just a a question regarding うちに and ついでに since I find them quite similar.

散歩にでかけた( )スーパーによって買い物をして帰った。 ついでに is used because of past tense.

if we change sentence to

散歩に出かける ( )... うちに is used.

Is this correct?

ariariari Wrote:I realize that this will hamper the likelihood of me passing the test in december, but I'm OK with that.

yogert909 Wrote:

ariariari Wrote:I realize that this will hamper the likelihood of me passing the test in december, but I'm OK with that.

Oh geez. Really? Are the tests really that difficult? You seem pretty far ahead of me and I think you're spending more time than me too. I was assuming you'd ace the test.

And I've never taken the JLPT so I don't know what to expect. I have been holding off taking practice tests for a while so that I don't memorize the practice tests by the winter. But I was expecting a pretty straightforward reading and listening comprehension exam, but it sounds like it's more than that. Should I expect a lot of difficult trick questions?

ariariari Wrote:Well, I wouldn't let my machinations affect your self-confidence. If you look at the very first on this thread I link to the actual pass rates on all of the exams. It varies from test to test, but it's normally about a 1/3 pass rate.

Personally, I passed the N4 but felt that it mauled me. I did great on the vocab/kanji part, but that was it. In every other part there was a lot of stuff that I just didn't know. You can review the actual numbers on the link I reference above, but I think that you need to get about a 50% to pass. And only about 1/3 of the people pass.

I am happy with my progress but my study time has been decreasing quite a bit. Right now I spend about 40 minutes / day with Anki, and that's the bulk of my study time. I don't think that I can (or want to spend more time with Anki per day right now.

For me I think that the path to feel more confident with the exam would be spending more time with the prep books, drilling grammar, listening and reading as they test it. But I just can't make that commitment right now.

When I do spend time outside of Anki, it tends to be to go to conversation groups and the like. The test has really made me realize that there's a big difference between using the language and improving my language ability (especially as the JLPT measures it, which includes no speaking or writing).

If you don't know what to expect, I highly recommend buying the official N3 Practice Test and spending an afternoon taking it. My biggest regret from taking the N4 is that I really just didn't know what to expect.

uaifestival Wrote:p.s. I noticed ariari writing taking grammar lessons on JOI...what is that?

yogert909 Wrote:

ariariari Wrote:Well, I wouldn't let my machinations affect your self-confidence. If you look at the very first on this thread I link to the actual pass rates on all of the exams. It varies from test to test, but it's normally about a 1/3 pass rate.

Personally, I passed the N4 but felt that it mauled me. I did great on the vocab/kanji part, but that was it. In every other part there was a lot of stuff that I just didn't know. You can review the actual numbers on the link I reference above, but I think that you need to get about a 50% to pass. And only about 1/3 of the people pass.

I am happy with my progress but my study time has been decreasing quite a bit. Right now I spend about 40 minutes / day with Anki, and that's the bulk of my study time. I don't think that I can (or want to spend more time with Anki per day right now.

For me I think that the path to feel more confident with the exam would be spending more time with the prep books, drilling grammar, listening and reading as they test it. But I just can't make that commitment right now.

When I do spend time outside of Anki, it tends to be to go to conversation groups and the like. The test has really made me realize that there's a big difference between using the language and improving my language ability (especially as the JLPT measures it, which includes no speaking or writing).

If you don't know what to expect, I highly recommend buying the official N3 Practice Test and spending an afternoon taking it. My biggest regret from taking the N4 is that I really just didn't know what to expect.

Thanks ariariari, I fully plan on taking practice tests. However, I want to wait a bit since the test is only an accurate gauge of my level the first time through, as I'll remember things from the test the second time. In other words, I don't want to waste fresh tests too early in the game. I will probably start taking easier tests starting with N5 and N4 to get used to the format and working my way up to N3 in maybe octoberish more as a gauge of what I need to spend more study time on.

Of course, I'm still considering dropping the whole thing as I have no practical reason to pass N3 beyond bragging rights and some way to benchmark my level. I'll only take the test if I have a reasonable chance of passing. Due to my emerging capacity to read native material, I might even enjoy that too much to bother with studying for some silly test anyway. But then again, there's a chance I might be in Japan in December, so it would be cool to take the test there.. Decisions, decisions..

I guess I am spending a little more time than you, but that's only by being antisocial and going to lunch alone so I can study on lunch. I only eat at places that I can walk to, so I can do anki reps while walking to/from lunch. I'm able to carve out about 90 minutes a day that way. I even bought a dash mount for my iphone so I can study kanji when traffic grinds to a stop. It makes traffic more bearable since more gridlock means more study

ariariari Wrote:If you've never taken a JLPT I highly recommend it. Despite it being so hard, I felt that it was a good test in that it wasn't like they were making up random stuff. Signing up really focused my energy and study habits. The JLPT website says that they "certify" your ability. So I view each level as testing a solid canon of vocab, grammar, reading and listening that you need to pass thru 5 stages of language ability. It's like a milestone.

I have found this to be especially useful in Japanese, because many native speakers seem to think that a non-Japanese is fluent if they can simply introduce themselves.

uaifestival Wrote:Hello folks,

we are getting close...NP3 test for me.