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+--- Thread: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread (/thread-12646.html)
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - Jaxon - 2016-01-26
Yay, I passed N2! This was my first time taking any JLPT test.
言語知識: 42/60
読解: 27/60
聴解: 50/60
総合得点: 119/180
Vocab/Grammar: A/A
My reading speed/comprehension just isn't there yet I guess. I started doing the reading with a little over an hour to go but ended up running out of time with 5 questions remaining. I had to bubble those in randomly. I ran into a similar issue with the one practice test I took a few months before the test.
I'm still not sure if I want to take N1.
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - angelneko - 2016-01-26
congrats to everyone that passed!!
alas I did not, nor was I expecting to
言語知識: 36/60
読解: 14/60
聴解: 27/60
総合得点: 77/180
Vocab/Grammar: A and A
so there's that, at least.
that abysmal dokkai though...
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - rich_f - 2016-01-26
Woof. I totally fubared the reading section, but I kind of suspected that when I was leaving the building. I need to find some better reading material to improve my reading speed, or something. I must confess that I really hate reading shasetsu. I'd rather read... just about anything else, actually.
Congrats to all the people who passed, tho!
I'm gonna start studying again tomorrow, I guess. Either for July or December, I'm not sure which yet. And if I go for July, I gotta figure out where the heck I'm taking it. (I'll make a summer vacation out of it, I guess?)
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - sholum - 2016-01-26
Oh man, I did terrible compared with my practice tests, and those seemed more difficult...
Total: 66/180
Language Knowledge: 26/60
Reading: 18/60
Listening: 22/60
Oh well, I'll try again at the end of the year; might seem easy next time.
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - shaggadelyc - 2016-01-27
Hey guys! Congrats to all that passed, good luck for the next jlpt to those who have not!
Trying to get back into japanese after a long break and have just reviewed N3 contents. However, I can't seem to find a JLPT N2 vocab anki deck, there do not seem to be any matching shared decks.
Can someone point me in the right direction here? Just looking for a plain vocab one, around 2000 words, nothing fancy.
Thanks in advance!
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - datrukup - 2016-01-27
Congrats to everyone!
I barely passed the N2 with 105/180.
Here's to studying for the N1? I feel like all the N2 knowledge is in my head, but it can't come out of my mouth fast enough. I'm tempted to just start all of my N2 studies all over again and focus only on output
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - pm215 - 2016-01-27
(2016-01-27, 3:40 am)shaggadelyc Wrote: Trying to get back into japanese after a long break and have just reviewed N3 contents. However, I can't seem to find a JLPT N2 vocab anki deck, there do not seem to be any matching shared decks.This is N1 rather than N2, but I didn't find a decent specifically-JLPT vocab deck. I think the ones labelled that way tend to be based off the lists on the Tanos site, which IME include some rather dubious or unclear entries that are then compounded by attempts to automatically find an example sentence for the word that end up picking something unrepresentative/with the wrong reading of the kanji/with the wrong sense of the word/etc. So I dumped that idea and have just been working through a Core vocab deck instead (Core10K in my case). The words, examples and audio in those are much better curated and I think they should line up well enough with what JLPT is looking for.
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - shaggadelyc - 2016-01-27
Hmm well thanks anyway.
If someone else has the JLPT N2 Vocab deck and likes to share it with me, please send me a quick pm
Thanks!
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - zx573 - 2016-01-27
Here's the deck I made for N2. It's based on the Tanos vocab list, but I sourced the definitions and example sentences mostly from Kenkyusha Waei Daijiten when possible, and only used EDICT to fill in anything it couldn't find (not too much, but some things).
http://www.mediafire.com/view/2vp7h94btq987ty/JLPT_N2_Vocab_Examples_final.txt
Import this into Anki as a tab separated list, and set the fields to be:
Field 1: Front
Field 2: Reading
Field 3: Back
Field 4: Examples
It's not perfect, but it was more than enough for me for N2.
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - TheVinster - 2016-01-27
Bombed N1 for the 3rd time in a row. Go me!
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - shaggadelyc - 2016-01-27
Wow this is amazing, thank you!
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - poiprotocol - 2016-01-27
(2016-01-27, 1:22 pm)TheVinster Wrote: Bombed N1 for the 3rd time in a row. Go me!
Sorry to hear that. Sucks.
Any improvement in score, or even more importantly, improvement in your personal assessment of real world ability during your N1 prep periods? That's the real goal for me, more than any JLPT certificate.
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - angelneko - 2016-01-28
(2016-01-27, 4:41 am)datrukup Wrote: Congrats to everyone!
I barely passed the N2 with 105/180.
Here's to studying for the N1? I feel like all the N2 knowledge is in my head, but it can't come out of my mouth fast enough. I'm tempted to just start all of my N2 studies all over again and focus only on output
aw nice you just made it.
i would definitely solidify your N2 before going to N1.
does anyone think its a bigger jump from N3 to N2 , or N2 to N1 , in terms of volume of material?
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - Zgarbas - 2016-01-28
The jump from N2 to N1 is definitely higher any way you look at it, but remember that knowledge is not that smoothly classified beyond a certain point, so it is more difficult to measure. Every beginner will inevitably learn the stuff on N5, N4 and maybe even N3, but from there on progress is a bit fuzzier. N1 requires a wide array of reading skills, so it is harder to focus your study on one thing. Up to the N3 you have a clear list of vocab, kanjis and grammar points which will come up, since they are by far the most common (if you don't know the stuff in N5-N3 papers, you will probably have trouble in your everyday Japanese life). You don´t actually need to know 2000 kanjis and 20000 words to pass the N1, but you do need to recognise the ones that come up in most common texts covering multiple fields.
I think that's why so many people get stuck at the N2 despite being functional in the language.
Also, remember that JLPT scores are weighed, so 105 points does not mean you only got 60% of the test right =).
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - FlameseeK - 2016-02-03
I don't care much about JLPT to be honest, but I wonder if going for N1 in December would be possible given my current level. I'm probably somewhere between N4 and N3 right now.
I started studying Japanese on Sep 15 last year. So far I've done Genki 1-2, a handful of N5ish graded readers, RTK, Core 2k + a few hundred words, DoBJG from cover to cover (SRSing useful sentences). Currently, I'm half-way through Erin's Challenge, which I should be able to finish in 2 days or so. After that, I'll start Tobira right away... which I should be able to finish in 2 months or perhaps even a little earlier, since I'll be mostly focusing on input and SRSing vocabulary.
I don't know if I can get quite there because I'd have to SRS a little more 30 words a day once I'm done with Tobira. I don't know how quickly words add up if you do that though, so I don't know if I'd have to take breaks for my reviews to lower. Not sure if Core 10k is recommended either.
What do you guys think? I honestly don't know if I'll bother doing something like this once I'm done with Tobira. But thinking about these things help me set myself goals, so I think there's no harm in asking. I highly doubt I'd fail N2 by the end of 2016, but I'm not sure about N1.
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - SomeCallMeChris - 2016-02-03
(2016-02-03, 9:23 pm)FlameseeK Wrote: I don't care much about JLPT to be honest, but I wonder if going for N1 in December would be possible given my current level. I'm probably somewhere between N4 and N3 right now.
Honestly, I don't think there's any chance of that. You're welcome to try of course, but in order to pass N1 it's no longer about 'have I studied all the material?'
At the N1 level the bigger challenge is 'can I read essays intended for native speakers at a decent speed and understand everything?' and of course 'can I understand Japanese spoken at normal speed?'
The only way really to get faster at reading Japanese is to read more Japanese ; if you're not yet reading material meant for natives you're going to have a great deal of trouble becoming a quick enough reader in one year.
Listening comprehension is another skill entirely which clicks very easily for some people and not very easily for others. In any case, the actual material in the listening section is dead easy if only you had a transcript. It really is almost purely a test of listening comprehension.
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - FlameseeK - 2016-02-03
(2016-02-03, 10:03 pm)SomeCallMeChris Wrote: Honestly, I don't think there's any chance of that. You're welcome to try of course, but in order to pass N1 it's no longer about 'have I studied all the material?'I see. So you mean it's not just your reading ability in general, but more specific/technical stuff and being able to understand the whole thing naturally?
At the N1 level the bigger challenge is 'can I read essays intended for native speakers at a decent speed and understand everything?' and of course 'can I understand Japanese spoken at normal speed?'
The only way really to get faster at reading Japanese is to read more Japanese ; if you're not yet reading material meant for natives you're going to have a great deal of trouble becoming a quick enough reader in one year.
Listening comprehension is another skill entirely which clicks very easily for some people and not very easily for others. In any case, the actual material in the listening section is dead easy if only you had a transcript. It really is almost purely a test of listening comprehension.
I believe my reading is bound to improve a lot since I'll start reading visual novels soon enough, probably once I'm done with Tobira or maybe after I do a little more of Core 6k. That's going to be more than 6 months of reading "intended for natives". Perhaps some easy news for a while and later on regular news depending on how it goes. But the way you speak makes it sound like you need something more specific than that to prepare.
What kind of advice would you give me if I said I'll still go for it and do my best, even if it's unrealistic? Because I don't think the amount of stuff I've studied so far in less than 5 months is realistic for the vast majority of people either, so I don't care much about that. Worst case scenario, I could take the test 6 months later (which would be a lot more realistic, but whatever).
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - zx573 - 2016-02-04
(2016-02-03, 10:34 pm)FlameseeK Wrote: I see. So you mean it's not just your reading ability in general, but more specific/technical stuff and being able to understand the whole thing naturally?I personally wouldn't put the content of a lot of visual novels as difficult or comparable enough for the N1 unless you're reading something more complicated than the average visual novel. You can read those with some (quite a bit of) difficulty starting around N4/N3. Even if you can read them smoothly, visual novels aren't going to really prepare you much for the reading comprehension skills and they definitely won't prepare you for the kind of content you're going to need to know needed for N1. For comparison, some people around here use things such as newspaper editorials/shasetsu to prep for the reading sections of N1 which consist largely of topics such as Japanese politics and economics and other societal issues. You would seriously need to practice reading speed and reading comprehension to the point that you can read through maybe 3-5 paragraphs from a news article or editorial or a novel (non-fiction), understand it, and then answer up to about 3 questions within a few minutes.
I believe my reading is bound to improve a lot since I'll start reading visual novels soon enough, probably once I'm done with Tobira or maybe after I do a little more of Core 6k. That's going to be more than 6 months of reading "intended for natives". Perhaps some easy news for a while and later on regular news depending on how it goes. But the way you speak makes it sound like you need something more specific than that to prepare.
What kind of advice would you give me if I said I'll still go for it and do my best, even if it's unrealistic? Because I don't think the amount of stuff I've studied so far in less than 5 months is realistic for the vast majority of people either, so I don't care much about that. Worst case scenario, I could take the test 6 months later (which would be a lot more realistic, but whatever).
In my opinion, if you were serious about wanting to shoot for N1 then I would say ditch the idea of using visual novels as a (serious) part of the routine and start busting your ass with studying as soon as possible. I can believe that someone can go from nothing to N4/N3 in a half a year to a year, but the jump to N1 is much greater than nothing to N4/N3, so I would be impressed if someone went from N4/N3 to N1 in a year without some intense studying every day, possibly at one of those schools in Japan where you take classes for hours a day and then study for even more hours when you get home. My personal suggestion is the 新完全マスター series for after you finish Tobira. I used that series to study grammar and reading comprehension (vocab/Kanji was done with a custom built Anki deck), and also a book called 合格できる日本語能力試験N2 which contains a ton of practice questions in the same format as the test for when I took N2 last December. I would not hesitate to use either again for N1 since they give a lot of practice for the skills required on the JLPT specifically in addition to general Japanese skills, and the 新完全マスター series in particular gives a lot of test taking tactics specific to the JLPT. In addition, reading lots of news articles and editorials and things of that nature when possible.
Having said all of that, I don't think it's *impossible*, just extremely time consuming and requiring a lot of dedicated, effective studying. Unless you have a specific reason for wanting to pass N1 by the end of this year, I don't think it's worth the amount of time and effort required. I think it'd be much more doable if you were shooting for N2 this year, and then N1 *maybe* next summer or winter (depending on how when they offer the test in your location).
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - FlameseeK - 2016-02-04
I see. Thanks a lot for the replies!
I guess it might be doable, but there's probably little reason to do that right away. I like to think of JLPT levels as a means to benchmark my progress, but N1 doesn't seem to be as useful for that purpose. I'll probably end up just reading vns and watching a whole bunch of anime to develop the skills that really matter to me first. Studying for N2 would probably be worth it though, so I'll most likely do that once I'm done with Tobira even if I don't feel like taking the test.
I bet it'll be much easier to prepare for N1 more seriously once I have my share of fun with the language, since that's what I'm studying it for. I'll probably start working on N1 sooner rather than later anyway, but certainly not as intensely as I've been studying up until now.
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - sholum - 2016-02-04
That's a good way to go about it, in my opinion. I only started studying for the JLPT last year, because I want the things I can get with it (not much, but it's worth it for me). It really forced me to learn a lot of things I had skimmed over before, so it's good in that sense, but I don't see much need to rush to that stimulus.
So yeah, have fun for a while; that way, once you get to studying for N1, it won't be quite so much of the hell it can be if you're having to chase down things you don't know constantly...
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - SomeCallMeChris - 2016-02-04
(2016-02-03, 10:34 pm)FlameseeK Wrote: What kind of advice would you give me if I said I'll still go for it and do my best, even if it's unrealistic?
I would say you would want to start -today- with core10k, daily readings of NHK News Easy and JOI teacher's blog, and keep doing that every day until you can start reading the editorial columns of regular newspapers and regular non-fiction books. Also make sure to listen to podcasts regularly to sharpen your listening without visual cues. All in addition to textbook study, not instead of.
Personally, I followed a plan much more like your remark in a post a couple more after this one -- I read a lot of manga and light novels, watch anime and doramas with japanese subtitles and sometimes raw, listening to anime podcasts. I read news articles (both easy and regular) that were interesting to me, but I didn't make it a daily habit. I also failed N2 the first time, passed the second time, failed N1 the first time passed the second time. It takes a lot longer to accumulate all needed understanding this way, but you get there eventually and the scenery is pretty nice.
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - FlameseeK - 2016-02-08
(2016-02-04, 2:27 am)SomeCallMeChris Wrote: I would say you would want to start -today- with core10k, daily readings of NHK News Easy and JOI teacher's blog, and keep doing that every day until you can start reading the editorial columns of regular newspapers and regular non-fiction books. Also make sure to listen to podcasts regularly to sharpen your listening without visual cues. All in addition to textbook study, not instead of.JOI's blog seemed pretty daunting at first, but it's actually doable if I put in some time so I like that. I think I'll give NHK a try as well and see how it goes.
Personally, I followed a plan much more like your remark in a post a couple more after this one -- I read a lot of manga and light novels, watch anime and doramas with japanese subtitles and sometimes raw, listening to anime podcasts. I read news articles (both easy and regular) that were interesting to me, but I didn't make it a daily habit. I also failed N2 the first time, passed the second time, failed N1 the first time passed the second time. It takes a lot longer to accumulate all needed understanding this way, but you get there eventually and the scenery is pretty nice.
As for podcasts... any recommendations? I saw a podcast recommendation at AJATT a couple of weeks ago (marimoeo.seesaa.net/) and decided to give it a try, but I just can't follow it for the life of me. In general, I can't even point out the topic, because the conversation itself is just noise. Even if I can "hear" a handful of words that I know, following the actual conversation is a hopeless endeavor at this point.
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - gaiaslastlaugh - 2016-02-08
(2016-02-08, 2:30 am)FlameseeK Wrote: As for podcasts... any recommendations? I saw a podcast recommendation at AJATT a couple of weeks ago (marimoeo.seesaa.net/) and decided to give it a try, but I just can't follow it for the life of me. In general, I can't even point out the topic, because the conversation itself is just noise. Even if I can "hear" a handful of words that I know, following the actual conversation is a hopeless endeavor at this point.
Hotcast is probably the easiest conversational podcast to get into. I'd also recommend ねえねえきいて, whose proprietor just restarted blogging after a months long hiatus. I'm also a fan of Your Smile Town and TBS たまむすび.
If you like news, NHK ジャーナル will give you an hour of listening practice every weekday, excluding Japanese holidays.
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - FlameseeK - 2016-02-08
Thanks a lot for the suggestions. Unfortunately, these are also way out of my league as of now. I just hear a whole lot of meaningless Japanese - even when I'm able to recognize words, they don't really make any sense in the grand scheme of things. They're almost as alien as seeing kanji you're familiar with... in Chinese.
I get the feeling I'll need to finish Tobira at the very least in order to get something out of this. Maybe even N2?
RE: 2015 JLPT N2-N1 Thread - RawrPk - 2016-02-08
You can read up on the N3 thread if N2-N1 is too high of a level for you.