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+--- Thread: URGENT Japanese mock exam (/thread-13715.html)
URGENT Japanese mock exam - Helena4 - 2016-04-27
I URGENTLY NEED SOME HELP! I've really been slacking on my Japanese recently and I've really gone down... but I can't be seen to be doing this because I am currently in deep trouble with everyone... and I'm going to do Japanese at University so this would be a real shame so close to final exams (but I have an unconditional offer so I won't loose my place, don't worry - it's just shameful). I've lost my way with pretty much everything I was passionate about for various stressful reasons and I'm trying to get back on track but my school has organised a mock exam for me this afternoon and I don't know how I'm going to deal. But I found out which paper they're gonna give me... this is cheeky and totally not what I usually do or probably should use this forum for but, please, could anyone higher level who might find this easy just do the English to Japanese translation for me... and maybe just translate all the questions for the comprehension and essay so I can quickly make a plan of action? (And don't tell me that they should be sympathetic of my slacking because of whatever happened (since it doesn't actually matter for my university place), because I can't tell them about it, I won't tell you, and it would probably make my mother more angry than sympathetic. Please just help.) I was gonna run the whole thing through yomichan, but its a pdf... I'm feeling its gonna take me too long to look up everything, so perhaps I should draw on others' knowledge. PLEASE HELP. thanks x
This is the paper: http://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/A%20Level/Japanese/2013/Exam%20materials/6JA02_01_que_20130621.pdf
RE: URGENT Japanese mock exam - Helena4 - 2016-04-27
Nobody has to do all of it btw, if anyone could do any bit that would be sooo helpful, thanks.
RE: URGENT Japanese mock exam - Helena4 - 2016-04-27
Just to clarify, it's just something the school is setting up for me. This is not a real exam so I am not breaking any regulations. My teacher herself was the one who revealed the paper to me. This is not going to get anyone in trouble. But failing other exams has already ended with me being put into special school isolation study sessions, being forced to let down friends on big expensive plans therefore actually making me loose my best friend, having my mum tell me yesterday that's she's gonna beat me with this huge studded belt I have, which I beleive, I know her. I cannot deal with any more of this. PLEASE. I've let myself fall of track for stupid stupid self-absorbed reasons, but I can't get back on track if everyone's after my blood.
RE: URGENT Japanese mock exam - Helena4 - 2016-04-27
I dunno how I'm gonna write two essays without a dictionary... I am screwed. Recently in exams, it just gets too much to compute and I just sit there staring at it feeling like I ought to cry and I write next to nothing. Once I wrote an apology letter. I feel like this is gonna happen. omg Im gonna fail and this is gonna be such a huge shame.
RE: URGENT Japanese mock exam - risu_ - 2016-04-27
I assume this is a GCE 'A' Level mock paper? Which would put you at somewhere around 18 years old? You're already a young adult by now. To be honest, it's quite shocking that your mother still has to beat you at this age to get you to do your work. You need to get your priorities in check and get your shit together ASAP. If you want to study Japanese at uni, you're going to have to put in time and effort to do so.
Nobody can help you but yourself.
If you still want to go to university for Japanese, I seriously suggest that you take a good look at what you've been doing and learn your lesson from this incident. And for the love of god tell your mother that you are not a child anymore. Tell her that if you fail the exam and your school decides to kick you out or whatever, you'll bear the brunt of the consequences and learn from your mistake.
Write out a detailed study plan with breaks and stick to it. Consult your teachers. Take responsibility for your own learning.
And if you still can't do it then, you definitely need to reconsider whether you want to study Japanese at Uni after all.
RE: URGENT Japanese mock exam - Helena4 - 2016-04-27
I do totally understand this. I taught myself Japanese it is not that I have no work ethic. I simply have lost my way totally this year. I know it is my fault. I have been experiencing a few stressful things but I really didn't need to let myself go like this. Obviously I have all the wrong priorities - I know that. And my mother calls me a child no matter what. She does not understand that I do bear my own consequences for my actions. She tells me specifically that I am a child and I have no rights over what she says. And I am getting back on my studying. That's why I came back to this forum the other day. I'M JUST ASKING FOR SOME HELP SO I DON'T GET LOCKED UP AT SCHOOL, BEATEN AT HOME AND LOOKED DOWN ON BY EVERYONE! JUST FOR TODAY! please.
RE: URGENT Japanese mock exam - EratiK - 2016-04-27
First of all, calm down.
Second, there are pdf editors like this one (so you can run your dictionnary), try it out.
https://dochub.com/features/online-pdf-editor
Third, which essays do you want to do? surely there's no need to translate all the questions, like, have you read 江國香織? do you know 星新一? if not then 7-8 are already out of the question. I'm just a humble N3 so I doubt I can help you (aside from 2 one-liners email I've never composed anything in my life).
RE: URGENT Japanese mock exam - Helena4 - 2016-04-27
Thank you for your helpful reply, EratiK. Went and got myself some water and am trying to calm down. I am currently in lock down in a freezing room at school, so the shivering is not helping. I have really bad circulation... my fingernails are turning purple. Plus the water is freezing. Sorry I rant when I'm stressed.
I've done research throughout the year for the sort of things in questions 3 and 4 (it's not that I've done no work at all year haha, I just have no idea how to acheive this sort of essay writing and translating INTO Japanese without a dictionary or anything and I reeally should have my stuff down better... it still takes me about 3 hours to write these essays... comprehensions are usually okay because you can pull from the text without quite knowing its meaning... at least I know I can do that part... that's comforting). I'm not sure what JLPT level A level is hm...
RE: URGENT Japanese mock exam - Helena4 - 2016-04-27
I think I'm gonna send an email to the head of year to beeeg her to postpone this. I feel like she will be sympathetic, although my teacher won't be... and she'll probably put me on even more lockdown too. I'm already in this freezing room from 8 till 4 for the rest of the week. At least I can bring a couple of jumpers next time now I know. Obviously the heating doesn't work here. My teacher though... she is a sweet old Japanese lady and I've really let her down.
RE: URGENT Japanese mock exam - Helena4 - 2016-04-27
With that link... it doesn't make the text recognizable to rikaichan, neither does it make the Japanese text copiable. It comes out as symbol nonense when I paste it... Thank you so much for the suggestion but it doesn't work.
RE: URGENT Japanese mock exam - EratiK - 2016-04-27
That's too bad, it said kanji support though...
Seems like A level are N4?, which means I mean I have better recognition but you have better production (like no way I can write a page long essay). Alright give me a few minutes:
q5: Japan annual
a When Japanese marry, how do they celebrate? Do you think the current japanese marriage hold any religious meaning?
b Japanese automn ie "sports autumn" "reading autumn", "autumn (food) fancies" has several related names,
how come autumn has so many names? Including autumnal weather/events, write about the Japanese autumn.
q4: current Japan society
a in Japan, do you think technological progress influence life styles? compare old and new people's way of living.
b when Japanese youth gradutates from uni, when facing work, what do they think?
Compared to what their parents thought, what has changed?
q3: local Japan
a when you studied Japan regions, what kind of relationship they had with other provinces?
recently, do you think this regions is internationalising?
b when you studied Japan regions, what are rare omiyage or food? Where is it possible to buy/eat them?
RE: URGENT Japanese mock exam - Helena4 - 2016-04-27
I think that its higher than N4 definitely. The AS level perhaps might be similar to N4. But the A2 is higher. I can do pretty well on an N3 practise test so maybe its N3ish, but you also have to be able to write essays. They say only native speakers get A* grades. Thank you for that. Now at least I have some idea of what I'm going for.
RE: URGENT Japanese mock exam - Helena4 - 2016-04-27
Okay, I was getting a little bit over-anxious. I just did the exam. I did the comprehension okay. My translation had huge holes in it. I wrote a whole essay on question 4b that had a pretty good argument. I wrote a couple of sentences for question 3a. Hopefully I might scrape a pitiful pass with that performance. But I don't feel like I've failed miserably. And I also feel like I can argue for my ability to salvage this quite well. Thank you for your answers. I am sorry for creating such an annoying whiny thread, hopefully you'll start seeing me around again in a less whiny form now that I'm getting back on track.
RE: URGENT Japanese mock exam - crustymango - 2016-04-27
I know you've already done the mock but as someone that took this exam last year, I have some advice that might be useful. Unfortunately this is an exam that really rewards exam skill as much as Japanese knowledge, so you can be at a bit of a disadvantage if your teacher isn't used to teaching for this specific exam. I only mention this because you seemed really concerned about the translation which is the least important bit. If you've been taught this already then good luck.
One quick warning first: if the dates are similar to last year, then there's a good chance you'll be the last person taking an exam in your school. In my case, since I was the only one taking it, there was a mix up and the music department had a noisy Y5 induction day and a random guy playing really distracting film theme tunes on the trumpet right across from where I had my exam as they thought everyone had finished. It wouldn't normally be so much of a problem, but at the end of a three hour exam it doesn't take much of a distraction to destroy your concentration. Anyway, if your school is disorganised, you might want to make sure they remember you exist.
Don't worry about the translation. It's only worth 10/80 and it takes a disproportionate amount of time. Also the mark scheme is really unclear (but it's really worth looking at the examiners notes for past papers - much more useful) so it's hard to revise for as there's no real way to know how they allocate the marks.
You probably want to do the reading first as quickly as possible as its the easiest section (even if you don't understand the reading you should be able to answer most of the questions - if you can rephrase things all the better, but if not just look for the matching kanji and copy the phrase). If you're stuck on a question just guess and make a note to come back to it later.
Then do the writing as more than half the marks come from this - it's the most important bit. For the lit questions if you're doing them, memorise a summary of the text (~150字 max) as even if the question doesn't outright ask for one it's ok to put it in and that's a good chunk that you know is correct and you should be able to get a few grammar points in too.
Then do the translation and go back over any reading questions you were unsure about. There's no point wasting time being perfectionist over the translation, it's usually horrible vocab and the examiners are often super picky from what I remember.
TL;DR: Exam technique is important, writing > reading > translation, don't let your school forget you exist.
RE: URGENT Japanese mock exam - Helena4 - 2016-04-28
Wow, thank you so much crustymango. That's a lot of useful information. Yeah, I probably spent a disproportionate amount of time on the translation. I'll make sure I remember to prioritise it like that. There's another girl doing this exam with me, and I don't think its even my last exam so they probably won't forget. It probably won't be in a space near anything noisy anyway. My teacher isn't the best. She makes me write stuff and then we spend the lesson marking it and maybe I'll ask a few questions and she'll tell me about her life. She doesn't give me much more than that. Last year she did force me to write a diary every day which really did help my ability to write even though it was super boring. This year I sort of just trailed off on that - she's not very strict, just last year I really wanted to make a good impression. She had 4 AS level students last year and I was the most studious so yeah, I am a bit ashamed that I've become the worst now haha. I think I will get back on doing the diary entries just to speed up my writing. Or I could just write a lot more essays and try and do them faster. Anyway, thank you very much. I think I can definitely get back on track. But I have my weekly Japanese lesson today and I'm rather scared about how dissapointed she's going to be. I guess that's something I have to deal with.