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+--- Thread: JLPT - 3級 to 1級 in one year? (/thread-619.html)
JLPT - 3級 to 1級 in one year? - forestsprite - 2007-06-26
Do you think it's possible, or just a futile exercise in masochism? Has anyone here done it, or know anyone that has?
I'm 90% sure that I'm only going to be taking 2級 this year, but now that it looks like I'll be learning all of the jouyou kanji anyway, it almost looks attainable if I really start busting ass. I don't think the grammar wouldn't trouble me TOO badly if I start now, but I think the vocab would slaughter me. Any thoughts?
JLPT - 3級 to 1級 in one year? - littleblue - 2007-06-26
1 year? If you could do it I would hail you as a genius!! The jump from 3 -> 2 is big....the jump from 2 -> 1 is bigger!! (speaking from experience and many moons spent trying to pass 1級)
JLPT - 3級 to 1級 in one year? - JimmySeal - 2007-06-26
What do you mean by, "it looks like I'll be learning all of the jouyou kanji anyway"?
JLPT - 3級 to 1級 in one year? - forestsprite - 2007-06-26
Well, yeah, I guess you have a point there, JimmySeal. What I meant is that I plan on getting through RTK1 as soon as possible, and then launch into RTK2, as well as learning on-yomi and kun-yomi as I go. I suppose my question is not so much whether I personally can do it, just wondering if it's possible.
JLPT - 3級 to 1級 in one year? - yorkii - 2007-06-26
i was thinking the same thing. "Can I go from JLPT 3 -> 1 in a year. but the slow realisation that it's prolly not gonna be possible is looming on me as each day passes.
JLPT - 3級 to 1級 in one year? - dilandau23 - 2007-06-26
I suppose it all depends on motivation. If you drown yourself in Japanese I think it is possible to do it. What you have to decide is if you have the strength of will to do what it would take. I don't think anyone here will tell you it would be easy. For me just making it to 2級 by the end of this year is going to be tough. Also, a lot of people seem to think that RTK2 isn't as much of a gold mine (some may even call it useless) as RTK1. I am working through it but even I have my doubts.
JLPT - 3級 to 1級 in one year? - JimmySeal - 2007-06-26
It took me a full year of diligent studying (while living in Japan) to go from passing level 2 (76%) to passing level 1 (84%). I'm not saying that someone couldn't outdo that (someone here once said that he went from no Japanese to level 1 in three years), but it seemed to me like a ton of work just to go between those two levels.
JLPT - 3級 to 1級 in one year? - Christoph - 2007-06-27
As someone who took and passed JLPT3 last year and is working towards level 2 this year, I can say that I honestly believe that even if you lived in Japan, were super intelligent, studied all day, everyday (no weekends and holidays off), Full time study, I think you would still find it very hard to jump from 3 to 1, maybe I'm just being pessimistic, or even arrogant: "I could never do it, how could anyone else! ha!", but I don't think so, I think thats just the reality of it.
Also, I think that even having completed RTK1 AND RTK2 (as it doesn't cover all the 音読み for each character, and doesn't go over the 訓読み in any real detail) isn't really gonna have you fully prepared for even ２級's Kanji section, nevermind 1級.
So, in response to your 1st question, I'd be nodding to the latter.
JLPT - 3級 to 1級 in one year? - yorkii - 2007-06-27
i am certain i could pass JLPT2 at this point in time, having passed JLPT3 in December this year with a 90%-ish result. going through RTK2 gives you all of the onyomi for kanji which is MORE than enough for even JLPT. of course, as mentioned kunyomi reaings will have to be learnt by learning how those kanji work as verbs and or い-adjectives etc. Drilling vocabulary, reading and working in a Japanese environment certainly helps too.
I put all of the grammar entries that you need to know for JLPT2 into a flashcard program back in January and have been trying to use them in day-to-day conversations and review them frequently....
the above is regarding JLPT2 though, and this thread is concerned with JLPT3 - JLPT1 .
the jump from JLPT2 to level one is like going from 3 -> 2 (so i hear) so if I (in this example) need to work as hard as I have been to go from level 3 -> 2; to go from 2 -> 1, i should be able to do it in 6 months, shouldn't i? probably not.
at the end of the day learning a language is not a race and even if one were to pass level one after 2 years of study, what does it prove? that he was able to study hard for a test? yes. That he is truly proficient in using what he has studied in terms of written, spoken and cultural aspects of the language? nope.
JLPT - 3級 to 1級 in one year? - Serge - 2007-06-27
Jimmy-senpai, Christoph-senpai,
Can you elaborate on the specific difficulties of JLPT1 that require such a huge amount of work? This subject comes up quite regularly so I think everyone would benefit from a detailed overview...
JLPT - 3級 to 1級 in one year? - JimmySeal - 2007-06-27
It's simply the challenge anyone faces when trying to undertake serious language study, plus the particular challenges that Japanese holds. Level 3 requires an (approximate) vocabulary of 1500 words. Level 1 requires 10,000 words. That's nearly a seven-fold increase. If you've just reached level 3, imagine all the work you've done so far and then doing it 6 more times. Trying to learn 8500 words in a year is no laughing matter. Plus there's the task of learning 2000 kanji's worth of compounds (lvl 3 only involves 300 kanji), and about 200 obscure grammatical constructions.
There's also the ability to read at a considerable pace and comprehend aural Japanese, which is something that only comes with time and experience.
Not to diminish anybody else's achievement, but level 3 is a joke compared to level 1, and I'm sure you'll agree when you get there, so unless there is a specfic reason why you need to pass lvl 1 right away, I suggest that you take your time learning Japanese.