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Japanese Subject test - gyuujuice - 2010-11-23
So I just got my results for my test.
I got a... 620. =___= *weeps*
When taking the test I waited for the teacher to say go to the next page just like in the normal SAT but turned out that all the sections were in one 'section' -- so I did rush the test but still I feel like a loser.
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For future reference for those taking the subject test here is my take on what you should prepare for since there is little to nothing available:
1) You HAVE to bring your CD player. (I bought one just for the test.) I HIGHLY reccomend you get one without clicky buttons.
2) The first part is listening and it's the most difficult part of the test. The test is not consistant in level and the later recordings were harder than the earlier ones. Work on the beggining ones first before going to the hard ones. If you have no idea then don't just guess because it will cost you some points. But if you can get it down to either or then guessing is OK. They give you plenty of time to write in the answer in the recording so you don't need the pause function. (You are technically not allowed to rewind but no-one can tell the difference between the rewind sound and the pause sound of the buttons. No I didn't cheat on my test but it's one of the quirks of the test.) I think the listening section was harder than the practice recordings I found online and noticebly harder than the N4 listening. (Perhaps it's around N3.)
3) Next is grammar and it is essentially general questions around the N4 level. I found this part to be the easiest by far and away. If you can do fine on N3 grammar then you will get this. Most of the questions are with particles and picking up which tense is the correct one for this situation. Oh, there is ローマ字 in this section for some weird reason even though there is only 漢字 in the reading section.
4) The last section is reading. Most of it is reading and email, letter or ad and then answering questions on what the writer meant. The 漢字 seemed easy to me as a RTKer. Though I think there was more 漢字 than N4. They had some 漢字 that would give a begginer some trouble. I would reccomend 450-500 漢字.
I think this test reaches up to N3 level in some areas but I think overall if one can do well on the N4 then they should do well on this test. BEWARE of the listening section -- one problem had us listening to a cooking show and I didn't catch all the cooking words. (It was recorded in a studio though.)
Japanese Subject test - rich_f - 2010-11-23
A 620 out of....? 800? 1,000? 10,000,000? :O
It sounds like you were pretty much flying blind through the whole process. Is there any chance you can re-test? When I took the SAT (when dinosaurs roamed the planet), you could retake it a number of times... I took it twice, IIRC.
And romaji in the grammar section? Seriously? Wow. Just... wow. That alone would have thrown me for a loop, and probably cost me a bunch of points. (I would have been sorely tempted to ask, "Excuse me, what language is this? I thought we were taking a Japanese test.")
Japanese Subject test - julianjalapeno - 2010-11-23
Looks like its this one: http://sat.collegeboard.com/practice/sat-subject-test-preparation/japanese-with-listening
Its out of 800 points and seems to be about N4/N5 level judging by the practice problems. 620 isnt bad but if youre going for the N2, you may need to start cramming.
Japanese Subject test - gyuujuice - 2010-11-24
1) Yes you can retake it but it's only available in November so...
2) It's out of 800. But it's scored in a way that it creates a 'bell curve'... 10 points between 200 and 300 but something like 50 to move from 400 to 500 for example. So it's really hard to measure...at least for someone like me.
3) Julian, yes that's it. The practice test's listening is a lot easier in my opinion but the grammar is about the same. The listening section got a lot harder than those examples -- I guess the only evidence is the fact they have romaji for one section and full on kanji for the other -- it's not balanced. Who thought this test up?
"but if youre going for the N2, you may need to start cramming."
I know. :< I finished 完全文法2 last week and 漢字 shouldn't be an issue but vocabulary is my weakspot. I'm doing smartfm Core and working through two 完全語彙 books a friend bought me.
Japanese Subject test - JimmySeal - 2011-01-21
I know this is a somewhat old thread, but just in case anyone should stumble across it looking for info on this test:
gyuujuice Wrote:If you have no idea then don't just guess because it will cost you some points. But if you can get it down to either or then guessing is OK.As with any SAT test, as long as you can eliminate at least one answer choice as definitely wrong, then guessing is statistically in your favor. If you can't eliminate even one, then it's best to leave the question blank.
gyuujuice Wrote:When taking the test I waited for the teacher to say go to the next page just like in the normal SAT but turned out that all the sections were in one 'section' -- so I did rush the test but still I feel like a loser.Don't feel too bad. I'll never know for sure what happened, but somehow I managed to leave an entire section of the SAT 2 Writing test blank (and for those who don't know, that was the most crucial SAT 2 test back when it existed).
Good luck with your college admissions!