I'm new to non-class goal oriented self-study and am wanting to study for, and pass JLPT N2 and am looking for tips/resources/instructions in achieving that goal.

Japanese Studies Background:

I've spent the past three years studying at Portland State under the Japanese department's JSL/JWL (Japanese: The Spoken Language & Japanese: The Written Language respectively). For those unfamiliar, it can be best described as a technical set that focuses heavily on grammar but is lacking in the vocabulary department and hasn't been updated since the mid 80's, and it was not uncommon to have our native speaker instructors make notations of how they actually use 'this word' over 'that word' now.

I used a little bit of mixi and have Japanese Skype contacts, but I really don't utilize them heavily, maybe one or two a week briefly. I stopped at the three year mark in the JSL/JWL roughly a year ago and have been using mixi/Skype primarily as a means of 'coasting' in addition to watching the occasional HEY!HEY!HEY! or Downtown episode.

TL;DR Summary

Since all of my studies have been for Japanese classes, I have very little to no experience in self studying for other Japanese related goals (eg passing N2). I have roughly 1.5-2 years left in college and came across this site/forum by chance and am in want of tips/resources/instructions towards achieving the goal of passing N2. I should note that I've never used Anki before which seems to be a commonly utilized resource from my quick browsing of the forum.

EDIT: I want to work for a company in Japan (this is one job desireable of many) and it seems that N2 is the de facto standard for hiring foreigners, and hence why after I graduate I want to be at least the N2 level.

snarfel Wrote:EDIT: I want to work for a company in Japan (this is one job desireable of many) and it seems that N2 is the de facto standard for hiring foreigners, and hence why after I graduate I want to be at least the N2 level.

If your job actually involves the daily use of the Japanese language the minimum bar is set at N1 and de facto is actually quite higher than that. N2 might be desirable for a company that doesn't need you to speak Japanese at all but wants you to get along well with Japanese staff.

Anyway when studying for the JLPT I just used a combination whatever JLPT books I could get my hands on and anki.

The Kanzen Master series is the most recommended JLPT study book on the forum here. You can pick them up on Amazon Japan or White Rabbit Press. I also recommend picking up the dictionaries of Japanese grammar (beginning, intermediate, and advanced) just to have around as a reference as you study grammar.

Well, vocabulary tends to be a big roadblock in reaching an advanced stage simply because of the sheer amount that is required. Anki helps a lot with that. The usual approach on here is to just read and listen to Japanese stuff, and add words (and/or sentences) that we don't yet know or understand as flashcards. Repeat ad infinitum. Simple but effective.

Just plow through the books and put stuff into Anki. I found this order to be best, kanji -> grammar -> vocab -> listening + reading. Try to save the last month before the test to read as much as possible.

Crazy language hippie drdunlap's advice:
Use anki. It's supergreat. :]
Never ask "Why?"-- just do as much as you can in Japanese. It'll make sense later. No rushing this process..!
Check out Tae Kim if you haven't (http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar) - If there's a hole in your basics, chances are he covers it.

As kitakitsune said, forget about N2. Pick up a bunch of interesting novels and dig around for some interesting TV/Radio. Also pick up a book on N1 grammar, I guess. I used 「１回で合格！日本語能力試験N1文法対策」(http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4471274910) (True to the name, I passed in one try. Although I don't attribute it to that book I do love this book, however, as it is almost 100% Japanese, including explanations, and is very concise.) And one practice test should be enough to get you used to the test format.

When the novels and TV/Radio make good sense. Take N1. You should pass with flying colors.
With a presumably solid grasp of the basics from 3 years of class, 1.5 - 2 years should be enough depending on how much time you have to devote to this crazy method. At least using this method N2 will be a breeze in that time.

I really wouldn't suggest focusing on passing N1 but rather on understanding native Japanese. If you can do that at a reasonable level and have at least seen the format of the test before you should be able to pass.

I used JSL in university too and was awful at memorizing vocabulary afterward--because I never had to in university so I never got good at it. Anki is indeed a good way, so figure out how to make it work for you.

Also, JSL only covers fundamental spoken grammar, though it does that very well, so you'll need to learn more difficult grammar expressions and written grammar (I never did very much JWL, but from what I understand it doesn't cover written grammar? Or am I wrong?). JLPT2 has some and JLPT1 has a lot.

An important part of doing well on the JLPT is reading speed, so read a lot of material at the appropriate level.

JSL also is meant to make you a very active learner, and your active language ability never trails that far behind your passive ability if you were in a good program. But JLPT is more about learnig a lot of passive stuff, so it's a very different skill set to do well on the jLPT.

My only suggestion is to constantly attempt to consume materials intended for native japanese speakers. Books, newspapers, movies, tweets, apps, podcasts, etc... I would try to do it in a systematic way. For example, if you're interested in economics, try to read related articles (Yomiuri, Asahi, etc.) everyday with rikai. Build up an anki deck of economics terms. You'll start to see words reoccur, you'll slowly be able to read faster, and eventually you branch out into other topics.

I also like getting tweets in Japanese because they are super short and I can test my kanji knowledge on LOTS of random topics. Further, if something sounds interesting I also have an entire article to (try to) read.

When it comes to listening/videos, I find the ones set up in an interview/Q&A format to be the most useful. The conversation is very much guided in that the listener will periodically ask follow up/clarifying questions that can help you as the listener stay on track.

This is probably more of what I was doing as I approached N1 in 2012. When I took 2kyuu in 2008 my strategy was much more straight forward cram kanji, cram vocab, cram grammar... Not surprisingly, I struggled with reading comprehension but still managed to pass.