rich_f Wrote:And crap, it's 12/1? That's less than 3 months to prepare. Ugh.

Right? Double-ugh. It doesn't help that I'm more interested at the moment in reading 進撃の巨人 than my textbooks.

I'm slotting some time for myself to take a mock test next either on Sunday night or next Thursday night. My gut is that, after a year of study, I'll kill on the 漢字/語彙 portion, eek out small improvements on 聴解 and 文法, and - with any luck - not utterly fail 読解. I've worked on reading a lot this year, and have been working through the 新完全マスター読解 book, so maybe I'll do better than I expect. Time will tell.

I just impulse signed up for N2... I'm not yet sure if this was a good move or not @.@

Just applied for the N1 in Chicago. Don't know why the hell I am paying $60 to voluntarily take a test that may not even be relevant to a future career, on a Sunday no less, but whatever. It's been a long day I'm going to bed and forgetting this test exists until December.

What books are you using?

I am still working on http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/4893588176 but went ahead and ordered this one http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/4883195562.

I'm living the Kanzen Master life right now. XD Mostly grammar for now, because there's a lot of N1 grammar I just don't know that well, but I'll move on to reading soon.

I also have the ドリル＆ドリル books for grammar and listening/reading. And a few mogi-tests. I'll probably start using those in a few weeks.

I'm also skimming vocab books when I have a few minutes here and there, to see what I don't know, but I'm not bothering to add vocab to Anki now. I have plenty of reviews to do per day already. (Mostly grammar.)

One interesting book I found a few years back I'm re-reading, "Principles of Japanese Discourse," by Senko Maynard. It's pretty interesting, and handy for remembering all of the forms of Japanese writing. (And stuff like connective phrases.)

Gahh 2 months away guys this is getting serious. Along with my other school its hard to stay on task of everyday improving my Japanese. I'm only done with 15 of 26 grammar lessons from the kanzen N2 books and theres more sections after that. I hope to finish the grammar sections by october and spend november just going through the reading book and reviewing as much as possible.

On a side note did everyone get their test voucher already? I did not get mine.

NoSleepTilFluent Wrote:I'm only done with 15 of 26 grammar lessons from the kanzen N2 books and theres more sections after that. I hope to finish the grammar sections by october and spend november just going through the reading book and reviewing as much as possible.

I studied 3 lessons/day in about 1hr. This included (1) reading the explanations and example sentences (2) doing all the exercises, and (3) adding and reviewing relevant DofJG recognition sentences in Anki (although, I admit I didn't do this last step for over half of the grammar points).

You definitely can finish the book even if you only have an hour per day. At my pace, you'd finish in 11 days. You still have two months.

I SHOULD be able to do it yes. Japanese is the one activity i do all day that I want to complete and enjoy. however, I have 5 other senior classes and senior design project to worry about that take priority so more often than not i'm left with only enough time to review with anki. Also still just an excuse I'm gonna go work on some japanese right now.

I just realized that not only is the JLPT on 12/1 this year, it's also Thanksgiving weekend here in the US, which means that travel is going to be extremely unpleasant.

&@#*#!)(&!#&)

Please pick an even *worse* day for this thing. -_-

DC has some of the worst traffic in the nation when things are normal. I should have picked ATL instead, but DC is closer by a few hours.

I'll be taking the JLPT N2 for the first time this December! I'll be going to the one in Ann Arbor.

I just got back from a year in Japan in July and am just reviewing kanji and reading sentences. Not sure how well I'll do but at least I'll be able to see where I'm lacking when I get the results.

NoSleepTilFluent Wrote:On a side note did everyone get their test voucher already? I did not get mine.

You should get it Mid-November.

A little late to the party, but here I am: signed up to take N2 in Philadelphia. Not expecting this to go well, but I feel like I need to at least make the attempt.

Anyone else taken it there? Just wondering what kind of situation I'm getting into. (Going to need a hotel as it is.)

You know it's kind of sad when you get emails from the same hotel you always stay at when you take the JLPT, reminding you "Hey, you haven't been here in almost a year!" -_-

DC, here I come, for the... oh crap, I forgot how many times this is.

My admission voucher showed up today. Woooo.

Got my voucher last night! I'm so nervous now.............

I feel bad when I see what level you all are taking while I only registered to N4. We'll see how it goes.

Got my voucher yesterday. Have had it in my underwear since this morning. Will retrieve it on December 1st and write my phone number on the back. Going to have a night to remember after the test with the woman who takes my voucher.

TheVinster Wrote:Got my voucher yesterday. Have had it in my underwear since this morning. Will retrieve it on December 1st and write my phone number on the back. Going to have a night to remember after the test with the woman who takes my voucher.

Just hope you don't have a 60 or 70 year old proctor.

Guys less than a week out now. How you all feeling?

Did a timed mock exam (N2) today and got 54/75 for the vocab/grammar/reading section and 28/32 for listening. Feeling a little better after that, but of course the actual test could be more difficult...

I lost most of the marks on 分の文法１（文法形式の判断）and 内容理解 （中文）

Genuinely didn't know some of the grammar points, so I do need to finish KM grammar book ASAP and do some more drills. Not sure if I have time to anki anything...

Didn't have trouble with the reading, but made silly mistakes because I was worried about time and was racing through without reading stuff too carefully. In the end I finished this grammar/reading section with 10 minutes to spare, so I think I've got time to read each of those mid length passages a little more thoroughly and to check my answers..

Bought 2 mock exams so will try and take the other one after working on my grammar a bit more this week.

Good luck to everyone with last minute study/preparation! Anyone taking the exam at Kwansei Gakuin in Nishinomiya?

The time before I passed N2, I almost ran out of time on the reading part, so the next time, I did most of the reading first, then did the grammar, and not worrying about having enough time to do the reading relaxed me a bit. (And I wound up passing.)

If reading isn't a big deal, then go ahead and do grammar first, but if you're like me, and you worry about having enough time, then knock out the reading first. Or just ping-pong back and forth so you don't go crazy from 8 long reading problems in a row.

Taking my exam in DC, so I have a 4-5 hour drive ahead of me. Fun.

I've got a stack of mock exams to take this week, too. Good times. Dunno if I'm going to pass N1, but I'm going to give it all I've got.

Meh. I ran a mock N2 that I downloaded from a Taiwanese site last week, and it was way difficult. I'm running a different mock this week that I purchased from 紀伊国屋. I've done some grammar study, but mostly have been working 読解 from 完全マスター and stepping through problems with my iTalki tutors.

We'll see. Still of the opinion I'll barely squeak by. I hate formal testing.

I don't really have time to do any mock exams.
Been so busy with work lately...

I don't know how I'll do at all.
Taking the N2 this year.
This is also my first time taking the JLPT.

Really have no idea how I'll do.

I've been slammed with work as well. Being an adult learner is a bitch. :-p

rich_f, I resonate with your comment on the reading. I still ran out of time on 読解 when I did my last mock. I'm going to try in my next mock to limit 漢字、語彙、and 文法 to 40-45 minutes to give myself a full 60 for the 読解. I'm also going to try and focus on the longer readings (the ones w/ multiple questions associated with them) first, and then cycle back to the one-offs.

you guys realize that there are comparatively fewer points awarded to the reading section, as opposed to grammar, right...?
speeding through the most heavily weighted part of the test, which is full of traps and misdirections, seems like a risky strategy.

dtcamero Wrote:you guys realize that there are comparatively fewer points awarded to the reading section, as opposed to grammar, right...?
speeding through the most heavily weighted part of the test, which is full of traps and misdirections, seems like a risky strategy.

Doing (very) poorly on 読解 last time around was what cost me a passing score overall. So I'm focusing on it this time out. I did much better on grammar etc., and expect I'll do just fine after a year of Skrittering, reading, and listening.

Plus, I use reading to drive study of things like grammar. I find straight-out grammar study without context very boring.

As far as traps and misdirections, I find that applies much more to the 読解 than the parts that precede it. YMMV.