N2. I owned kanji and vocab. Grammar wasn't too bad; the grammar reading was easy.

Reading - my huge weak spot last year; I didn't even finish, and failed the section. I finished this year, and am a lot more confident in my answers. I answered the last five in a rush, but feel I did well enough early on to compensate.

Listening killed me. I didn't study this explicitly
Because I managed to pass the section last year. I may have failed the section, and this the test.

We will see. I won't be devastated if I don't pass. I've learned a TON in the past year, and this test proved that.

Answers to the test are available at the usual Chinese website(s) now. That's for those of you who managed to jot down or remember what you answered for each question. Just a heads up though, some of the answers given are conflicting so it's a bit of a mixed bag.

Hi. I know most of you are at N2 or N1 level, but I wanted to post anyway, in case there are any other beginners like me out there reading this.

I've been studying on my own for ages with a zillion resources, but with no tests, accountability, structure or pressure. And thus no focus or direction - and really getting nowhere - just repeating the same few grammatical constructions with each new exciting website or book I discover, and never finishing any of them. Decided to register for N5 just to see if I've managed to actually learn anything along the way...

I could answer about half the sample questions on the JLPT site at the N4 level, but I soon realised there's a whole lot of basic N5 grammar I didn't know. And having done RTK, I was shocked to have to go back to reading almost everything at N5 level in kana. With the vocab I didn't know, it was just a jumble of meaningless hiragana - no helpful kanji picture to help me figure it out!

I took a mock exam a few weeks ago, and then found out about sample question practice books, so have been working through them and learned heaps. Heading into the exam, I was feeling pretty good about it.

There are 3 sections in N5: Vocab (25 mins), Reading (50 mins), and Listening (30 mins). In my practice tests and the actual exam yesterday, I think I got close to 100% for vocab/kanji/kana. I finished it in half the time and was able to check everything.

The first part of the grammar was much harder than I anticipated. Had to just keep saying to myself, "Make a decision and move on," since I was afraid of running out of time for the reading comprehension. But the latter turned out to be really easy. So I had time to go back over the grammar, but didn't have a clue about some of it, even though I really thought I'd covered everything in my preparation... Oh well, there's still that 1 in 4 chance of fluking some correct answers!

The listening wasn't as difficult as some of the practice tests I did. But my concentration - always my biggest problem - was such that I just completely missed the question a few times, so I didn't know what to be listening for... Mostly, it wasn't too bad, though.

I'm glad it's over - I've really missed kanji! But going for the test, even at that level, was definitely a good decision that really focused my learning.

Took N1 in Chicago.

-Grammar was aight.
-Reading was horrible.
-Listening I probably failed.

Overall I don't expect much.

Zgarbas Wrote:Then came the 聴解。It's not that I failed. It's not that I didn't know. My concentration was so poor that I couldn't even listen.

I feel like I'm missing something here but .......... why was your concentration so bad? Because the rest of the test tired you out or something? I don't get it.

I didn't take the test this time but hopefully will at the next opportunity. Hopefully someone can post up the dodgy chinese links when they come up, I'd like to have a read through of the N1 test for sure and see how it was

[s0apgun]

TheVinster Wrote:Took N1 in Chicago.

-Grammar was aight.
-Reading was horrible.
-Listening I probably failed.

Overall I don't expect much.

Bummer man. I'm still interested to see how you scored. I'm aiming for N1 next December.

I understand where Zgarabas is coming from. Last year I had the exact same problem with the N1 listening. I was tired, and by the time I got to the listening section, I could not concentrate to save my life. It was all "blah blah blah <bing!>"

This year the listening was just listening to people talking for me. It wasn't nearly so bad. It wasn't as difficult to sort things out (well, until the end, when my brain started to melt.) But I feel like I did the best on the listening section out of any other section.

Then again, I have been doing a ton of listening to Japanese speakers. Not any sort of "listening comprehension practice," just watching random TV shows, listening to podcasts, doing online classes, etc.

The reading was especially hard for me for some reason. Lots of vocab I have never seen before, which is odd. I must be reading the wrong kinds of stuff. I could sort of guess from the kanji, but I don't like to do that.

If I pass, then "wooo," but I'm not confident that I did, so it's time to read a stack of books and write a bunch of essays to fix the areas I still suck at.

For people who don't have any problems with the reading, what sorts of things do you read?

NightSky Wrote:Hopefully someone can post up the dodgy chinese links when they come up, I'd like to have a read through of the N1 test for sure and see how it was

Chinese link (note: it's the same url for every test, so bookmark this)

Felt like Memento, haha, that was me last year, Zgarbas. This year (N3, N4 last year) I did okay I think on listening and the vocab was a piece of cake. But grammar section those star questions threw me off. I didn't have enough time for the last 6 questions of that section and it's because of those star questions, but if I had time I'd be fine, especially the last two Q's where you look at some schedule thing and figure out this and that; that's just scanning.

edit: even if I don't pass I'm going for N2 next year.

N2 - NY. Man I hope some miracle happens and I pass overall. I didn't do to well in listening and had to skip one section of the reading and only skim 2 sections. Vocab and and all those little drills whatever you want to call them I feel i rocked though. except for 寄付　i think i chose 寄符。 I didn't even know what the word was suppose to mean so that didn't help

rich_f Wrote:For people who don't have any problems with the reading, what sorts of things do you read?

Novels (not just light novels), essays, current events stuff. From the style and content of the pieces I've read on the test, I feel like essays would make the best practice, but I think that quantity and variety are probably more important than reading any one specific kind of thing. Reading speed is so important, and nothing helps reading speed more than just reading a lot.

NightSky Wrote:

Zgarbas Wrote:Then came the 聴解。It's not that I failed. It's not that I didn't know. My concentration was so poor that I couldn't even listen.

I feel like I'm missing something here but .......... why was your concentration so bad? Because the rest of the test tired you out or something? I don't get it.

I didn't take the test this time but hopefully will at the next opportunity. Hopefully someone can post up the dodgy chinese links when they come up, I'd like to have a read through of the N1 test for sure and see how it was

Not sure if Zgarbas is like me, but once I start to try and listen to Japanese I lose concentration and get tired. I yawned probably 100 times during that hour. I think since listening is so weak for me that whenever I try to focus on it it just drives me insane. One moment I'm trying to listen the next I'm thinking about what I'm going to eat after the test and then I realize the question is done.

vileru Wrote:

NightSky Wrote:Hopefully someone can post up the dodgy chinese links when they come up, I'd like to have a read through of the N1 test for sure and see how it was

Chinese link (note: it's the same url for every test, so bookmark this)

Thanks for this!! -- but it looks like only the answers are up there, not the questions? I tried searching but kept only finding the 答案 (answers) when I only need the questions

Keep checking once or twice a day. Usually they have them up within a few days after the test, if not the day after.

N5 in Houston. After years of on and off self-study, I figured this year I'd finally take the JLPT to see what I had accomplished. Earlier in the year I had been thinking of trying for the N4, but after getting sidetracked from my studies for about 3 months I was off pace and registered for the N5 instead.

It started off great, no doubt about doing fine on the vocab. Then came the grammar/reading. A few questions I wasn't confident in my answers on, but overall quite satisfied. Finally the listening. I had worried about this, since my study methods don't focus on the skill, but after doing okay on a mock test I had been feeling good going into the test. Afterward though, not so much. My brain was able to understand the words, but in slow motion. By the time the meaning of the question came together, most of the info for answering it had already gone by. This happened on a disturbing number of questions, so my overall sense is that I have the overall points to pass, but may have bombed the listening. Time will tell.

NightSky Wrote:I feel like I'm missing something here but .......... why was your concentration so bad? Because the rest of the test tired you out or something? I don't get it.

I'm not Zgarbas, but ... this is pretty normal. After 2 hours of written testing that has you wracking your brain to remember how -this- word differs from its synonyms followed by rapidly reading a series of essays each on totally unrelated topic... now you listen to speeches that are designed to make sure to use all the words that appear in each of the answers, so that you have to be absolutely sure not to miss a any 'いや', 'ない', or maybe even a 'それより'. Time order is also important, there's a bunch of 'what will he do first' kinds of questions. If you miss any detail, one of the wrong answers will likely sound right.

In the end, it's just sheer mental exhaustion. It doesn't help that the speeches tend to be horribly dull and contrived affairs that are hard to pay attention to even when you're -not- mentally drained. The more familiar you are with the language, of course, the less tiring the whole thing is. At the upper levels, what it tests more than anything else, is whether or not you're used to operating in the language at full speed for hours on end.

Yeah I suppose. I passed 2kyuu (as it was then) in 2008 I think and remember it being somewhat tough, but I guess I didn't really remember how tired I felt during the later stages.

vileru Wrote:Keep checking once or twice a day. Usually they have them up within a few days after the test, if not the day after.

Cool thanks, will do.

Yeah, most of the listening questions are verbal variations on the shell game. The worst part is that usually the key to the answer is in the first phrase or two. It might not be the right answer, but if you miss it, you're hosed.

@Fillanzea: I had a feeling that was the sort of stuff I needed to read. I read too many light novels for my own good. Any suggestions for good essay collections that are interesting? (I need to start somewhere. )

The only thing I have close to that is 死ぬかとおもっていた　(I think that's the name), which is a series of FML-style stories collected from the interwebs into book form, but it's not really 'literary quality.' It is funny as hell sometimes, but I don't know if it's what I need right now.

Did N2 today.

Failed for sure.

I didn't start explicitly studying for the JLPT until the beginning of November.. before then I had only finished Core2000 (working on 6000), Anki'd some dramas, etc.

I used this book to get any vocab I didn't know: http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Language-...pd_sim_b_3

I had to do 3 lessons a day due to lack of time.. but I managed to finish it. I did half of the reading one, a bit of grammar, and didn't look at the Kanji one.

Well anyways, I just wanted to get passing mark at least.

But, as soon as I started the exam, I was stuck on the first page. All I could see were sentences where I could usually read and understand all the words/grammar inside of them.. but I had no idea what was supposed to go in the blanks. This continued on for the rest of that section. Needless to say I failed that part, and so, the whole test. I didn't even bother doing the reading sections after the first article since I failed already so I just slept for the remainder of the first part of the exam. I almost didn't come back for the listening part but changed my mind at the last second. Like what you guys say it was quite tricky. I might have passed that section but who knows.

Really disappointed. I might have been too confident I suppose... at least it was a real eye opener for me.

Going to kill it next time!!!

One thing I've noticed with reading is that the JLPT almost never tests language that is used mainly in fiction (i.e. light novels, novels, literature etc). You just don't see the kind of words (especially descriptive ones) that you see in novels. It's all non-fiction -- essays, articles, letters, brochures. Things that are certainly useful in everyday life, but not necessarily even close to what the full language encompasses. I guess in that sense it's no different from not testing specialised articles on politics, economics or scientific topics. Testing the ability to read literature probably isn't one of the aims of the test.

But hey, I'm not complaining. I'm really weak when it comes to the often flowery/descriptive language used in fiction, and I'm a lot more confident when it comes to real-world stuff like newspaper articles and essays. I just thought it was an interesting observation.

Took the N1 in Vancouver.
Felt a bit worse than when I took N2 last year, but I think it's a pass.
I didn't know what とことん means... damn it.
Also, somehow I'm really bad at the part of the listening section where you have to choose an appropriate reply... I just kept missing what's going on in the situation. Thankfully it's 1 out of 3 choices so hopefully it won't be too bad.

I took N2 for the first time yesterday. I'm pretty sure I failed. There were some kanji/vocab I didn't know, and don't get me started on 読解. Listening was mostly cake (I've got to feel good about something!), but I live in Japan and have a Japanese significant other, so I'm constantly bombarded by it.

[Zgarbas]

NightSky Wrote:

Zgarbas Wrote:Then came the 聴解。It's not that I failed. It's not that I didn't know. My concentration was so poor that I couldn't even listen.

I feel like I'm missing something here but .......... why was your concentration so bad? Because the rest of the test tired you out or something? I don't get it.

Multiple reasons.

Ever since I changed towns and my life has taken a sudden turn, I've been unable to concentrate during Japanese. It's really hard to explain. Basically as soon as I see Japanese I start spacing out for some reason. No idea why =/. Long-term burnout maybe?
+ I have trouble with audio-only sources in any language. I usually watch movies with subtitles regardless of the language since it's difficult for me to follow audio. If It's an audiobook or podcast I usually space out after a few minutes. I also get this during monologues or lectures, unless the prof has an interesting voice, and sometimes during group conversations if I'm not involved. Can't really watch stand-ups or public speakings or Ted talks or what not either. It takes immense amounts of concentration for me to listen to something...

+ yeah, i was really worn out by the writing section. I've spaced out during listening sections in previous years, but not this badly.

rich_f Wrote:@Fillanzea: I had a feeling that was the sort of stuff I needed to read. I read too many light novels for my own good. Any suggestions for good essay collections that are interesting? (I need to start somewhere. )

I like 人生劇場 by Miura Shion and 煩悩カフェ by Sakai Junko.

If you're interested in politics and current events at all, I really recommend getting current events magazines. I read 世界, which is a little on the liberal side -- there's also lots on the conservative side, but, beware unless you're really into Japanese nationalism. They're more interesting than you might suspect because it's much more about "What should we do about global warming," "What should we do about the Senkaku Islands territory dispute," "What should we do about nuclear power," rather than the minutiae of Diet politics. And the magazines are LARGE, so there are bound to be a few interesting articles every month. They're really good sources for getting familiar with the rhetorical style of Japanese nonfiction.

Thanks Fillanzea! I think that'll help a lot. I am interested in current events, but I have to admit my eyes glaze over a bit when it comes to the Japanese Parliament and all of its various machinations. (It may just be that I don't like listening to Japanese politicians on TV.) But the other stuff sounds really interesting.