Just registered on Monday for my second stab at N2 on December 1st at UW in Seattle.

Who else has registered for December? How are you preparing?

My main object of study right now - besides just reading and listening to as much Japanese as possible - is the 真完全マスターN2読解 book. I bombed 読解 atrociously last year, so that's my focus going in this year. I spent the first half of the year just reading news, books and manga; now it's time to study for the test itself. I'm also using the 文法 book as reference whenever I run into points in the reading where I feel I need a little more clarity.

My assumption is that a year of Skrittering will take care of my 漢字 and 語彙 scores. I bought a mock test, though, and am taking it next week to gauge my weak points.

[Zgarbas]

I'm signing up for the N1. It's pretty scary

I signed up for N1. Probably won't pass but there's no pressure so I figured why not. After finishing core10k in may I've stopped adding to anki and am just reading as much as possible now. On my fourth legit Japanese novel atm.

Also finegled an artist residency to allow me to spend 4 months in Kyoto this summer... so that doesnt hurt ;D

dtcamero Wrote:I signed up for N1. Probably won't pass but there's no pressure so I figured why not. After finishing core10k in may I've stopped adding to anki and am just reading as much as possible now. On my fourth legit Japanese novel atm.

Also finegled an artist residency to allow me to spend 4 months in Kyoto this summer... so that doesnt hurt ;D

Yeah, count me as totally jealous. :-D Congrats! Sounds like a great opportunity.

I'm on my third novel, リング by 鈴木光司, but have been taking a break to read some online articles on Buddhism (e.g., http://hachisu-net.com/issei/kiso.html). There aren't enough hours in the damn day...

[Zgarbas]

Oooh, I really liked リング！ Be sure to forget everything that you've seen in movies though, since it has nothing in common

I think I should wait another two years... perhaps I'll stand a chance at passing N1 then; I think I could pass the N3 this December, but I hate language tests, so I won't take more than necessary.

How is the N2 Kanzen Master? Is it monolingual?

Zgarbas Wrote:Oooh, I really liked リング！ Be sure to forget everything that you've seen in movies though, since it has nothing in common

Yeah, I picked up on that in the first 30 pages. :-p I read the Wikipedia entry on the book just to make sure I was reading what I thought I was reading!

Stian Wrote:How is the N2 Kanzen Master? Is it monolingual?

Yes, monolingual. Which I like, as it makes stuying for the test an immersive experience. There have been some questions on the 読解 which were hard to figure out at first, but I found I could decipher them after reading the explanations in the answer guide and thinking them through.

Not sure if I'll sign-up for N1 this year. I probably should because I will be graduating early 2014 which means N1 on my resume would look good. If I don't get the part-time job for the interview I bombed yesterday then I may pass if I have no income for the Fall. I need to build a computer around Black Friday and probably need the money for that and school books.

I've been trying to keep my daily reading going since last winter's JLPT and would probably make that my main focus going into the upcoming one. According to my 読書メーター I've read about 9 proper novels (actually 7, but 2 of the books I read are split into 2 volumes) since I took the N2. I'm currently halfway through the 上巻 of ボックス. Aside from books I watch a few shows here and there. My listening is still terrible but I have a bit of time to work on it.

I don't want to sound like a snob, but I think I'm generally tired of textbooks like 完全マスター. It doesn't go well with how I personally learn and I may forego using them except for limited circumstances. Here's my 読書メーター if anybody is interested in the books I read.

TheVinster Wrote:I don't want to sound like a snob, but I think I'm generally tired of textbooks like 完全マスター. It doesn't go well with how I personally learn and I may forego using them except for limited circumstances. Here's my 読書メーター if anybody is interested in the books I read.

It's certainly some of the driest shit you can read this side of the Sahara. Oddly, though, it's keeping me engaged. I guess with where I'm at, I appreciate having the ability to read a test and then quiz myself on how well I actually understood it.

And I don't want a repeat of my N2 experience last year. Mind you, I only missed by 17 points, and had only been studying since April, so really, I didn't do too shabby. Nevertheless, I don't want to take this damned thing a THIRD time. Time to put N2 in the bag and focus in N1.

I've heard N1 covers a lot of material - particularly in grammar - that you don't often encounter in real-world usage. Even my Japanese friends think it's hardcore. I'd be interested in hearing from other folks whether they thought reading was enough, or whether they had to engage in N1-specific test prep to pass...

[Zgarbas]

*cough*
Whether or not reading alone will suffice or textbooks are required depends, and we have users from both ends of the stick; some say that you can't even begin without a textbook, others passed without ever having touched one. I'm for the former, but alas.

However, when a Japanese person says that the N1 is hardcore it's generally agreed upon that either a) he's being polite or b) he's thinking about the 漢字検定. No Japanese person would ever have trouble passing it with a high score from their first go without even trying.

Except maybe an illiterate one. But they're hard to come by these days.

Zgarbas Wrote:No Japanese person would ever have trouble passing it with a high score from their first go without even trying.

But what constitutes a high score? 90%? 95%? Nearly perfect, and completing the non-listening part in half the allotted time?

Zgarbas Wrote:However, when a Japanese person says that the N1 is hardcore it's generally agreed upon that either a) he's being polite or b) he's thinking about the 漢字検定. No Japanese person would ever have trouble passing it with a high score from their first go without even trying.

Man, I should've known better than to fall for that one.

Another thread on this: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=10241

Zgarbas Wrote:No Japanese person would ever have trouble passing it with a high score from their first go without even trying.

7th~8th graders and up would (probably) just pass. I'm not so sure about most people under that.

gaiaslastlaugh Wrote:but have been taking a break to read some online articles on Buddhism

Why instead of reading about Buddhism not experience it directly from 仏教伝道協会 - you could start with following that link:
http://www.bdk.or.jp/podcast/feed.xml

or that one:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/soun...d560949255

Zgarbas, as a textbook addict, do you recommend the Kanzen Master N2/N1 books?

[Zgarbas]

I keep meaning to use them, but so far i've only used the n2 grammar book. very useful. I am starting the n1 series soon.
I am not as much as an addict as I would like to be, unfortunately :p. these days I am using imabi, reading doajg again, and using some keigo textbooks.

[RawToast]

No test for me in December. Probably going to wait till next year and to try to fail N2

Good luck with your studies everyone

I really want to take N1 this December and I'm pretty sure I would pass, but right now I'm living in China but plan to leave in the next few months. I don't think I'm going to be able to book an exam since I won't know what country I'm going to be in for test time =(

[Zgarbas]

why not register in both countries then?

Inny Jan Wrote:

gaiaslastlaugh Wrote:but have been taking a break to read some online articles on Buddhism

Why instead of reading about Buddhism not experience it directly from 仏教伝道協会 - you could start with following that link:
http://www.bdk.or.jp/podcast/feed.xml

or that one:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/soun...d560949255

That one looks interesting - thanks. I've mainly been listening to 曹洞宗心の電話.

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/podcast/xinn...47197?mt=2

Zgarbas Wrote:I keep meaning to use them, but so far i've only used the n2 grammar book. very useful. I am starting the n1 series soon.
I am not as much as an addict as I would like to be, unfortunately :p. these days I am using imabi, reading doajg again, and using some keigo textbooks.

I did have a look at a few pages from an uploaded scan of it, and it seems like it has short explanations (in Japanese) with loads of examples... that's why I want to hear you guys' opinions of it.

...maybe I'll buy it next time I feel like amassing some more dead trees.

Zgarbas Wrote:why not register in both countries then?

Because I could feasibly be in any of HK, China, Singapore, Tokyo or the UK.

Admittedly Singapore and the UK aren't likely, but I don't really want to apply in 5 different countries "just in case". I mean, I'd love to take and pass it, but its not THAT important in the grand scheme of things.

Can a single person even register for it multiple times? I hadn't thought about it.

I'm pretty pissed that the date is December 1st. I work in retail and that weekend is one of the most busiest, craziest weekends ever. I'm going to try and ask to get it off but there is pretty much zero chance of that. I was going to go for N1 too. But maybe getting my N1 can help me with my chances of getting that translating job I'm looking for(haha, yeah right)

Going for N1 again. This time, I plan to study for it a bit. Time to pull out my old 完全マスター books, my scanner, and fire up the OCR for some Anki fun.

Good times.

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