I don't know what it is, but for some reason I have no problem reading and speaking Japanese all year long, with the exception of any time I'm in D.C.

For some reason, the ICC at Georgetown university sucks my ability right out of me.

It could also be the mile and a half walk, but I kinda doubt it.

Once again, it feels like there was a bunch of grammar I've never seen before, and a bunch of essays by grumpy old men who seem to hate everything. And by the time I got to listening, I was tired from too much guessing.

If I passed, honestly, I would be happy, but not that happy.

Just finished N2.

Vocab/grammar - fine. A few of the ordering questions felt weird, and I'm not sure I worked them out correctly, but the rest was fine.

Reading - finished on time for the first time ever, with five minutes to review my work. This was the part I worked on all year, so that felt good. There were a few questions I was unsure about, but also a lot that I'm pretty sure I nailed. My goal here is at least a 10 point improvement over last year.

Listening - oy, listening. I want to say I feel like I bombed this, but I also felt like I bombed it last year, and I scored 31 out of 60. So who the hell knows? I have problems sometimes understanding what people say in English, let alone japanese.

As for the test itself, I agree with others that it seemed really straightforward this year., as least in grammar and reading. The right answers felt right, and the wrong answers all seemed blatantly wrong.

So, again, who knows. Either way, while I may use JLPT books as study guides, I think I'm taking a break from the test next year, and instead focusing on enjoying the language. I'll finish GO in the next two days, and I have a stack of material beyond that that I really want to dive into.

I sat the N2 in San Francisco. I felt the test was difficult mainly due to my not really studying/preparing for it. I couldn't finish the reading section - I didn't realize just how much material I'd need to go through. The vocabulary was ok except for the last two sections regarding word usage. The grammar had a lot of educated guessing though. I'd be surprised if I passed and will definitely retake the test next year.

Can we discuss specific vocabulary items that were on the test? No one seems to be talking about it in this thread or previous JLPT threads.

Probably, I think most people have already sat the test by now.

I probably didn't get n2 this year. I felt the listening was what killed me, but I knew it would be that way at least. On to 2015!

rmpalpha, go right ahead. It'll be good learning for everyone.

On that note, was anyone else thrown by the second to last paragraph in the essay about niche interests in N2? I'm sure if I had time to think about it it would make total sense, but I couldn't grok what they were trying to say about absorbing yourself in an interest resulting in a 不足 feeling. Ah well...

2nd attempt at N1, pretty sure I at least failed the listening portion again. Is it just me or is the completely lifeless and robotic dialogue and voices difficult to comprehend? Maybe it's because it's so lame I just start losing concentration. If the conversation was even remotely natural and had emotion then perhaps I might do okay? Or maybe I'm just trying to avoid blaming myself. Don't know but I sure hate going to the city and never want to have to take this depressing test again.

This is what I could remember from the N2 test -

Kanji readings:
極端 (きょくたん)
援助 (えんじょ)
継続 (けいぞく)
貿易 (ぼうえき)
破る (やぶる)

Pick the right kanji:
改訂／訂正 - I think 訂正する was the right answer but I picked the other one.
リラックスする

Three compound words:
(未)経験
期限(切れ) - I picked 期限(超え) because it made sense at the time
(高)性能

Pick the right word:
ことなる = 違う

Pick the right word usage - I'm not really sure what the correct usage is
会見
支持
妥当
言い訳
手軽

@TheVinster I felt the same way about the N1 listening section. And I know that deep down, it's on me, but I hate that hyper-fast talk about nothing section with the fire of 10,000 suns.

I'll need to have an internal 反省会 over the next few days and figure out some kind of action plan.

rich_f Wrote:I don't know what it is, but for some reason I have no problem reading and speaking Japanese all year long, with the exception of any time I'm in D.C.

For some reason, the ICC at Georgetown university sucks my ability right out of me.

I think the JLPT is half Japanese test, half endurance test. How much Japanese I know normally is different from how much I know after spending hours in a hot classroom filling in circles...I was on the verge of a heat stroke during the reading section when I took the test last year. At that point I think it would have effected my score even if the test was in English. During a test, after a while, I think most people's skill level drop, so you're definitely not alone in this!

Anyway, great job everyone! Whether you passed or not, the experience likely gave you an idea of what your strong points are, and what you need to work on, which can be valuable in itself.

Bokusenou Wrote:

rich_f Wrote:I don't know what it is, but for some reason I have no problem reading and speaking Japanese all year long, with the exception of any time I'm in D.C.

For some reason, the ICC at Georgetown university sucks my ability right out of me.

I think the JLPT is half Japanese test, half endurance test. How much Japanese I know normally is different from how much I know after spending hours in a hot classroom filling in circles...I was on the verge of a heat stroke during the reading section when I took the test last year. At that point I think it would have effected my score even if the test was in English. During a test, after a while, I think most people's skill level drop, so you're definitely not alone in this!

Anyway, great job everyone! Whether you passed or not, the experience likely gave you an idea of what your strong points are, and what you need to work on, which can be valuable in itself.

My ability to pass a Japanese test falls greatly when realizing everybody in the room is just me (a fairly young white male that's average looking).

Damn, you have a great memory!

rmpalpha Wrote:This is what I could remember from the N2 test -
Pick the right kanji:
改訂／訂正 - I think 訂正する was the right answer but I picked the other one.

Pretty confident it was 訂正.

rmpalpha Wrote:Three compound words:
(未)経験
期限(切れ) - I picked 期限(超え) because it made sense at the time
(高)性能

I made the exact same mistake with 期限切れ, even though a small voice in the back of my head was saying that it was right. Should have trusted my instincts. Have I EVER encountered a verb ending in -超え? No. Have I ever encountered a verb ending in -切れ? Almost daily. Sigh.

I'm pretty confident in my choices on the rest. The correct usage seemed pretty obvious.

I took the level 1 today. My mother speaks Japanese but even this did not help me with listening. Vinster, don't feel bad! I learned Japanese by myself with my mother as my teacher. I barely passed the level 2 last December and failed the level 1 this summer by three points. I am hoping I passed this time but I had some mishap with my pencils falling while I was taking the exam and also got the pages mixed up and had mis-bubbled the answer sheet until I figured it out. However, I calmed down and finished on time. The reading section was my weakest section, but this time I think I improved.

Some fellow next to me just gave up and slept through the test half-way. Thus, I would not feel bad about this exam. It was hard but I felt it was fair.

I took the N1 today, and it kinda sucked! I hope I passed so I never have to take it again. The end.

I think I have an idea... I'm going to listen to my NHK News podcasts at 1.3x speed, and just learn to get used to it. Gogo Doggcatcher!

ktcgx Wrote:

z1bbo Wrote:I was pretty arrogant and tried N1, about 1 year after having started studying 日本語.
I found the language knowledge and reading section quite easy, but completely failed the listening section (except for the spoken response thing).

If I still managed to get the 19 points in listening then I think the rest will cover 81 points but it will be really close...

Interesting! Can you tell us a bit about your study and how you managed to het your level so high so fast?

I didn't do anything special really, first I did Heisig, the I learned ca. 4-5k vocab, did Tae Kim, started reading light novels while still learning vocab 80% of the study time. After about 8-9 months I've got to 10k vocab, stopped adding new cards and switched to reading normal novels. Read about 15 novels in total, then switched to reading 20+ 社説/day for the last month, this probably boosted my reading the most.
The whole time I listened to various podcast (nhk news etc.), occasionally watched anime/drama with japanese subs.

In the end it was probably just a question of time, I probably spent 8-9 hours on average per day learning concentrated. I actually think that I'm pretty bad at learning languages, Heisig alone took me about 500 hours, much more than times I've read here on the forum.

I think everyone can learn this fast, if you are really motivated and focus on reading and vocab.

I passed N2 with a comfortable margin last year so I decided to try N1 this year.

The good news is that I see that I have improved over the last year, and I have N1 to thank for that. It really kept my motivation up. The bad news is that I don't think I passed it. I thought it went pretty well for the first part of the test; language knowledge was fine, grammar went ok I think. And reading actually seemed pretty easy for the most part. It was easier than I expected, but I still didn't read fast enough, so time was up with one text left.

Listening on the other hand was a total disaster. I knew it would be the hardest part for me because my listening is pretty weak, but I had done fairly well on practice tests leading up to the real test. But I just lost my concentration for that part. As Bokusenou said earlier, it's half an endurance test. If my listening were stronger it wouldn't be so straining on me, but right now there is just no way I can keep up the level of focus that's necessary to understand it all for 60 minutes straight.

At least I now have a pretty good idea about my strengths and weaknesses, so taking the test was not a complete waste of time.

AlgoRhythmic Wrote:Watches of any type were banned to, and I knew all this funny stuff just ten minutes before the start (it was not specified on the rules they mailed us).

Really? I'm from Italy too, but I took the test in Japan and I had a watch (腕時計). I don't remember if they told something about it but my watch was pretty evident and it seems it was fine... or maybe they didn't notice? Mh.

rich_f Wrote:Pick the right word usage - I'm not really sure what the correct usage is
会見
支持
妥当
言い訳
手軽

These vocabs were really unexpected for me. Looks like they're common words but I knew only two, 支持 and 言い訳　(maybe I knew 手軽 as well but just couldn't remember the meaning).
Anyone that took N2 remember his answers?
As for me:
言い訳: I think I chose the one about failing in jobs
手軽: not sure about the contents but it was probably the first option and it was about manual labour

I don't remember the others. Between 妥当 options, one was about the time (天気) and I didn't choose that one.

Other random things I remember:
A question about one person who normally doesn't 相談 with others, but at last he did (I chose 思い切って... I hope it wasn't せっかく)
A question with 蓄える and 抱える (I chose the former)

Overall, the test was harder than I thought. Kanji part was extremely easy, but some vocabs were kind of a surprise and I had problems reordering sentences in grammar.
Reading was okay maybe, but I forgot many bunshou because I had to scan several of them (the woman who gave sheets wrote the test time on the blackboard, wich later turned up to be wrong, 20 minutes earlier; therefore I had to hurry with some texts).
Listening was probably the worst, the only easy part was the one with quick questions and answers.
In the other mondai I'm kind of sure only for 4-6 answers.
It was expected since I'm weak in listening, but still...

Just hope to pass because I don't want to take N2 again. I'm probably going for N1 next year, regardless the results, but I still want to pass

z1bbo Wrote:

ktcgx Wrote:

z1bbo Wrote:I was pretty arrogant and tried N1, about 1 year after having started studying 日本語.
I found the language knowledge and reading section quite easy, but completely failed the listening section (except for the spoken response thing).

If I still managed to get the 19 points in listening then I think the rest will cover 81 points but it will be really close...

Interesting! Can you tell us a bit about your study and how you managed to het your level so high so fast?

I didn't do anything special really, first I did Heisig, the I learned ca. 4-5k vocab, did Tae Kim, started reading light novels while still learning vocab 80% of the study time. After about 8-9 months I've got to 10k vocab, stopped adding new cards and switched to reading normal novels. Read about 15 novels in total, then switched to reading 20+ 社説/day for the last month, this probably boosted my reading the most.
The whole time I listened to various podcast (nhk news etc.), occasionally watched anime/drama with japanese subs.

In the end it was probably just a question of time, I probably spent 8-9 hours on average per day learning concentrated. I actually think that I'm pretty bad at learning languages, Heisig alone took me about 500 hours, much more than times I've read here on the forum.

I think everyone can learn this fast, if you are really motivated and focus on reading and vocab.

Good job z1bbo! You just bost my motivation to study more hours per day! Could I ask how you do/did Core? Recognition only? Production? Do you read the sentence or only the single word? Do you test only readings or both readings and meanings? And RtK? You review from english keyword to kanji? Are you still reviewing it?

Hmm, I think I chose the correct one in most of the questions people here are posting, so that's a nice sign.

A watch should have been allowed - it says so explicitly in the rules. I even bought a watch the day before (because who actually has a watch in this day and age?), but it turns out that this university is sane and actually has clocks in its rooms.

Aikynaro Wrote:Hmm, I think I chose the correct one in most of the questions people here are posting, so that's a nice sign.

A watch should have been allowed - it says so explicitly in the rules. I even bought a watch the day before (because who actually has a watch in this day and age?), but it turns out that this university is sane and actually has clocks in its rooms.

Specifically, who has an ANALOG watch (which is the only one allowed by the rules)?

My site (UW in Seattle) has clocks in every room. A watch is a sure sign of a first time test taker.

TurboMan Wrote:

AlgoRhythmic Wrote:Watches of any type were banned to, and I knew all this funny stuff just ten minutes before the start (it was not specified on the rules they mailed us).

Really? I'm from Italy too, but I took the test in Japan and I had a watch (腕時計). I don't remember if they told something about it but my watch was pretty evident and it seems it was fine... or maybe they didn't notice? Mh.

If I understood correctly it's only eletronic watches that have memory functions that are prohibited.

cophnia61 Wrote:Good job z1bbo! You just bost my motivation to study more hours per day! Could I ask how you do/did Core? Recognition only? Production? Do you read the sentence or only the single word? Do you test only readings or both readings and meanings? And RtK? You review from english keyword to kanji? Are you still reviewing it?

My vocab cards are regocnition only: on front: kanji, sentence
on back: audio, definition, kanji+ reading, sentence, picture (so yes, reading and meaning)
for definition I have various field depending on how easy the vocab is to understand from the picture. For most nouns for example I have only japanese dictionary definition or 類語 from http://thesaurus.weblio.jp/, for adjective etc. mostly english/german definition.

I read the sentence only when I'm not sure about the meaning/usage of the word, at the start I always read it, but now I mostly ignore it.

I still review rtk and do keyword --> kanji, started changing keywords to japanese upon learning corresponding vocab, by now about 80%+ are japanese (not sure if this is good though, it lowered my retention rate).

hope this helps

EratiK Wrote:

TurboMan Wrote:

AlgoRhythmic Wrote:Watches of any type were banned to, and I knew all this funny stuff just ten minutes before the start (it was not specified on the rules they mailed us).

Really? I'm from Italy too, but I took the test in Japan and I had a watch (腕時計). I don't remember if they told something about it but my watch was pretty evident and it seems it was fine... or maybe they didn't notice? Mh.

If I understood correctly it's only eletronic watches that have memory functions that are prohibited.

I didn't asked directly, but the guy in front of me bringed the teacher his watch, it was a classic golden watch with lancets and the teacher said "No, nothing allowed but pencil, rubber and sharpener! I'll tell everyone: for the watches, we tell you when the test is about to finish, ごめんなさい"

And the same thing with water. I don't want to complain, but I think those teachers simply interpreted the rules too strictly. Anyway it was probably their right to do so.

I took the test in Milan.

EDIT: no clocks in the room, of course

Hey there,

It was my first time taking this exam and apparently it's a requirement for me to keep my scholarship...
I'm freaking out here...

Is there somebody who wants to cross answers with me?
I do reminds some of mine....

the results will be out in February but do they release the correct answers before that?
I am miserable... Have no idea how I was...

Please!!!!
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