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Yikes, looks like I might be the only one planning to take N3 in December?
Anywho, I just splurged and bought a subscription to FluentU, since I saw that their price is going up soon. So far I like it. It's super helpful to have a variety of graded listening practice that's not designed for textbook material.
Update: Probably the best part is that they have 3 levels of subtitles: kanji, furigana and english. Did I mention that you can turn on and off each level at whim? So you can first watch it with no subtitles, then add the kanji, and so on? So far I'm really loving it.
Edited: 2015-09-21, 9:14 pm
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Wait, there is a paid subscription to FluentU? Hmm I just assumed there was only the free feature. I have a free account but haven't had the time to really use the site much. What are the differences between a paid sub and a free one anyways? I hope it's longer videos lol
But yes, I agree that I love the control of types of subs being shown. Reminds me a lot of Erin's Challenge website but with various media and levels
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That's too bad too, because I'm incredibly frugal and definitely won't use their site now if the important parts are behind a pay wall (I was even thinking of trying it again to see if it had more useful stuff for me now). Just put ads on it like normal websites do...
(EDIT: I should really consider whether my comments are actually useful before submitting them... Oh well, it's here now.)
Edited: 2015-09-22, 11:34 pm
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Compared to the end of August:
mature grammar cards: 419 (today) - 410 (end of August) = +9
mature kanji cards: 667 (today) - 660 (end of August) = +7
mature vocab cards: 4,285 (today) - 4,224 (end of August) = +61
I'm expecting a larger increase in grammar going forward. For example, I took N3 grammar/vocab course at JOI last week and adding several sentence patterns to my grammar deck. But I'm only adding 1 new card a day to my grammar deck.
Kinda surprised that I managed to add 61 new mature vocab cards so far this month. I keep on just noticing the ones that become leaches!
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End of August stats:
Compared to the end of August:
mature grammar cards: 423 (today) - 410 (end of August) = +13
mature kanji cards: 665 (today) - 660 (end of August) = +5
mature vocab cards: 4,315 (today) - 4,224 (end of August) = +91
Total: 5,403 (today) - 5,294 (end of August) = +109
Compared to January 20 (my earliest record for 2015):
mature grammar cards: 423 (today) - 208 (1/20) = +215
mature kanji cards: 665 (today) - 478 mature (1/20) = +187
mature vocab cards: 4,315 (today) - 3,246 (1/20) = +1,069 !!!
Total: 5,403 (today) - 3932 (1/20) = +1,471
So overall it looks like another good month - especially for vocab and grammar. I think that this is the first time that the number of mature cards I added in 2015 broke 1,000.
Some other notable things this month were:
*Subscribed to fluentu to get regular native listening practice.
*Reading NHK News got a bunch easier - I now read most of the articles that come out, and don't use a dictionary for it.
*Started the JOI JLPT prep classes.
The bad news is that, based on how difficult I find the reading and listening N3 prep books I'm beginning to doubt whether I'll pass the test. I think that in an ideal world I would take the test next summer. Unfortunately that's just not an option here in the US - it's either December 2015 or December 2016.
At the pace I'm going it looks like I might be OK for the language knowledge portion of the test in December, but not good enough for reading and listening. We'll see.
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I believe they have a summer test in Alberta. Could always celebrate your victory over Japanese with a side trip to Banff or Jasper national parks.
Just saying depending on your finances and where you are in the US, it is an option.
I know I'd consider it if I were in the position. Maybe not for N3 but for N 1 or 2.
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Hello folk. I just finished the exercises of Drill & drill book (文字言葉）, thus I want to give you some feedback, which is of course rather personal. It took me two weeks to finishes the exercises with a comfortable pace I kept while going to work on the train
There are 5 kinds of exercises：
1- kanji reading
2- Contextually-defined expressions
3 - Choosing the right kanji
4 -Paraphrases
5 - Usage.
Some explanation that also provided in the preface.
1 - you are asked to choose the right readings of words written in kanji
2 - you are asked to choose the right kanji which should rpresent proper meanings written in hiragan
3 - Guessing the meaning of a sentence and to chose the proper word wicht matches the sentence
4 - You have to find the word that has about the same meaning as of the underlined word in a sentence
5 - You are asked to choose the right sentence which has the proper usage of the undrelined word in the sentence.
I scored quite high doing the exercises 1 and 2, sometimes with no mistakes at all
3 was sometimes difficult or tricky: there are 11 questions, at the end I scored 58 on 110
4 was ok 41 out of 75, the bad thing is that intuition does not work to me whether in a western language it may work well. When I have to guess a sort of synonimous I found myself constraint inside my culture that has a different semantic approach...
5 ,...hey any light here? This was by far the most difficult section,...sometimes I scored zero! three times only on 10 exercises I scored at least 2 out of 5 questions!
That is the reason I wish the book had more questions of this kind. The question is a word, say ほぼ and then 3 sentences where they put forcibidly that word in it and one that has that word used properly, you have to guess which one is the right sentence. Dark, completely dark. Even if you know the word and you are not enough familiar with the real japanese you have few chances to get it right.
I write you down the sample for ほぼ.
- 8時に家を出れば、 ほぼ間に合うでしょう。
‐ ケーキを６個もらった。ほぼ6人いたので、一個ずつ食べた。
-今度の試験ほぼ７０点は取りたいけど、取れるかなあ。
-スピーチの原稿はほぼ完成した。あとは題を決めるだけだ。
...
Sometimes it was the first time I encounterd the word. Also One cannot tell right away if that is a spoken or a written expression....
If I reckon well, in the exam test, there are quiz/questions of all sort above.
Today I started the Drill & drill book (文法）let`s see how it goes and then I will do again this one in order to fix the mistakes and learn the usage of new words...
Overall the difference with my previous prepration is this. Bbefore I took the test the first time I was studying japanese and ....I took the test to see at what stage I were in my learning. This time I am not studying japanese, I am studying to pass the test, which involves some study of japanese....
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Something tells me that, even if I pass N3 this December, it will be a low pass (similar to my 2014 N4 pass). I think that it will probably take me most of 2016 to go thru all my N3 books. I can totally see myself taking the N3 again in 2016 - but that time passing it easily. That might actually be a good plan for me. The skills that they're testing do seem important. But right now my anki vocab deck is taking so much time every day it's hard to make time for these other things.
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You've probably thought about this, but if anki vocab is slowing you down, maybe set it aside for a while. It seems like most of your vocab is mature anyway, so I'm sure it won't matter much if you set it aside for a month or so. Maybe limit it to a certain number of reviews per day and don't worry that reviews pile up. Over time, you could just catch back up organically since overdue cards' intervals increase until you answer them, so the aggregate study time will be less.
I don't normally advocate not keeping up with reviews, but perhaps in your case they are getting in the way of higher reward activities.
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So today I decided to not take the test in December after all. After finishing my ~250 anki reviews I decided to dig into my reading book. It was, as always, very, very hard for me. So I decided to take the official practice exam instead, which just came in the mail. Here was my score:
Section 1: kanji/vocab:
Q1: 5/8
Q2: 4/6
Q3: 3/9
Q4: 2/5
Q5: 1/5
---------
Total: 15/33
I think that this would get me a "B" on the exam, but still below the 50% needed to pass the exam.
Section 2: Grammar/reading:
Note that only the first 2 questions are grammar
Q1: 5/13
Q2: 1/5 (the dreaded 1*2*3*4 word/scramble question)
So here I'm at 6/18 - 33%. I think that that's borderline C or B, but still below 50%.
Questions 3-5 were about reading, and I couldn't even answer them. I felt I was able to read the passages and get the gist. But somehow moving from reading the passage itself to reading and understanding questions about the passages, and then answering them, escaped me. It's just something I've never done before, and it felt like gears in my brain were mashing together and grinding to a halt.
At this point I stopped. I didn't bother with the listening, because I already knew that I had failed the test.
So I thought about what I'd have to do to have a shot at passing the exam in December - basically studying several hours a day. In addition to the time consuming (but pretty mindless) anki work with vocab, I'd need to learn a ton more grammar, and address the specific exam related issue such as why I'm bombed the 1*2*3*4 questions. And then there are the elephants in the room: reading and listening.
I weighed this against my work-related responsibilities, and the answer was pretty clear. I want to continue studying and using Japanese, but taking the exam with a shot at passing would require a ton of time that I just can't give in the next 2 months. I'd rather keep this hobby less stressful for now and revisit the exam again in a year.
Thanks everyone who helped me on this journey over the last year. I'll definitely be rooting for everyone who takes the exam in December.
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thanks for sharing Ariari but...really you did not want to bother to the listening section? Too bad, it was after all an experience to get on your back!
A think Dudeist had it right...step aside from anki and to other more rewarding things...for instance get a teacher to correct your writing...or learn some tecnics for fast reading...and after a while going back to anki will be refreshing....100words a day I guess it is a good benchmark.
Here in Japan, n4, n5 don`t mean so much...it is the minimum to subscribe to a japanese school I guess...
N2 is the minimum levele to get you a decent job, if you aim at it.
N3 is something in the middle...I do not know what is good for. maybe some high school...or some professional schools that entails using hands more than brain, and it is certainly useful for everyday life.
Let me share this.
The European Framework Code Language - released after English teaching experience I guess - classify Language skills in 6 levels, from above: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2.
B1 is the threshold level.
My guess is that some time ago, Japanese proficient levels had not any threshold level. My feelings are they made it after the EFCL,
and that it is, my explanation of N3.
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@ariariari
That's too bad, but I understand where you're coming from. There's no reason to kill yourself with stress or endanger your job over something that you currently don't need to do. Hopefully next year you'll have studied enough to feel confident in trying it.
For the scrambled sentences, my thinking procedure goes something like this:
1.) Read all the sentence fragments and pay special attention to potential keywords and what the fragments are (verb clause, description, contradiction, or whatever); if you can figure out what it's saying, then the question becomes much easier (since you have an idea of what the sentence is supposed to say, instead of just trying to glue grammar bits together). Also use this opportunity to make the small chunks into bigger chunks; I've had a couple of these questions in my N2 and N1 mock exams where the sentence had been divided in such a way that it was immediately obvious to me that two of the removed parts had to go together. Which things are obvious may vary from what I think are obvious, but I'm fairly sure that some fragments are objectively easier to connect
2.) Look at the last sentence fragment first (or find it, if it's one of the blanks, but I've never seen one like that). Even in more complex sentences, the ending is usually the easiest to understand. Try to find the piece that goes before the last one; since you (should) have the ending of the sentence, you can stick the various pieces to it and see if it makes sense (I find that having the ending of a thought makes it easier to guess what comes before than if I have the beginning of a though and am trying to find what comes after).
3.) After finding the last missing piece, the order of the others probably won't make much of a difference (well, so long as you choose the front or the end), but I still think it's easier to work from the end.
Try not to spend too much time on these though, since they're not worth as many points as the reading questions.
(I actually kind of like these questions, since they're kind of like puzzles.)
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So I slept on it and now I'm thinking that I will take the test, but just with a different goal: Seeing if I can get a "B" on both the vocab and grammar sections. From the practice test it looks like if I took the test today I could probably get a B on vocab and maybe-just-maybe get a B on grammar.
I'm counting 9 weeks until test day, and it looks like JOI will be running weekly N3 language knowledge test prep classes until the test, as well as their usual N3 grammar classes. It will be interesting to see if those classes can help me reach that goal.
That being said, I'm still totally content to just write off the reading and listening parts of the exam. I can use the test to get a benchmark, but it looks like I'll need more time before I can begin really giving them any serious attention.
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I finally came up with a letter of complaint for the JLPT. I do not know how to start a new thread so I post here. Forgive me please because it is quite long. THis is the first draft I hope with your comments critics and suggestions to reach a better version than translate it to japanese and signing and mailing to the proper address..
****** please you are encouraged to add your thoughts and even your english improvements!!! '( *******
Dear Japan Foundation,
I have decided to address you this letter after long time since I believe it contains a wish to improve your testing method.
Since I came to Japan I tested myself in IELTS test for English twice and for DITALS, Italian Professional certification for teacher. My background is vaste considering I am 47 years old, with a bachelor degree in History of Shows and I lived in U.S.A and London Uk for a while.
According to latest research in teaching and evaluating assessment process, some fundings are quite clear.
A language test is very difficult to prepare but it should not be more difficult than what is really necessary. This means that the language skills are shte solely ones at stake and no other skills must be assessed. For instance a language test conducted while the candidate is swimming in a 20 meteres long swimming pool would be somehow akward. Would you consider the result valid? What exactly the test would measure? The ability to speak or the ability to speak while swimming? And what difference is between those skills is hard to measure.
So the difficulty of preparing the language test is to neatly severe the language skills to other skills that maybe involved during the test .
It is much easier to think of a Language test prepared for a candidate who has got no arms. Would you ask him to write? Of course not, you would calibrate questions, and the way he has to answer in a different way. The finally assesment also would be difficult if you have not prior experience in dealing with such kind of student.
What if you have to assess a different skills than the language skills...say, for instance, the abilty to entertain. What would be your best solution? It is hard to answer but let me be your consulent since I have been working in the theatre field for more than 10 years, both in Italy and in USA. The best way to assess the ability of a candidate to entertain is to make him or her facing a real audience. Recording the audience response will give you a real measure to compare different candidate. Of course composing an average audience is kind of hard but not impossible.
Thank you for following until here, we are approching the problem of the JPN test.
For entartaing an audience for just 3 minutes, for instance, every candidate needs to prepare a short speech, rehearsing it enough times to be sure it does not overpass the duration of three minutes. Doing so he developes a special skill, I would call performing skill which is tipycal of perfomers, especially improvisational performers , that let the performer beaware of the passing time so the perfomer knows with a certain degree of precision when the last line must be addressed. In case of the speesh is already written, the skill entails the rythm, in cas of improvisational performance the skill is even stronger...
I think now you are beginning to understand the relationship with the performer skill and the language test...
During the Japanese proficiency Test time must be checked by each candidate individually, no signs of time passing during each section reach the candidates. In oder to prepare themselves for the test, candidate must train themselves to look at their watches or stopwatches...but, forgive me to ask you, is that a language skill?
For my experience that is a performer skill. Do you need to measure the performances skills of somebody who wants just learn Japanese?
This is of course is rethoric question and if you just look through the international literature about the subject of language testing, you surely would find different approach. Even so nobody will confirm that in order to asses a reading or writing skill or listening skill you need to assess simultaneously the performance skills. Those are relatives to speaking skills to whom you do not assess during the Japanese Proficiency Test.
I beg your pardon but there is one more point.
I know it is a long letter but it took me also more time than I thought to organize it. I tried to write in the simplest way in order to explain what I believe could be a improvement in your very well organized test process.
Since the JPN test are held not only in Japan but in different countries around the world I had the opportunity to raise questions to candidates who took the tests overseas, for instance in Usa, China, Italy or Thailand. The reality is that the JPN has some different standars in different countries. Sometimes, like I would normally expect during a language test, the Official Test Administers gives warning signs of the time passing and sometimes not....
I believe that depends from the different costumes of the places, even so, the language test should test the language skills and not the performing skills. In order to solve this theoric and pragmatic dilemma, I would suggest to chose a precise time warning for each section and give the administers instructions of how to deliver those, in every part of the world the test takes place.
Yours Sincerely
