(2015-12-06, 10:24 pm)spleenlol Wrote: Does anyone that took the N2 remember this one vocab word?
It was all in katakana and every other character was ン
It was something like ワンチンワンチン although that wasn't it.
I've never seen it before and it really stuck out at me but I can't remember what it was...

The only word on Jisho that matches that pattern is
珍紛漢紛 (チンプンカンプン)
http://jisho.org/search/%3F%E3%83%B3%3F%...F%E3%83%B3

(2015-12-07, 10:17 am)Tamba Wrote: The only word on Jisho that matches that pattern is
珍紛漢紛 (チンプンカンプン)
http://jisho.org/search/%3F%E3%83%B3%3F%...F%E3%83%B3

"unintelligible language; incoherent language; talking nonsense;"
well that explains everything


Thanks to whoever posted the answer sites!
I went through mine and somehow did way better than I thought - probably at least 50% for Part 1.
Yea it's not enough to pass, but it's nice to know I didn't bomb.

(2015-12-07, 6:59 am)zx573 Wrote:

(2015-12-07, 6:51 am)kanttuvei Wrote: Thanks for the full link. Should be at least >= 50% from the reading section (9 answers difficult to check because of Chinese-only, so not counting them). So before the final verdict end of next month, I guesstimate 85-100(max) points. Almost pass or almost fail, doesn't really help

Which questions couldn't you check?

If you could help for the following questions I would really appreciate it! 56-62, 69-70, 74-75.

I remember somewhat my answers, but just to make sure...

Vocab and grammar went really well, but the listening was brutal... the first 3 sections felt totally different from what I did before... 

Thank you!

お疲れ様です。

I took N1.

I checked against one of those Chinese sites and it looks like I got about 80% right on the first 25 questions, and I got 7 incorrect on the listening comprehension section.  I couldn't find on the Chinese site a place that had the second half of the grammar and the actual passages/questions/answers for the reading comprehension section (I didn't write down my answers).

The grammar/vocab section was probably okay for me, although the "use the word correctly in the sentence" portion was harder than usual for me.  I'm a little upset that I missed the question on the reading of 遷 because I didn't remember the word 左遷 until after the break.  Reading comprehension felt average/slightly more difficult than usual.  I was a little behind on time getting through the grammar section so I pushed myself to go a little faster than I would have liked on the reading sections (not double checking in the passage, etc.).  I ended up finishing with about 5 minutes to spare, so I had time to go back and look over a few questions.  Listening comprehension felt much more difficult than my practice exams.  Plus it was a little distracting when other test takers would make noise.

All in all, I'm still hoping I passed.  Will probably be in the lower range of my predicted score if I do (120s).  I very much don't want to take this exam again.

(2015-12-07, 1:37 pm)Elidan456 Wrote: If you could help for the following questions I would really appreciate it! 56-62, 69-70, 74-75.

I remember somewhat my answers, but just to make sure...

Vocab and grammar went really well, but the listening was brutal... the first 3 sections felt totally different from what I did before... 

Thank you!

Now, I don't speak Chinese so these will be kind of vague, but:
56: Sorry, I can't remember what the exact text was for this. I remember this one being a no brainer for me when I did the exam since instead of being an essay or reading problem, it was more like a flier and you had to verify what you had to do on what date. You needed to compare the answers with what was written for each date on the flier. It said something like "Check Japanese level on 12/11" and so on. Every answer except the right one had a very, very clear error (for example, you can't check your Japanese level on 12/11). The answers and the parts that you needed to check against were all very short, so if you took your time on this you probably got it right.

57: This was the problem about the differences when it comes to food between humans and animals. I can't remember the exact answer from the test, but my friend translated the Chinese text for me and it says something along the lines of "thinking up all kinds of ways in order to make people want to eat" (although now that I think about it, I think the Japanese text said something more along the lines of "Thinking of the different ways that people would want to eat").

58: This was the one about the guy who ran a business and told his managers to leave any work that exceeds their skill levels up to their staff. I think the correct answer was something along the lines of "hire staff of a greater skill level than themselves".

59: This was the question about how people avoid saying some things as to avoid offending others. The correct answer was to "speak your mind clearly".

60: This was the question about teaching methods. It was a 3 part question. This is the first question, and the answer was "people leave out things when they are explaining things that they know".

61: Part 2 of the teaching methods question. I believe (taking a stab based on what I remember from the test and what little I can understand of the Chinese) the answer was something along the lines of "teach them everything up until the end, but let them figure out the last part on their own"

62: The "ある種の職人技" referred to was "being able to adjust your teaching to anyone's level".

69: This was the comparison between A and B and how they viewed the usage of notebooks. 2 part question. A and B both thought it was good to store your thoughts or findings (or something like that, can't remember the exact wording).

70: Part 2 of the previous question. A thought it was fine to write everything in the same notebook, but B thought you should write some things in separate notebooks.

74: This was the question about the father and son. They could only stay until 1pm and wanted to take whatever items they made home with them that day. You needed to add the 待ち時間 at the bottom of the block with the end time of the class to figure out how long it would take to make the item and let it cool. The only options were A (it had no wait time and allowed kids 5 and up) and D (it had a 1 hour wait time, compared to B and C's 2 hour wait times, and it allowed kids 8 and up). So, if I remember correctly, the answer for this was A and D.

75: Part 2 of the previous question. The college student wanted to make something that *wasn't* pottery kind of stuff and also could go that day. Right away you could knock out the ones that had a reservation requirement and also any of the pottery/houseware related stuff, which left you with one potential option, which if I remember correctly, was making a necklace (B).

My goal right now is to find better (and by better, I mean HARDER) listening/reading material. Seems like NHK news isn't cutting it for me. (I can't believe I just wrote that.)

I need to find some essay collections written by cranky old people who like to use obscure words. And a collection or two of confusing corporate communications would be useful, too.

(2015-12-07, 3:59 pm)zx573 Wrote:

(2015-12-07, 1:37 pm)Elidan456 Wrote: If you could help for the following questions I would really appreciate it! 56-62, 69-70, 74-75.

I remember somewhat my answers, but just to make sure...

Vocab and grammar went really well, but the listening was brutal... the first 3 sections felt totally different from what I did before... 

Thank you!

Now, I don't speak Chinese so these will be kind of vague, but:
56: Sorry, I can't remember what the exact text was for this. I remember this one being a no brainer for me when I did the exam since instead of being an essay or reading problem, it was more like a flier and you had to verify what you had to do on what date. You needed to compare the answers with what was written for each date on the flier. It said something like "Check Japanese level on 12/11" and so on. Every answer had a very, very clear error (for example, you can't check your Japanese level on 12/11)  so if you took your time on this you probably got it right.

57: This was the problem about the differences when it comes to food between humans and animals. I can't remember the exact answer from the test, but my friend translated the Chinese text for me and it says something along the lines of "thinking up all kinds of ways in order to make people want to eat" (although now that I think about it, I think the Japanese text said something more along the lines of "Thinking of the different ways that people would want to eat").

58: This was the one about the guy who ran a business and told his managers to leave any work that exceeds their skill levels up to their staff. I think the correct answer was something along the lines of "hire staff of a greater skill level than themselves".

59: This was the question about how people avoid saying some things as to avoid offending others. The correct answer was to "speak your mind clearly".

60: This was the question about teaching methods. It was a 3 part question. This is the first question, and the answer was "people leave out things when they are explaining things that they know".

61: Part 2 of the teaching methods question. I believe (taking a stab based on what I remember from the test and what little I can understand of the Chinese) the answer was something along the lines of "teach them everything up until the end, but let them figure out the last part on their own"

62: The "ある種の職人技" referred to was "being able to adjust your teaching to anyone's level".

69: This was the comparison between A and B and how they viewed the usage of notebooks. 2 part question. A and B both thought it was good to store your thoughts or findings (or something like that, can't remember the exact wording).

70: Part 2 of the previous question. A thought it was fine to write everything in the same notebook, but B thought you should write some things in separate notebooks.

74: This was the question about the father and son. They could only stay until 1pm and wanted to take whatever items they made home with them that day. You needed to add the 待ち時間 at the bottom of the block with the end time of the class to figure out how long it would take to make the item and let it cool. The only options were A (it had no wait time and allowed kids 5 and up) and D (it had a 1 hour wait time, compared to B and C's 2 hour wait times, and it allowed kids 8 and up). So, if I remember correctly, the answer for this was A and D.

75: Part 2 of the previous question. The college student wanted to make something that *wasn't* pottery kind of stuff and also could go that day. Right away you could knock out the ones that had a reservation requirement and also any of the pottery/houseware related stuff, which left you with one potential option, which if I remember correctly, was making a necklace (B).

Wow thanks a lot! 

Got a few questions wrong, #62 for sure and 61# maybe. 

As for #58 Wasn't there a choice where the manager gives the job to an employee when he doesn't know how to do it properly by himself? Can't remember what I wrote.

(2015-12-07, 4:18 pm)Elidan456 Wrote: Wow thanks a lot! 

Got a few questions wrong, #62 for sure and 61# maybe. 

As for #58 Wasn't there a choice where the manager gives the job to an employee when he doesn't know how to do it properly by himself? Can't remember what I wrote.

For 61 I originally thought it was "ask a lot of questions to make sure they understand" because right after that it said "理想的な教え方じゃないか？" or something like that, but then it went on to say something like "people would repeat the same things over again", so I looked for another answer.

And for 58 I think I answered 3 which was something like "working together with the staff to achieve higher goals" or something like that? I got that one wrong.

(2015-12-07, 4:25 pm)zx573 Wrote:

(2015-12-07, 4:18 pm)Elidan456 Wrote: Wow thanks a lot! 

Got a few questions wrong, #62 for sure and 61# maybe. 

As for #58 Wasn't there a choice where the manager gives the job to an employee when he doesn't know how to do it properly by himself? Can't remember what I wrote.

For 61 I originally thought it was "ask a lot of questions to make sure they understand" because right after that it said "理想的な教え方じゃないか？" or something like that, but then it went on to say something like "people would repeat the same things over again", so I looked for another answer.

And for 58 I think I answered 3 which was something like "working together with the staff to achieve higher goals" or something like that? I got that one wrong.

Really? I wasted so much time on this question... and I feel like I will only get 1 point on 3... I had to rush the last reading question because of this. I need to work on my time. 

I had trouble for the first section of the listening, got 2/5. 

Listening
Question 1 - 2/5
Question 2 - 4/6
Question 3 - 3/5 maybe a 4/5 
Question 4 - 12/12 
Question 5 - 2/4 - I really think I did a switch between the guy and the girl for the last question. I did write a 4 and 2, but I don't remember in which order. I removed my points for this one. 

Total - 23/32  maybe 26/32 if I'm lucky. 

Time to open my Kanji book for N1, been two years since I last studied new kanji... Yeah!

(2015-12-07, 6:42 am)s0apgun Wrote: @Vinster you should definitely come to Japan. I didn't know my listening sucked until I came here and it has improved dramatically. In the end, the JLPT isn't as important as you think. Lots of foreigners living here function with an intermediate level of japanese with no problem and many companys dont know what the JLPT is... they just care that your resume says business level japanese

Where do you work? I definitely want to go there to get past this plateau I'm currently hitting.

(2015-12-07, 10:17 am)Tamba Wrote:

(2015-12-06, 10:24 pm)spleenlol Wrote: Does anyone that took the N2 remember this one vocab word?
It was all in katakana and every other character was ン
It was something like ワンチンワンチン although that wasn't it.
I've never seen it before and it really stuck out at me but I can't remember what it was...

The only word on Jisho that matches that pattern is
珍紛漢紛 (チンプンカンプン)
http://jisho.org/search/%3F%E3%83%B3%3F%...F%E3%83%B3

Yep this was it!!!
Thanks a lot Tamba.

(2015-12-06, 6:34 pm)zx573 Wrote: みんなお疲れ様～

I feel like the 言語知識・読解 section was a LOT easier than I was expecting. There were a few things that tripped me up, but I feel pretty confident overall that I got a pretty decent score. I finished it in just over 60 minutes, so I spent at least a half hour checking and then double checking everything. Listening, on the other hand... I probably should've asked the proctor to turn up the volume, but it sounded ok during the preview. It became more difficult to focus with the sound of rustling papers and small sounds from other people.

I'm expecting a low score on the listening since I feel like I guessed on half of them. All I need is above 19 points and then I feel pretty confident that I will have passed N2.

How did it go for everyone else?

Actually, I'm really worried about the listening section as well. I've checked various forum online and the general consensus seems that the listening was very fast compared to what has been tested before.

I checked my answers on the Chinese sites and believe i got only about 14/32 or 15/32 for listening... now I know that JLPT uses scaled scores for marking but does anyone think i can get at least 19/60 overall for the listening section? I really hope they moderate the listening section upwards since they claim on the website its supposed to measure japanese proficiency independent of test difficulty.

That said i found the vocab/grammar and reading to be very easy compared to what I have been practicing. I got about 44/54 for vocab/grammar and 14/21 for reading but am not sure whether th will adjust for test difficulty. Only really worried about listening which caught me completely offguard.

(2015-12-07, 4:13 pm)rich_f Wrote: My goal right now is to find better (and by better, I mean HARDER) listening/reading material. Seems like NHK news isn't cutting it for me. (I can't believe I just wrote that.)

I need to find some essay collections written by cranky old people who like to use obscure words. And a collection or two of confusing corporate communications would be useful, too.

That's called 天声人語 

Hi Guys
I took the JLPT N1 this time in Dec 2015.
The test went well except the dokkai section.
I think I will be able to pass overall, but with a low score in dokkai.
Vocabulary, grammar and reading went good.
What are you guys doing to improve your dokkai skills.
Did anyone do well in the dokkai section?
I personally hated the abstract mountain question.
Is there any way to find and practices for such questions in advance?

What were other things that you found difficult in the test?
For e.x., In listening, I found that last 2 questions were spoken very fast, with no time to take notes on who did what.
But checking the Chinese sites for answer, I think I got them correct. (http://jp.hjenglish.com/new/p758492/)

Love to hear about your story...

(2015-12-12, 4:56 pm)bouzunikukerya Wrote: That's called 天声人語 

Can you kindly expand on that.
I read about it, it seems to be a article section in Asahi news. (http://www.asahi.com/news/tenseijingo.html)
You mean to say that these news articles are abstract type ?
Will be helpful, please let us know.

Am I missing a link to the test questions, or do you guys really remember what you answered for each question based on the question number and answer number? All I see on those sites is links to answers, but not the questions. (which isn't that useful I would think)

[Zgarbas]

(for future references) since you can keep your voucher you can just write down your answers on it if you have time to check your answers on the Chinese site which always publishes them but some people remember their answers somehow.

@kerosan41 I remembered all of my answers by reading the explanations of the answers: http://jp.hjenglish.com/new/p737600/
It's under "N2解析" then each individual section is under "沪江网校". I was able to remember nearly everything except 2 or so answers the day after the test, but I doubt I could remember everything now.

@Zgarbas Would you get in trouble if you got caught doing that? I took the N2 for the first time this year and the proctor was really strict during the exam (pretty cool guy during the breaks and explanations, though). And boy did he have his eye on me. He came beside me to make sure I wasn't cheating, and then after that I got yelled at once for fidgeting where he couldn't see my hand.

(2015-12-13, 9:22 pm)dudeshane01 Wrote:

(2015-12-12, 4:56 pm)bouzunikukerya Wrote: That's called 天声人語 

Can you kindly expand on that.
I read about it, it seems to be a article section in Asahi news. (http://www.asahi.com/news/tenseijingo.html)
You mean to say that these news articles are abstract type ?
Will be helpful, please let us know.

The content of 天声人語 tends to be pretty challenging, more so than your typical news report or even op/ed. 

Also, as someone pointed out months ago, there's an app for it (聞かせて天声人語) that has some 萌えキャラ reading 30 of the essays out loud, so you can also get listening practice from it. The app's stirred some controversy in Japan - cf. http://www.excite.co.jp/News/bit/E1444881350712.html - along the same lines as the recent のうりん controversy. But hey - a resource is a resource. 

Like Rich_F said, NHK seems like this incredibly high bar when you start out, but at N2/N1 level, you realize that the way they structure their news reports is actually fairly predictable and a little boring. In general, I've found content on 朝日新聞
to be more involved and challenging. 

I'm generally trying to stay absorbed in nonfiction to better prep for next year's N1. Things like books of essays and magazines. I'm currently finishing up 負け犬の遠吠え, and have a few magazines and history books about Japan to work through. 

I had another friend of mine who passed N1 several years back recommend high school level 国語 to help with N1 prep. I haven't tried that yet, but am asking my fiancee to hunt up a couple for me that we can take back with us from Japan in January. 

(FYI - anyone else have a problem typing Japanese in this textbox on Chrome?)

(2015-12-14, 7:03 am)zx573 Wrote: @Zgarbas Would you get in trouble if you got caught doing that? I took the N2 for the first time this year and the proctor was really strict during the exam (pretty cool guy during the breaks and explanations, though). And boy did he have his eye on me. He came beside me to make sure I wasn't cheating, and then after that I got yelled at once for fidgeting where he couldn't see my hand.

In the US, they insist that you keep your voucher in the upper right hand corner of your desk. I can imagine getting thrown out and having my exam invalidated if I attempted to jot the answers down on the back of it. Not a strategy that I would recommend; better to wait the seven weeks until you get your scores. 

(2015-12-14, 12:02 pm)bouzunikukerya Wrote:

(2015-12-14, 7:03 am)zx573 Wrote: @Zgarbas Would you get in trouble if you got caught doing that? I took the N2 for the first time this year and the proctor was really strict during the exam (pretty cool guy during the breaks and explanations, though). And boy did he have his eye on me. He came beside me to make sure I wasn't cheating, and then after that I got yelled at once for fidgeting where he couldn't see my hand.

In the US, they insist that you keep your voucher in the upper right hand corner of your desk. I can imagine getting thrown out and having my exam invalidated if I attempted to jot the answers down on the back of it. Not a strategy that I would recommend; better to wait the seven weeks until you get your scores. 

Yeah, we're pretty strict about what you can and can't do during standardized tests in the US. All that you're allowed to do during the test is to look at the test booklet and bubble in answers. We were only allowed to use wooden pencils (even though the only requirement was that it have a #2 core) and you know that clear bottle of water we were allowed? Could only drink from it during break and outside of the testing room, lest you drip something on your answer sheet and cause the Scantron to blow up ( http://xkcd.com/499/ ).

Basically, if it doesn't explicitly say you can do something in the proctor's instructions, you're not allowed to have or do anything but the test while in the testing room.

Yeah, I figured. I took it in the US as well and they didn't say we had to have it in any particular corner of our desk, but they did say it should be at the front end of our desk. I didn't know that the answers get posted on Chinese websites shortly after the test or else I would've at least made more of an effort to remember my answers, but there's no way I would've risked getting thrown out for it.

I'm *still* undecided if I want to take N1 next year (still learning toward probably not taking it so I can focus on listening skills, technical terms for the field I plan on working in, and preparing myself for job interviews and such in Japanese), but I decided to purchase the Living Japanese book that bouzunikukerya linked in another thread. It was really cheap (expedited shipping cost more than the book itself, coming in at $6.99) so if I get any practice out of it then it was worth it. I also plan on going through my N1 vocab Anki deck and I might grab a few books from the 新完全マスター N1 series just to practice with since I liked them a lot for N2. I also downloaded the 聞かせて天声人語 app since I need as much listening practice as I can get.

(2015-12-14, 4:41 pm)zx573 Wrote: I'm *still* undecided if I want to take N1 next year (still learning toward probably not taking it so I can focus on listening skills, technical terms for the field I plan on working in, and preparing myself for job interviews and such in Japanese), but I decided to purchase the Living Japanese book that bouzunikukerya linked in another thread. It was really cheap (expedited shipping cost more than the book itself, coming in at $6.99) so if I get any practice out of it then it was worth it. I also plan on going through my N1 vocab Anki deck and I might grab a few books from the 新完全マスター N1 series just to practice with since I liked them a lot for N2. I also downloaded the 聞かせて天声人語 app since I need as much listening practice as I can get.

Let me know how you liked Living Japanese. I'm considering ordering myself after I get through all of the N1 reading and listening materials I have.

(2015-12-14, 6:29 pm)gaiaslastlaugh Wrote:

(2015-12-14, 4:41 pm)zx573 Wrote: I'm *still* undecided if I want to take N1 next year (still learning toward probably not taking it so I can focus on listening skills, technical terms for the field I plan on working in, and preparing myself for job interviews and such in Japanese), but I decided to purchase the Living Japanese book that bouzunikukerya linked in another thread. It was really cheap (expedited shipping cost more than the book itself, coming in at $6.99) so if I get any practice out of it then it was worth it. I also plan on going through my N1 vocab Anki deck and I might grab a few books from the 新完全マスター N1 series just to practice with since I liked them a lot for N2. I also downloaded the 聞かせて天声人語 app since I need as much listening practice as I can get.

Let me know how you liked Living Japanese. I'm considering ordering myself after I get through all of the N1 reading and listening materials I have.

I have it and did it in September or October. Can trade books if you have something you equally will never look at again.

(2015-12-14, 6:29 pm)gaiaslastlaugh Wrote: Let me know how you liked Living Japanese. I'm considering ordering myself after I get through all of the N1 reading and listening materials I have.

Will do. I'm not entirely sure what level Living Japanese would be considered, but judging from some of the excerpts from the publisher's website, it would probably be somewhere in the N2/N1 range. It's less than $10 used on Amazon (including shipping) so I figured it was worth a shot.