First!
Well, I'm not too optimistic about my results for the 2kyuu this year, but we'll see. Fortunately I had devoted most of my preparation time to penguin and tennis-playing-robot related questions, so I might have pulled it off.
Now, to drown my worries.

I actually thought the reading and grammar for 2-kyuu were easier this year than they have been in years past. It felt like they took the complaints about last year's test to heart, but they did it in a weird way. They still had some really hard questions, but they made the easy ones even easier. There was very little in the middle. It was either obvious or tough as nails.

The vocab section is a little harder than usual. The listening section with pictures is significantly harder than years past. The listening section without pictures was a pushover with lots of obvious answers. The grammar section was the easiest section of the test, and the reading was easier than some other years I had seen. I understood the general point of every passage. There weren't very many that were too abstract. They usually like to put one highly philosophical one in there that nobody, not even natives, can follow. It can still be tricky, but I found myself outright guessing a lot less. Surprisingly, I finished the reading and grammar section 10 minutes early. I worked the test booklet backwards to make the best use of time. The best advice I can give is that if you clearly don't understand the question then guess and skip it. Don't spend any time trying to puzzle anything out outside the reading section. It won't work. If you don't know it. Staring at it isn't going to help you know it.

As well, here's a simple way to ace the graph questions in the reading section. Don't bother with what the graph is about. Look at the answers first, and underline the places where the 4 answers differ. Then go one by one to check them against the graph to see if they're right. Don't even bother reading them. Just look for the graph labels and 減る and 増える then match it from there. Those should be easy points if you work them them very logically.

I feel good about it. I probably passed. My scores for past tests were on the edge, but I found that I was very sure of myself for lots of questions on this one. I'll be surprised if I don't pass, but I will not be surprised if I only pass by a small margin.

Also, do remember to bring a watch or timekeeping device if only for the periods between tests. My friend and I had to leg it from a McDonalds 2 blocks away at 1:13 because we were ***** stupid. We made it in time. All was well.

This is a repost from the JLPT Cream-Puffed thread.

Jarvik7 Wrote:

wasurenaide Wrote:taking level 1 tomorrow on zero studying and a likely hangover. i expect to fail spectacularly. wish me luck!

You're doing it wrong. The hangover is supposed to be the day after the test. Mine will be anyways.

got epically wasted and missed my flight back home (yeah, i was going to go straight to the test site from the airport). things like this happen at friends weddings. at least with my kind of friends.

i didn't have a chance of passing anyways, though i'm sure i'll take it just to find out whenever the bootleg copies come online.

wasurenaide Wrote:i didn't have a chance of passing anyways, though i'm sure i'll take it just to find out whenever the bootleg copies come online.

They're already up
Check the cream puffed thread