Hey all,

I will be taking JLPT 1 in December and I recently took a practice test. I had trouble in the section where you have underlined hiragana and have to figure out which of the answer choices uses the same kanji as the one in the question. How can I best prepare for this part of the test? Any books or online resources that could help me with this section? Thanks for the advice!

I'm not that far yet, but this seems that simple sentence recognition cards, i.e. kanji->reading, would do just fine. The test is multiple choice, isn't it?

I think that if you have trouble going from hiragana to kanji then you should practice doing that. I would buy one of the books for the 文字・語彙 part of JLPT 1 and start learning the stuff you don?t know. Following my Japanese keywords project (see thread if interested), I have cards in my Anki deck with question:hiragana, answer:kanji for just about all the RTK 1 kanji. It works well for me. When I put new cards into my deck I always put a card that tests me on the writing (going from hiragana to kanji).

Could you please link me to the thread? I searched what you wrote but could not seem to find it. Thanks!

It's a sticky in the RTK Volume 1 section. http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=929

You may also want to check out my write up of what we did: http://wrightak.googlepages.com/afterrtk1

Wow that is awesome... just what I needed! Thanks!!

mentat_kgs Wrote:I'm not that far yet, but this seems that simple sentence recognition cards, i.e. kanji->reading, would do just fine. The test is multiple choice, isn't it?

Yes, but the choices are of course made to be hard. If you need to insert a word, you usually get 2-3 words which have really similar meanings and one completely different (which often still sounds right in the sentence). Just understanding every choice isn't enough, you really have to understand the grammar of the sentence to get what word is the right one.

Still, JLPT is indeed about recognition, you don't have to produce anything (they are changing the JLPT after 2009 and it will include a 作文 part where you will need to produce).

Tobberoth Wrote:Still, JLPT is indeed about recognition, you don't have to produce anything (they are changing the JLPT after 2009 and it will include a 作文 part where you will need to produce).

Not true. The writeup of the JLPT changes says that they'd like to do it at some point in the future, but it is too difficult to implement right now. Considering how many 10s of thousands of people take the test each year, it would be a pretty difficult thing to grade. Another kentei (jbiz I think) only allows the top scorers to come back a month or so later and do a separate production portion to get an extra qualification. I think that's really the only way it's doable. JTEST (at least A-D level) has a very small writing portion but it's just like 4 1 sentence questions, not a 作文. Even that is only doable because so few people take JTEST.

The changes coming for next year are basically just 1/2 kyuu being given twice a year, and the introduction of a new level between 2 and 3 (with the levels 1 and 2 becoming slightly more difficult to compensate).

Jarvik7 Wrote:

Tobberoth Wrote:Still, JLPT is indeed about recognition, you don't have to produce anything (they are changing the JLPT after 2009 and it will include a 作文 part where you will need to produce).

Not true. The writeup of the JLPT changes says that they'd like to do it at some point in the future, but it is too difficult to implement right now. Considering how many 10s of thousands of people take the test each year, it would be a pretty difficult thing to grade. Another kentei (jbiz I think) only allows the top scorers to come back a month or so later and do a separate production portion to get an extra qualification. I think that's really the only way it's doable. JTEST (at least A-D level) has a very small writing portion but it's just like 4 1 sentence questions, not a 作文. Even that is only doable because so few people take JTEST.

The changes coming for next year are basically just 1/2 kyuu being given twice a year, and the introduction of a new level between 2 and 3 (with the levels 1 and 2 becoming slightly more difficult to compensate).

Seems you're right, I just checked the official site.. that's odd, my friends Japanese teacher when he lived in Japan just 6 months ago told him of the changes and the addition of a 作文. Oh well, I guess the actual changes have Pros and Cons... Good that one doesn't have to worry about 作文 and production, but not so nice that １級 might be raised in difficulty.. though the official site claims it should be approximately the same.

Tobberoth Wrote:Seems you're right, I just checked the official site.. that's odd, my friends Japanese teacher when he lived in Japan just 6 months ago told him of the changes and the addition of a 作文. Oh well, I guess the actual changes have Pros and Cons... Good that one doesn't have to worry about 作文 and production, but not so nice that １級 might be raised in difficulty.. though the official site claims it should be approximately the same.

Quote:N1: Approximately the same passing level as the existing Level 1 test, but designed to enable slightly more advanced abilities to be measured as well.

I take that to mean the test is harder. Every year the test gets harder anyways though. I just looked at a JLPT1 listening portion from the early 90s and it's about the same as current JLPT2 level, maybe easier.