Kanzen Master 1kyuu and 2kyuu for grammar has been typed up. Check the Group Project forum. Guys like Tobberoth say it's almost cheating to use those sentences with Anki, cause it pretty much hands the grammar portion of the test to you.

Nukemarine Wrote:Kanzen Master 1kyuu and 2kyuu for grammar has been typed up. Check the Group Project forum. Guys like Tobberoth say it's almost cheating to use those sentences with Anki, cause it pretty much hands the grammar portion of the test to you.

Ah thanks for that :-)

Ok, I've got it sorted out now. I'll buy KM 1 & 2, as well as Donna toki. That way I don't have to make any difficult decisions, and ho and hum about which to buy

Just FYI the どんな時 1-4 book is done in あいうえお　order (or whatever they call it in Japanese), so there's no set study pattern. It's more like A Basic Dictionary of Japanese Grammar. There are English, Korean, and Chinese translations of the explanations.There are also no exercises. I use it as a reference book more than anything else.

The 500 book (which covers 1-2) is grouped by concept, and there's also a workbook that goes with it. (FWIW.)

I like the grammar book Jarvik 7 recommended. It's a nice change from KM2, and paces you through 8 weeks pretty decently.
http://is.gd/1mzz4

Nukemarine Wrote:Kanzen Master 1kyuu and 2kyuu for grammar has been typed up. Check the Group Project forum. Guys like Tobberoth say it's almost cheating to use those sentences with Anki, cause it pretty much hands the grammar portion of the test to you.

That's strange. I've got the 2級 book and been using it with Anki. I did the 2006 2級 test for practice the other day and was expecting to find it easy, but the grammar section was still very hard, there were still lots of questions I had trouble with.
I've yet to go through the test again and see what they were, but was wondering if other people found the same?

On a positive note, my mark on the grammar/reading section went from 48% to 67% in 2months, pretty much just from using the Kanzen Master ２級 book (and that's going from the 2003 test to the 2006 test, the latter is supposed to be harder), so the results are still positive.

rich_f Wrote:Just FYI the どんな時 1-4 book is done in あいうえお　order (or whatever they call it in Japanese), so there's no set study pattern. It's more like A Basic Dictionary of Japanese Grammar. There are English, Korean, and Chinese translations of the explanations.There are also no exercises. I use it as a reference book more than anything else.

The 500 book (which covers 1-2) is grouped by concept, and there's also a workbook that goes with it. (FWIW.)

I like the grammar book Jarvik 7 recommended. It's a nice change from KM2, and paces you through 8 weeks pretty decently.
http://is.gd/1mzz4

I found that when using どんな時, I didn't need much of a study pattern. The grammar points are labeled as to what level of JLPT they are on. So if you're just studying for JLPT2 then you can work through the book ignoring all the JLPT1 stuff. Likewise if you're studying for JLPT3 then you can ignore the JLPT1 and 2 stuff.

You have to learn it all for each level anyway if you're studying for the test. The example sentences are pretty good, and the book has explanations. To test, you just use the freely available past tests that you can find online.

If someone is looking for a more focused study pattern for the JLPT, then I would suggest the Unicom ２級 grammar book. I used it along with どんな時, and I passed. The drills in it do a great job of helping you differentiate same meaning/different context/different formation grammar points.

i`m considering taking JLPT 3 or 2 this december...i`ll be completing KO2001 in the next few months (1110 kanji) but i`m not sure if i could handle JLPT 2 or not... my grammar needs improvement definitely but i think my listening is fairly ok... i may just stick to jlpt 3 this time though because i will be transferring to another college near the end of 2010 for my last 2 years and i`ll need to show them proof that i actually know some Japanese so i wont end up in the beginner classes.

Hi everyone
I was looking for what people thought about this software I'm thinking about trying out to remember more kanji, but I ended up here. It looks like an interesting forum. Hopefully I can hang out here?

I'm planning to take JLPT2 this winter too, but not because I need a job or get into college, but really, just for the sake of having a goal. Since I finished college I've been finding it hard to find a good reason to pursue anything. At least with this, there's some kind of definite goal to aim for (passing the test, obviously.. heh. But I'd like to pass with flying colors.)

I had a sneaking suspicion that I had more confidence in Japanese than I should, so I started with the JLPT4 vocab and worked my way up to about a tenth of the JLPT2 vocab. So now I can write every single required word for JLPT4 and 3 in Kanji, in addition to a handful of JLPT2 words. o_o JLPT4 did look really easy, but I wanted to be certain that I knew everything...

Since I have really awful computer habits (gaming all day, checking my e-mail 10 times an hour) I can't use Anki, but I've had a lot of success carrying around little flash cards to memorize at all hours of the day. I made them on the computer. If you guys are interested in the JLPT4 and JLPT3 vocab flash cards, here's a version you can print out to study here:
http://skimlines.deviantart.com/art/JLPT...-129859134
http://skimlines.deviantart.com/art/JLPT...-132460903

I used to study this way and then review once a week on Anki. It's great because I can review quickly, but I inevitably end up checking my e-mail a few times without even realizing it, or I'll end up playing sims3.
I also try to read at least one short story a week. The goal is to be able to read it seamlessly by the end of the week. This is helping me increase my sight recognition of kanji. I'm hoping this will help me through the reading section of the test. So far I've been reading soseki's ten night dream series. Maybe some of you have heard of it?

I still use paper cards these days, but if I really memorize all the vocab for JLPT2, I think I might lose my mind. so these days I'm back to studying more radicals so that I can at least memorize the meaning of each kanji. Once I know what it means I usually know how to read it... so.. yeah. Best of luck, everyone.

Ok so im necroing this thread for my own feedback.

I'm going for JLPT2 in december. Right now i'd fail for sure so I'm studying my ass off day and night day in day out to make it.

I've finished RTK and I'm currently 40% the way through KO2001 which I will be finished with by mid september in a couple of weeks.

After that I'm going to try and blitz KM2kyuu...

How long will it take to do this? Given I can study as much as I like in a day... and it's usually 6+ hours a day.

Where do I go after this? I'm considering making sub2srs decks out of doramas to get listening comprehension up aswell as learn a few new words. Also planning on just trying to read as much as possible.

Do I have a shot or am I dreaming?

KM2kyuu has approximately 800 sentences, and you should be able to go through it around the same speed you're doing KO (maybe a little slower initially as you get used to the newness of it). So you should be able to estimate from that how long it will take you. Personally it took me just over 2 weeks studying only a few hours per day due to being at Uni so I'm sure you can do it much quicker.

only 800? based on that I could be done with it in 4 days? Of course it will take the next month of reviews to really start to internalize the grammar. Then a whole but load more exposure to get it truly crammed in there.

What should I do after that? Is sub2srs the best option? Are there other materials I should look at for vocab or something of that order?

Here's a link for listening quiz with scripts:

http://japanese.human.metro-u.ac.jp/mic-...nLoad.html

mezbup Wrote:Do I have a shot or am I dreaming?

I think you should be able to pass, especially knowing all of KO2001.
Assuming your listening is okay, the hardest section will be the reading comprehension - actually understanding the real meaning of the passages. RTK and vocab don't really help so much there.

I just barely passed (63%) JLPT2 in July.
At the time I had
- about 80% RTK (75% second time through, forgot a lot from the first time, but I knew some easy ones from later in the book, so around 80%)
- 65% of KO2001
- all of KM2kyuu
- a decent level of listening (been learning very ineffectively for a long time).

avparker Wrote:I just barely passed (63%) JLPT2 in July.
At the time I had
- about 80% RTK (75% second time through, forgot a lot from the first time, but I knew some easy ones from later in the book, so around 80%)
- 65% of KO2001
- all of KM2kyuu
- a decent level of listening (been learning very ineffectively for a long time).

That's really interesting.

For me it's:

- 100% of RTK (finished last year around that time)
- 100% on-yomi for all RTK kanji
- 100% of KO2001 book1 and book2
- 50% of A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar
- Training my listening skills since 1998
- reading something Japanese every day

And I'm 100% sure that I'm not able to pass 2kyuu yet.
But then again I'm not preparing for the test anyway. I'm going to take it when I think I know enough without having to prepare for the test itself too much.

are you sure about this ?
I got from scratch to 2kyuu in one year and I forgot about a 2/5 of RTK1 by the time I passed the exam as I didn t review through RVK, didn t bother to learn onyomi on their own and wasn t finished with KO2001 at that time (around 1000) . Still got around 75 percent .

I think you re severly underestimating what can be done and what you can you do. It doesn t take to be a genius to pass the exam. Just cram the gram , study annals with a mock test every 2 weeks and it should do it with all you know.

thanks for the interesting and varied feedback guys

I passed ２級 with 7x% this past July. I was about 500 characters into RTK, at grammar point 18 in Kanzen master ２級 and and hadn't done any of KO or KiC. Japanese was kind of a hobby for a few years in the US and I studied it off and on. Listening was always my strongest point. SRS is great, but be sure to break out of it and spend some time working on material you are interested in. Right now I'm aiming for the BJT next weekend, but I started studying too late so I probably won't do well this time around. I am taking １級 in december but have no delusions of passing.

wow, maybe i should be taking the JLPT 2 this year instead of 3... i thought it would be too over my head so i signed up for 3 instead. however, the reason i'm taking the JLPT 3 is to show the college i want to transfer into in the end of next year that i got the basics down. i will be transferring for my junior & senior year with my associate's degree in modern foreign languages. unfortunately, they don't offer Japanese at my local college that i am in now so i have been forced to study Spanish instead. i figured a 90%+ on JLPT 3 would be enough to get in the major that i want (Japanese Language & Literature)

Transfer to the University of Arkansas or Hawaii! Fayetteville and Honolulu are JLPT host sites as well

I'll be transferring to UGA, where my grandparents live and i can stay for free rent

cjlacz Wrote:I passed ２級 with 7x% this past July. I was about 500 characters into RTK, at grammar point 18 in Kanzen master ２級 and and hadn't done any of KO or KiC. Japanese was kind of a hobby for a few years in the US and I studied it off and on. Listening was always my strongest point. SRS is great, but be sure to break out of it and spend some time working on material you are interested in. Right now I'm aiming for the BJT next weekend, but I started studying too late so I probably won't do well this time around. I am taking １級 in december but have no delusions of passing.

I'm at grammar point 9 in Kanzen master, and am taking 2級　in December. Let's see if I fair as well as you!

Tzadeck Wrote:

cjlacz Wrote:I passed ２級 with 7x% this past July. I was about 500 characters into RTK, at grammar point 18 in Kanzen master ２級 and and hadn't done any of KO or KiC. Japanese was kind of a hobby for a few years in the US and I studied it off and on. Listening was always my strongest point. SRS is great, but be sure to break out of it and spend some time working on material you are interested in. Right now I'm aiming for the BJT next weekend, but I started studying too late so I probably won't do well this time around. I am taking １級 in december but have no delusions of passing.

I'm at grammar point 9 in Kanzen master, and am taking 2級　in December. Let's see if I fair as well as you!

I still have to study basically every grammar point before the test too! I was thinking though, with anki taking a month to move things into long term memory I would have to do it all over the course of the next week and then just let it sink in.

I'm considering just taking each point from KM2kyuu and using a few example sentences per point from the big dictionary of grammar deck rather than use the KM2kyuu books sentences. Should save me some time. It'll work right?

Then the plan is to take practice tests every day until the test

I've almost just resigned myself to failing, to be honest. If I tried really hard I could pass in a month, but I don't think I'm going to. With a new girlfriend, a full time job, trying to figure things out about grad school, and planning a trip home to the states.... dunno. I just can't seem to force myself to put the effort in.

Wow- can't believe it's coming up in a month already Good luck everyone!

I've studied a variety of material in the past so that certainly helped me. Even though I haven't studying all of Kanzen master yet, I have been exposed to a lot of the grammar. A lot of the JLPT is test taking skills. You can answer a lot of questions without knowing what the sentence says, so don't get hung up on words you don't know. You can eliminate a lot of answers by looking at the surrounding words. (does it end in 〜ない？ have a が or に？ etc) A lot of grammar can only be used in the positive or negative sense, a certain verb tense, on people or objects, follow or followed by certain particles. If you can find a book that makes those clear you can cover a lot more ground in this final month. Don't delude yourself in thinking that passing the JLPT means actual progress. You need to find better ways to judge if you are improving or not.

From what I've seen the JLPT is becoming less used by companies to check your Japanese level. You might look at the BJT instead which I understand is becoming more common and a better gauge of your ability.

I don't know if 3級 will help you out at the college. The material you'd study in your first semester probably goes past what you'd need to pass ３級。 4級 and ３級 are pretty much worthless in my opinion, except as feel good tests.

@mezbup Probably a good idea to grab some sentences from the big dictionary deck. I'm doing that too for points I'm having trouble wish, or don't feel like I understand as well as I should. More of my difficultly lies in the nuances between similar grammar, and I'm still trying to figure out how to make cards for that.

BJT isn't very common at all in job ads. It, and JTest, are still rather unknown.

However, you NEED JLPT1 as a minimum for any job where your English isn't an essential part of the job. BJT on top of JLPT1 is icing on the cake and will make you stand out, but it's not known well enough to stand on its own.

Yes, JLPT3,4 are completely meaningless, essentially making JLPT a test with only 2 levels. JLPT's redesign for next year doesn't go anywhere near far enough. It needs to be something like a 10kyuu system, where getting 1kyuu would mean you are awesome at Japanese instead of minimum-acceptable-level for a business environment. Ideally there would be production components as well, but that would be impossible with how many people take the test every year. BJT only gets away with having production since it's not nearly popular.