Hi,

I just realized I barely have time left, and also have quite a high pile of Uni work to do, so I could use some help/advice here: I went through Genki I and II (ahead of my class in Uni), and got to ~400 in KO2001.
Now cause I dont have much time at the moment, I wonder:
Are there lists to show you what you still need after Genki II? Grammar und Vocab-wise?
Do you suggest a book to prepare myself, or should I stick to http://www.jlptstudy.com/3/index.html ?
And: how many hours do you think I'll have to invest at this point (rough estimation)?

Thanks in advance!

PS: The worst about that test might be the fact that they write all the vocab in Hiragana, and I've always studied production, so that's kinda tough for me ~.~

I'm in the same situation as you, so I feel your pain. Actually that's not accurate, you're ahead of me in KO2001... I'll finish book 1 by the time JLPT3 comes, so I hope that's enough vocab!

Best way to find out what you need to do is get hold of some past tests and do them yourself under test conditions. You'll soon find out where you're lacking.

My guess is you're going to say something like "wow that grammar sure was a (insert nasty word of choice here)"

Rooboy Wrote:Best way to find out what you need to do is get hold of some past tests and do them yourself under test conditions. You'll soon find out where you're lacking.

My guess is you're going to say something like "wow that grammar sure was a (insert nasty word of choice here)"

Does it matter how old the tests are? Did they change over the years=?^^
Also, if you know some good practice pages, go ahead and throw them here xD

Oh god, that means 4 weeks until level 2... I hate you 読解!

i`m taking jlpt 3 and i feel like i`m prepared to do better than 90%... as far as my reading level goes, i am currently reading the Japan Times Intermediate book on the side and i feel that`s about where my true reading level is at the moment. if you guys have read genki 1 & 2, i think you will be perfectly fine IMO... just put in as much study time as you can afford before the big day... btw, when are we supposed to get the testing site and time information?

Well, starting a test, I didnt feel so sure. Atm going through grammar points, and I havent learned about ということ, f.e. There is no link to Tae Kim, so where do I find info on that ...

well... this site has a lot of good grammar examples on it also http://www.tanos.co.uk/jlpt/skills/grammar/ it`s by JLPT level... of course i didn`t only just read the genki books, i`ve read through quite a few different ones actually and i pick stuff up here and there...

actually, on that website, they sell all of the jlpt 3 vocab on mp3 format. it says the words on one ear with the native japanese speaker and then the other ear with the native english speaker. i listened to it back and forth on my way to work for about a month and i can recall all of the words instantly now... you might wanna look into buying it.

Hashiriya Wrote:actually, on that website, they sell all of the jlpt 3 vocab on mp3 format. it says the words on one ear with the native japanese speaker and then the other ear with the native english speaker. i listened to it back and forth on my way to work for about a month and i can recall all of the words instantly now... you might wanna look into buying it.

Thanks a bunch, already seen it. About grammar: I don't trust that page, because http://www.jlptstudy.com/3/index.html has a much larger list, and stuff like かい ( = marks yes-no question ?) isn't mentioned there.

http://jgram.org/ has the grammar points along with examples many of which were taken out of prep books for the JLPT.

I took JLPT3 last year after having a similar grammar panic attack at about 3 weeks before, but I had no trouble passing. I found the biggest issue with JLPT3 is vocabulary. I knew the vocab cold (thanks Anki!), and was just passingly familiar with the grammar, but I found it was not too hard to figure things out from context. However, no matter how good you are with grammar, if a sentence with a grammar pattern you know is using vocabulary you don't recognize, it will be a struggle.

I used the free lists at http://jlptstudy.com/ - just make sure you also know the vocab from the JLPT 4 list, as it is not included in the JLPT 3 list. I wouldn't recommend the JLPT2 list from this site, though - PlaySay seems much better.

P.S.: As far as grammar resources go, I pretty much skimmed Kanzen Master 3kyuu Grammar (the little red book) a couple weeks before the test.

thanks for the great link. My imaginary work load has doubled by now... But its nice to know I'm not alone xD

(edit) By the way, it's best to study reproduction instead of production, right?

There's also this site that's decent, http://www.e-japanese.jp/grammar.htm
But you should be fine if you've finished Genki I and II. It covers nearly everything on the JLPT3.

By reproduction do you mean recognition (e.g. Japanese -> English or word -> definition)? If so, for the JLPT3 recognition is all you'll need to do, so if you're in Anki you could temporarily suspend your production cards or put them as low priority so that you can do more recognition cards. I studied both production (E->J) and recognition (J->E) because I had the time, and because I wanted to be able to use the words in conversation.

I'm pretty sure if you did all of KO you'd have NO problem aceing level 3.

I have level 2 coming up in 4 short weeks! I'm knocking out all the grammar points in KM2kyuu in 7 days. So far I'm on day 3 and it's easier than I thought so I'm guessing i'll do OK on the grammar section... I won't know all the vocab though.

My advice would definitely be take as MANY practice tests as you can! I'm sure theres more than a few links floating around the forums with access to them.

I'm taking 1 kyuu, and of course I feel like I'll never be ready...
The test is in about a month, and my average score is just passing atm.

I failed 3 kyuu last year, mostly because I didn't know the vocabulary, but I'm going to be ready for it this year

if anybody is going to the Atlanta, GA test site, maybe i`ll see you there... i`m going to go to Six Flags with my wife the day before the test..

Where are you all getting practice tests from? I'm working through Kanzen Master for grammar and reading, and I'm getting a lot of good practice from that, but I haven't been able to take any practice tests because I'm not sure what the best way to go about doing that is.

FutureBlues Wrote:Where are you all getting practice tests from? I'm working through Kanzen Master for grammar and reading, and I'm getting a lot of good practice from that, but I haven't been able to take any practice tests because I'm not sure what the best way to go about doing that is.

Check your email. I pm'ed you the link to the resource where you can get all the past tests

Level 1 here. Listening and Kanji should be okay, but I'm worried about my reading speed. There's not much one can do about this other than reading news, huh?

mezbup Wrote:

FutureBlues Wrote:Where are you all getting practice tests from? I'm working through Kanzen Master for grammar and reading, and I'm getting a lot of good practice from that, but I haven't been able to take any practice tests because I'm not sure what the best way to go about doing that is.

Check your email. I pm'ed you the link to the resource where you can get all the past tests

Much appreciated.

Hmm, took the vocabulary sections of the 1991 and 2007 tests and scored 62.75% and 86% respectively.

I thought I'd do better, honestly, but there were some difficult questions in there. How are you guys studying for the types of questions where they explain a concept and ask you what that's called and/or the questions where they give you a sentence in mostly hiragana and ask you for the kanji for certain terms? Typically I can navigate these questions, but I definitely spotted some weak points there.

Evil_Dragon Wrote:Level 1 here. Listening and Kanji should be okay, but I'm worried about my reading speed. There's not much one can do about this other than reading news, huh?

Practice, and especially practice past reading questions paying attention to the amount of time you have. It's usually worth reading the question part first before the main text -- your aim isn't complete comprehension of the text, it's getting the answers to the questions, so if you have worries about speed then knowing what you can safely skim over is vital.
(Disclaimer: this is from level 2 a couple of years ago, I'm assuming 1 is similar.)

i just got my voucher for the testing site in the mail today... it`s just about time