yes and no....
if you re short I think Kanzen (and I assume Unicom) is a great help to improve in a short time . Through this training what you lack in raw power you make it up in technique . Kanzen has some great advice and a good variety of text (in some case probably harder than the JLPT)

On the long run obviously nothing beats regular reading.
that s the price of the reading raw power

Nukemarine Wrote:On the subject of "cheating"

Makes you wonder, with the trouble of time zones and the speed of passing info on the internet, that they don't create three tests and stagger starting times for countries.

With the problem of stealing test books, wouldn't it make sense that they have 3 or 4 books for the separate sections. To get the next section, you must turn in the previous one. Granted, I'm sure in China or Japan there are paid sacrificial lambs who's sole job is to get a copy of the test out on the net for those in Europe and the Americas. Not too much to think three guys would then take appropriate sections.

The sections are on three separate test books, and each one wasn't handed out until the previous ones were returned and counted.

I did JLPT2 in San Francisco. Overall I think I did well. There were a couple of words on the vocab test that I've never seen, but the listening section was easier than past years, and grammar seemed easier too. Reading was OK; it was the first time I had enough time to answer every question on that section.

ghinzdra Wrote:yes and no....
if you re short I think Kanzen (and I assume Unicom) is a great help to improve in a short time . Through this training what you lack in raw power you make it up in technique . Kanzen has some great advice and a good variety of text (in some case probably harder than the JLPT)

On the long run obviously nothing beats regular reading.
that s the price of the reading raw power

I totally agree. What I want to do is to increase my reading level not just specifically aimed at the JLPT. So I'm looking at the long run (for a change!)

wccrawford Wrote:

kazelee Wrote:Looking at the book before they say go is not cheating. It's just not following directions. I don't know why someone would risk doing something so stupid right before the test, though.

Taking more time for the test than is allowed isn't cheating? Because that's what it means to open the book early. You get extra time.

Checking a final answer after the test is done would count as cheating as well then. In which case, most all would be cheaters.

Unless they open the test booklet 10-20+ minutes before the test starts there's not really much of an advantage, is there? Most test I've taken like this, you either know the answers or you don't. 5 extras minutes just means extra time to make a guess, in my experience.

If test takers actually sit with the booklet in front of them for that long before starting (10-20+ minutes), then the one's who do not open the book aren't really using their noggins. If all you do is get a yellow card for 20+ extra minutes of test time, taking the card makes more sense at this point. Unless a yellow card is actually something more.

I don't really condone cheating (direct), but I'm all for loopholes (indirect).

did you take the test ?
yellow card means OUT.
you still can take the test but official are supposed to take you out to warn you.

So the time you gain is lost in being scolded

koyota Wrote:Yeah!, 1級　listening had dragon quest and Evangelion parts. (the dragon quest one was just insane, if I hadn't played dragon quest there is no way I would have been able to pick out and understand that vocab)

Yeah, everyone was laughing on the Evangellion one.
あすか！任せます

trusmis Wrote:

koyota Wrote:Yeah!, 1級　listening had dragon quest and Evangelion parts. (the dragon quest one was just insane, if I hadn't played dragon quest there is no way I would have been able to pick out and understand that vocab)

Yeah, everyone was laughing on the Evangellion one.
あすか！任せます

It was really funny to hear those boring voice actors suddenly do something dramatic. I was thinking they must have enjoyed it.

Anybody know what the correct answer was? I checked #4 but not confident about it.

ghinzdra Wrote:did you take the test ?
yellow card means OUT.
you still can take the test but official are supposed to take you out to warn you.

So the time you gain is lost in being scolded

Okay, so yellow card means outside scolding. Why'd I just read it meant nothing?

@_@

DavidZ Wrote:

trusmis Wrote:

koyota Wrote:Yeah!, 1級　listening had dragon quest and Evangelion parts. (the dragon quest one was just insane, if I hadn't played dragon quest there is no way I would have been able to pick out and understand that vocab)

Yeah, everyone was laughing on the Evangellion one.
あすか！任せます

It was really funny to hear those boring voice actors suddenly do something dramatic. I was thinking they must have enjoyed it.

Anybody know what the correct answer was? I checked #4 but not confident about it.

Yeah, it was 4.

My test class of about 100 people cracked up at that question.
It sounded like some people were laughing hysterically once they said "Asuka".

everyone tooking the 1kyuu test reports their class was laughing their guts out when they heard the evangelion question.
as for me , I m pretty sure one of the official put a paper in front of this mouth to hide the fact she was laughing too.

BTW is there anyone here with a decent chinese?
I m pretty sure the last part missing has been uploaded on a chinese website but I just cant get myself registred . neworld.jp
It sucks because I spent this morning counting my point and all my chances relies on a good score at reading . I think I ll succeed if I have at least 76 pourcents of good answer at reading .

ocircle Wrote:Yeah, it was 4.

My test class of about 100 people cracked up at that question.
It sounded like some people were laughing hysterically once they said "Asuka".

Hey how'd it go ocircle? You got up to speed pretty fast, so I'm curious...

ghinzdra Wrote:did you take the test ?
yellow card means OUT.
you still can take the test but official are supposed to take you out to warn you.

So the time you gain is lost in being scolded

Well at my test site the person behind me was given a yellow card warning. The proctor just came over and showed it to her and pointed to something in his booklet. I'm not sure what the correct procedure is but she wasn't taken outside.

Evil_Dragon Wrote:Okay, seriously... what the hell was that? The final answer on the Lvl 1 listening part almost had me burst out in laughter.

I did laugh out loud. As did someone behind me. Oddly enough, in my group we were the only ones. I also enjoyed the wrestling voice acting.

jonjimbo2000 Wrote:Well at my test site the person behind me was given a yellow card warning. The proctor just came over and showed it to her and pointed to something in his booklet. I'm not sure what the correct procedure is but she wasn't taken outside.

Took JLPT2 yesterday and may have received a yellow card. Before the listening component example sentences began I'd opened the booklet to the first (example) page (as did many of the 95% Asian students there) thinking they were about to play the example track, but (unlike the sensible Asian students) I neglected to close the booklet in the (long) subsequent interval.

While it was open, I was trying to relax by loosening my shoulders (and wasn't looking at the booklet) when an officious chap materialised and gestured vaguely to a clipboard held under his arm where some yellow cards were clipped. I promptly closed the booklet and apologised quietly but he didn't say anything.

I've no idea if it was a yellow card - wasn't like the football (umpire holds aloft a card) and presumably they need to give some verbal indication/confirmation? It felt more like 'this could be a yellow card offence but you obviously didn't follow/don't understand the instructions' warning.

I haven't lost sleep over it or the fact that I won't have passed JLPT - it is simply a target I used to cram apparently important vocab and grammar and practice reading comprehension passages that have little immediate relevance to my use of Japanese. Mind you, the piece of paper would have been useful for CV purposes.

More credit to the (several of whom I know) Chinese students who will pass level 2 with their 3 months of Tokyo language school training and who can hardly say a word of Japanese (they go to the same language hookups). I'm always jealous (in a friendly rivalry way) of their progress in 'recognition' reading ability and grammar pattern cramming. It encourages me to study harder.

Echo above comments about reading/grammar - I have no idea how people do them all in that time and I did a couple of dedicated reading test prep books beforehand.

Aerin Wrote:

Evil_Dragon Wrote:Okay, seriously... what the hell was that? The final answer on the Lvl 1 listening part almost had me burst out in laughter.

I did laugh out loud. As did someone behind me. Oddly enough, in my group we were the only ones. I also enjoyed the wrestling voice acting.

I was the only one lolling in my group. Hahaha. Nearly got a card for it too. The group I was with was made up mostly of old jii-sans, so I guess they didn't really understand what the fuss was all about.　実に残念。

took level 3 here... harder than i expected... my problem wasn't reading as i could read just about every word on the test, it was more of the listening being the worst part and a little trouble with grammar... that's what you get when you study all unbalanced like myself... I'm only good at kanji

chorismos Wrote:I've no idea if it was a yellow card - wasn't like the football (umpire holds aloft a card) and presumably they need to give some verbal indication/confirmation? It felt more like 'this could be a yellow card offence but you obviously didn't follow/don't understand the instructions' warning.

I haven't lost sleep over it or the fact that I won't have passed JLPT - it is simply a target I used to cram apparently important vocab and grammar and practice reading comprehension passages that have little immediate relevance to my use of Japanese. Mind you, the piece of paper would have been useful for CV purposes.

Don't worry if you got a yellow card or not. It's only if you get a red card (either straight red or 2 yellows) that your paper won't be scored.

captal Wrote:

ocircle Wrote:Yeah, it was 4.

My test class of about 100 people cracked up at that question.
It sounded like some people were laughing hysterically once they said "Asuka".

Hey how'd it go ocircle? You got up to speed pretty fast, so I'm curious...

I am most certain I passed.
Probably 75-80ish vocab, 90ish listening, 70ish reading/grammar
The grammar wasn't bad (I only had to guess 3 and a lot of it was covered in kanzen master) but the reading really got me.

I still don't know what exactly the first essay was trying to say.
(...something about society?) but I was also pretty nervous and jittery (5 hour energy is amazing!...for the Choukai section, anyway.)

We'll know for certain in February

I sat JLPT1 in Sydney yesterday.

Characters & Vocab: not too bad, had to guess a few but wasn't much harder compared to any of the past exams (with the notable exception of 2007).

Listening: I found this much harder than the past exams (about as hard as 2007, which was the hardest, according to the released stats). To top it off, I messed up question 4 of the first part (the one with the kids and social behaviour) cause it took up a full page, and I mistook it to be two separate questions. I realised the error of my ways two questions after that, when things weren't make _any_ sense at all. It wasn't a great confidence building exercise. Listening part 2 was alright, though -- I found it to be surprisingly easier than part 1. And yes, I chuckled at the last question (no, I don't watch Evangelion or whatever it was from, I just found it downright corny).

Grammar: I did this before the reading section. Doing lots of drills and chewing through 3 separate grammar books before the test really helped me with this part. There were a couple of unfamiliar ones, but I had this section behind me in about 20 min.

Reading: I found the actual reading articles to be easier than expected. Most of the entries in the supplied word list were either easy or obvious. The questions themselves, however, I found to be subjective at times. For examples, the one about buying happiness with money -- X) there's a limit to the happiness you can buy with money and Y) there are some forms of happiness that money can't buy. They kind of mean similar things. I ran out of time with 1 question left to go, and ended up guessing it (can't remember which one).

Whatever the result is, I think it will be borderline.

misha Wrote:I sat JLPT1 in Sydney yesterday.


To top it off, I messed up question 4 of the first part (the one with the kids and social behaviour) cause it took up a full page, and I mistook it to be two separate questions.

I made the exact same mistake, the listening on that was incredibly easy but I had no clue which child picture best represented the relationships. It then became obvious to me when the next question made utterly no sense whatsoever what the problem is. managed to go back and fix the child problem and only missed the flower question.

Also 生なるい weather does exist!

koyota Wrote:

misha Wrote:I sat JLPT1 in Sydney yesterday.


To top it off, I messed up question 4 of the first part (the one with the kids and social behaviour) cause it took up a full page, and I mistook it to be two separate questions.

I made the exact same mistake, the listening on that was incredibly easy but I had no clue which child picture best represented the relationships. It then became obvious to me when the next question made utterly no sense whatsoever what the problem is. managed to go back and fix the child problem and only missed the flower question.

Also 生なるい weather does exist!

Lol. I made the exact same mistake. It didn't help that the children had the letters A~D placed right next to them. I thought each individual child was a choice and didn't notice the the diagram at the bottom of the page.

I felt like things were going my way because 足がしびれた was on the test and I just learned it the other day. Have to thank my wife for getting pins and needles at the right time.

misha Wrote:To top it off, I messed up question 4 of the first part (the one with the kids and social behaviour) cause it took up a full page, and I mistook it to be two separate questions.

A hand full of people told me the same afterwards. And I agree, it was a little too tricky.

Quote:I still don't know what exactly the first essay was trying to say.

Something about how the different design and usage of tools today (e.g. cell phones for individual people instead of one stationary phone for the whole family) change the structure of families and society.