There didn't seem to be an active thread dedicated for NJLPT study so I made one.

I am going to attempt my first test this December and I am skipping levels N5, N4, N3 so naturally I am wondering if I can even manage to do it.
My current level is 3級 (not sure about the new levels) in terms of grammar comprehension and vocabulary. My kanji level has always been drastically higher, even before RTK. I think this won't be much of a problem.

February: finish RTK 1 (currently I am at 1650ish)
March: review RTK 1 (because kanji study never really ends) Core 2000
April: continue my review of both RTK and Core 2000 while I add Core 6000
May-June: (Online placement test) Start SRS sentences (I'll try to do 40 a day and finish over 7000 sentences before the test. I don't think I will finish but I'll try anyways.)

July-August: take the first practice test of three that I bought while continuing SRS
September-October: ditto
November: SRS and then a practice test
The First Week in December: Crash study

I will try to complete a journal in Lang-8 everyday.
Of course I will listen to 日本語 playing in the background and read 日本語 literature via the internet. I even imported a DSi with some games to play.

Please give me some advice and be free to post any JLPT-related information.
読んでくれてありがとうございます!

I'm currently at 1080 kanji, going at 20 per day. I've also started doing Assimil's Japanese course, of which I'm up to lesson 20, doing two lessons per day. But I'll have to start doing 1 per day soon, they're getting bigger and more complicated.

I'm thinking about trying for N3 at the end of the year, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to pass it. I'm not able to dedicate huge amounts of time to Japanese, at most around 3 hours a day, usually 1-2 hours, and often taking breaks of doing none at all (except reviews, which I'm good at doing every day now).

I guess I'll only know when I'm closer to the sign up date. I don't think I'll attempt anything below it.

I'm at about your level.

But my 3級 is probably much weaker. I'm planning to finish going through some textbooks and exercise books I've had but haven't really done more than a chapter or 2 in, みんなの日本語, some JLPT excercises, and other books I have. I know I'm kinda at/above the みんなの日本語 level but I still feel that none of the shit in there is completely internalised. And of course, Mangajin is an awesome series which I recommend to all, anyone of any level!

N3 seems completely realistic.
1500 words and 300 kanji, (unless I am mistaken) should take 4-6 months so you shouldn't have any trouble. ^__^

頑張ってください。

I'm also in the same situation as being more than ready for the old 3kyuu but not yet ready for 2kyuu, is there a list of vocab and grammar needed for N3?

N3 is the new level 3 JLPT, which actually needs 650 kanji and 3,750 words, according to the first webpage I found. It still might be doable, but even if I can burn through vocabulary and kanji, I'm not sure if I'll be able to cope with the listening section. If not, then I'll try for N2 in 2011

I'd love to take a test between N2 and N1 *g*
I'm trying N2 this July and if the score is high enough, then N1 in December.
I've finished RTK 2 years ago. Right now I'm concentrating on 2kyuu grammar.

lagwagon555,

I couldn't find the requirements for N3. It still seems possible in my opinion.
Before I did RTK I studied maybe at most 800 kanji. The first 500 aren't that difficult so I don't think kanji will give you any problems. Listening is my worst skill. I want to watch news reports and television--I should get that fixed soon.

liosama,
Doesn't our level suck?
It's between, suckage and lesser suckage. XD

meolox,
There is no "official" list. They said they will stop making lists for vocabulary and grammar ect. because it is supposed to measure language abilities not your memorization skills. (*wine*)

chochajin, Two years ago? Does it feel good to look at a page full of kanji and know most of them? I don't think a level between N2 and N1 is really necessary. N1 is mainly vocabulary and kanji, but we should probably do fine with that.

gyuujuice Wrote:chochajin, Two years ago? Does it feel good to look at a page full of kanji and know most of them? I don't think a level between N2 and N1 is really necessary. N1 is mainly vocabulary and kanji, but we should probably do fine with that.

It sure does. Even compounds I've never seen before are not that much of a problem anymore - thanks to RTK I often can guess the meaning and because I studied on-yomi after doing RTK1 I can read them correctly MOST of the time.
Actually I could pass the vocab/kanji section of 1kyuu. I tried mock tests.
But my grammar is sooooooooooo far behind, that I have go back to the basics and study grammar for now (^-^)>

gyuujuice Wrote:liosama,
Doesn't our level suck?
It's between, suckage and lesser suckage. XD

Hahah so true!

chochajin,
That sounds so nice! I haven't jumped into literature since RTK yet. I can't wait to get back in. You say your grammar is behind? Is it around 2kyuu orbiting the huge mass of grammer?

liosama Wrote:

gyuujuice Wrote:liosama,
Doesn't our level suck?
It's between, suckage and lesser suckage. XD

Hahah so true!

I'm a member of that club as well, and man, does it suck. I think I'm finally beginning to break down that wall, but it's one heck of a wall. Kool-Aid man, grant me your strength.

As for study plans? I don't particularly have any rigid kind of plans anymore. The only thing that I absolutely make sure to study daily is kanji (good ol' RTK deck, as well as having started a Japanese keywords RTK deck recently). The rest consists of watching loads of dramas and animu, reading manga and literature, and playing tons of video games (it's amazing how much you can learn from even an action RPG type game such as Monster Hunter). I look up grammar points when necessary, hit the dictionary for words I feel the need to look up, take notes and put most of my newly learned words in a spreadsheet for quick reference. I could SRS these things (and have, to an extent), but I find it largely redundant and pointless when I'm immersing myself and unlikely to come across uncommon RPG vocabulary outside of the game.

I do still find reviewing word frequency lists (such as Smart.fm's Core2000/6000, etc) in SRS handy, but beyond finishing brushing up on that, I don't plan to SRS vocabulary or sentences anymore if I can help it. Immersion, dictionary and note taking is the plan!

I should add that I'm tentatively aiming for N3 level later this year, but I think N2 may be possible if I really keep at it. Judging by the (rough) number of kanji and vocab I know, I'm already theoretically pretty close to N3. That having been said, I probably won't take the test until I'm good and ready for N1, since I'm not quite fortunate enough to live near a participating city (8 hour drive one way, ouch).

"Kool-Aid man, grant me your strength."
I laughed. ^^

Well, I am taking it this year for credit in school. I would only take the 1kyuu otherwise.
As long as you are studying each day, you learn more. Even if your textbook\method sucks. (I'm not saying it does.)

Why can't the test be online? -sigh
We have google to blame for that.

gyuujuice Wrote:chochajin,
That sounds so nice! I haven't jumped into literature since RTK yet. I can't wait to get back in. You say your grammar is behind? Is it around 2kyuu orbiting the huge mass of grammer?

It's not like 2kyuu has so many grammar points, it's just me. I neglected grammar almost completely and concentrated on kanji and vocab. I've been studying Japanese for quite some time before ever touching Heisig, so when I finally went through KO2001 sentences that was really easy. Not doing any grammar, though, I lost what I already knew and now I'm just so far behind that I might struggle with even some 3kyuu grammar points. I'm not sure, though.




How do or did yo guys prepare for the reading section?

For the reading section, practice, practice, practice.

It's not terribly hard if you read a lot and get your reading speed up. The biggest danger is taking too long to read and running out of time to answer the questions.

Also, be sure to read the questions once before you start reading, so that you know what you're looking for.

Fillanzea Wrote:It's not terribly hard if you read a lot and get your reading speed up. The biggest danger is taking too long to read and running out of time to answer the questions.

That's exactly what happened when I tried a mock test (^-^')> .....
I read and read, then I went on to the questions, then I read again ... etc.
It took waaaaaay too much time. As I'm already reading a lot (could be more, though), I guess I should just try some more practice tests and get my time management skills to a higher level (^-^'')>

Thanks!

To be good at anything requires practice doesn't it? I don't know any exception to this.
I spent too much time planning and searching for the right method when I should of just chosen one and stuck with it.

Yeah, I think the usual complaint about the reading section is not having enough time. Like Fillanzea says, reading the questions first is good: 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.

Sorry for necromancing another thread but, I have no idea how to appy for the NJLPT in America.

I looked on the official website and I cannot sign up for it right now... but it doesn't tell me when I can scheduale for the test. Someone said wait till the first of August to sign up. This is retarded.

gyuujuice Wrote:Sorry for necromancing another thread but, I have no idea how to appy for the NJLPT in America.

I looked on the official website and I cannot sign up for it right now... but it doesn't tell me when I can scheduale for the test. Someone said wait till the first of August to sign up. This is retarded.

world like to to know this as well, well in canada they still haven't put it up. I checked my school's site and it's not up. My school offers it, since they have some joint thing with JLPT i think...

Think I might go for the N4 exam (1,500 words, 300 kanji)

Bare in mind I only have 1 hour to dedicate to studying per day, if that. Would be good to have something to work towards.

You can get samples of the new levels here:
http://www.jlpt.jp/e/about/new-jlpt.html

I'm skipping N5-N2 and doing N1 this year. My vocabulary is around 10k, and I know all the previous years' vocabulary lists, but that's still not enough to read a newspaper, so I'm working on it. It's already enough to answer most of the kanji/vocabulary questions, though, and I think the remaining grammar will only take me a couple of weeks to go through. More troubling are my reading and listening skills - I still can't read a newspaper or understand the news on TV very well, so I'll basically be focusing on being able to do those over the Summer.

I meant to say, "I can't read a newspaper very well". I can understand most of the meaning when reading articles, but it's slow and tiresome, and too often do I encounter key words which I don't know, making certain sentences impossible to understand.

To read like a native, unsurprisingly you need a vocabulary of a native, which language studies seem to indicate would be in the 20-30k region I think? At any rate, there are about 23,000 "common words" (whatever that means) in the jdic list. But don't get discouraged, just 25-30 words a day will be 10,000 in a year.

dizmox Wrote:To read like a native, unsurprisingly you need a vocabulary of a native, which language studies seem to indicate would be in the 20-30k region I think?

This may be helpful: The effects of vocabulary size on language comprehension. What is key is that, on average, 15,851 words give 97.8% reading comprehension. Furthermore, these 15,851 words are lemmas (i.e. dictionary form words), which means knowing the word families (word + inflected forms; e.g. sing, sang, sung, singer, singers, song, songs, etc.) for them would yield even higher comprehension.