Watching a drama even news is basically listening for gist with having a very clear context. JLPT is reading and listening for gist and detail with not much context at all, the examiners being tricksy and people coughing at the vital points.

Not saying that understanding a drama is easy but they're pretty different skills imo.

gyuujuice Wrote:Is 2JLPT grammar the most difficult part of the test? You would think kanji/vocab would be the easiest part for RTKers/Anki-ers. (What do you call someone who does Anki?) I know about 1500-1800 kanji now so I'm not really going to worry about it.

I took 2k last December and I found the grammar part to be pretty easy. To prepare for the test I went through Kanzen Master 2k and 500 japanese expressions (aka どんあとき...) a few months before the test and I added most of the sentenes from KM2k to my sentences deck.
Kanji/vocab part was ok, but I must admit that going through the vocab list found on the net was helpful. I did only about 50% of the list because it was boring, but I had the impression that I wouldn't know some of the words that were tested if I were to ignore the jlpt vocab list.
Reading is the killer part. There were sooo many texts to read...

Asriel Wrote:http://jlpt.mobi/jlpt/jsp/download_index.jsp　has got the tests from 1991 to 2009. There's other places to get them, but that's the first place that I found when I googled it.

I agree with you that once you reach a certain level of Japanese, then the JLPT isn't necessarily a goal to reach for anymore. I agree that it tests your proficiency, and you should train your proficiency and not you're test taking skills.

What I don't agree with is that understanding dramas = JLPT1

Doesn't seem to be working, keep getting this error. Unno if it's just me or everyone has been experiencing this

HTTP Status 404 - /jlpt/jsp/download_index.jsp%E3%80%80has

type Status report

message /jlpt/jsp/download_index.jsp%E3%80%80has

description The requested resource (/jlpt/jsp/download_index.jsp%E3%80%80has) is not available.
Apache Tomcat/6.0.24

I plan to finish up my 2kyu grammar deck before the end of this month. Then, cram grammar and reading while reviewing the 2kyu deck until July. Also going to cram listening. I hope it turns out well.

Ok, that site works for me, but I've found something much more useful:

http://www.tanos.co.uk/jlpt/?r=4

I haven't gone through it very thoroughly, but it seems OK.

What really got me was the comprehensive lists for each level (not just "these are the new vocabulary, dur hur" although those are there too)
And the grammar pages.
There's example sentences for each point, but it's just the Tanaka Corpus, so...
But then again: It will also link you to a blatant copyright infringement of Kanzen Master Grammar:

Quote:~てやまない
意味：　Be very~
接続：　[動－て形]＋やまない
例文：　お二人の幸せをお祈りしてやまない。
注意：　Often used together with verbs like 「祈る」「願う」「期待する」

And they do that for every point in the book(s?)

It's also got links to some pages where you can get the old tests, as well as some extra little thingers thrown in, that I didn't find too interesting.

kimagure,
Oh, that's what I am doing right now. (Exactly) That's a relief.
I see, for some reason I have been thinking that the reading part wasn't so bad.
I'll have to take a TIMED test later and see. It's probably way different.

Thanks for the advice!

Let me scream this:

ONLY 10 DAYS LEFT TO STUDY!!


Feels better now

trusmis Wrote:Let me scream this:

ONLY 10 DAYS LEFT TO STUDY!!


Feels better now

lol. Don't plan on taking JLPT 1 just yet.

You guys should really be taking as many past tests as you can if your test is only 10 days away. Any studying you do in the next 10 days will not raise your score a significant amount if you have been studying these past few months.

Even though it is stated the format changed, basically it's just the same old test makers making the same old questions to measure the same old thing.

Don't forget that being familiar with the test is half of the battle.

It really depends on what your current level is. I never took any practice tests when I took jlpt 1 or 2 and I passed just fine.

I only studied for jlpt1 for about 2 weeks and significantly boosted my reading ability in that time. Of course, I studied all the time, but I only did direct study for those 2 weeks. It is definetly possible to make significant gains in only 10 days if you know where to focus your effort.

Looks like these 10 days are very important. Here is my status, any comment will be welcomed:

- Right now I have 1866 words as "new total" and 780 as "reviews due" from the official JLPT1 list. Most of the words I have not seen yet I don't know.
- I have not yet started with the grammar but I crammed it for the past December test.

- I just took the N1 sample test today and I scored:
6/8 on vocabulary (with lucky guesses included)
9/17 on reading
5/6 on listening

Ok, 10 days left. This week I can use like 3 hours/day to study
The last 3 days I have anything to do but study.

My initial plan was finish as much words as possible this week and then cram the grammar on a radical-concentrated fashion the last 3 days.

But after taking the sample today, I may better go for reading previous tests this week and forget about the vocabulary?

It looks like I failed a lot of question on reading not because of vocabulary but more like general suckage at language comprehension.

You should drop the vocabulary and work on reading.
Just read. And if you can get your hands on the UNICOM reading comprehension book in time I think it will help you out a lot.

I would do as many past paper readings as possible, in the JLPTs I've looked at (3 and N3) they do similar styles of reading materials every year, I guess there's more scope with level 1 but wouldn't surprise me if certain things come up a lot. Will be worth comparing the past papers to the new N sample too...

I'd also do some tests timed so you have an idea of how fast you need to go.

trusmis Wrote:Let me scream this:

ONLY 10 DAYS LEFT TO STUDY!!


Feels better now

Haha, just ten days?

... I should probably study. My girlfriend and I just broke up a couple of days ago, and that's not gonna make 2kyuu any easier, nor the studying.

Tzadeck Wrote:... I should probably study. My girlfriend and I just broke up a couple of days ago, and that's not gonna make 2kyuu any easier, nor the studying.

That's funny. Last year my girlfriend (of 4 years) broke up with me the day before the JLPT 2. So I went drinking and bombed the test.

Just took the 2010 July test in Gifu.
The listening was so easy! And no pictures. I think I did alright.

esgrove Wrote:Just took the 2010 July test in Gifu.
The listening was so easy! And no pictures. I think I did alright.

N1 or N2?
Lucky you! I missed the application deadline, so I have to wait until December :/

Hopefully we'll be able to find the tests online soon...

I did N2 this morning The new format of the listening section was way better than the previous and I think I did pretty well on it. I thought the 語彙　文法 section was harder than the previous format and often times the questions just seem so irrelevant to actual Japanese that I come across in my every day life. Felt like I passed though so heres hoping

I just got back from taking N1 too. I've never taken JLPT before and did no studying for the test, but I found it pretty easy. I heard it was supposed to be much harder than the previous 1, so it was a pleasant surprise.

What's the pass rate for the JLPT N1? If it's still 60-70%ish I think I'll pass.

Grinkers Wrote:I just got back from taking N1 too. I've never taken JLPT before and did no studying for the test, but I found it pretty easy. I heard it was supposed to be much harder than the previous 1, so it was a pleasant surprise.

What's the pass rate for the JLPT N1? If it's still 60-70%ish I think I'll pass.

For the old JLPT1, it was 70%, and I doubt they raised it.

There was one question on N1 that tormented me. It was a short essay about anonymity on the net, and it mentioned 2-channel. Seemed like a simple piece of writing, but for some reason I just could not understand the point of view the author was stating. Did anyone get the gist of it???

The only level that clearly got harder this year was N2 because they cut out all of the easy stuff from the old 2級 to make N3.

I agree with Mezbub. I studied every previous test since the JLPT started and this year's kanji / vocab / grammar section was much harder than previous tests. On the other hand, the reading section was easier. I thought the listening section was okay. The longer dialogues were a bit tricky.

-

The minimum to pass N1 is 70%. But you also have to pass all sections of the test individually. For example, there is no option to make up a weak reading score with a strong showing in listening.

I think the interesting question is where they set the per-section minimum requirement. (The guide to the new format that they published said "we'll announce this later" but I couldn't find an actual figure for it...) Anyway, assuming an overall pass requirement of 70%, if the per-section minimum is 50% that's no harder than old JLPT; 60% would make it slightly harder, and if the per-section minimum is 70% it would be seriously harder than the old test.

I took a look at last year's JLPT1 to compare with today's N1, and it seems like a much better test overall. I don't know if it's just me, but it seems like the content is more practical, which probably makes it easier for people who use Japanese all the time. Before taking the test today, I was worried it was going to be full of weird questions on Japanese that isn't used often, because I hadn't studied it.

Did the test seem really short to anybody else who took N1? I finished around 20-30 minutes early. I think because I didn't have a watch, so I wasn't able to pace myself at all.