Hey guys!How was the test!im taking the N1 next year so im really curious!
i've also never taken any JLPT tests before so i don't know how you do the listening part,do they give you headphones or what?and how many questions are there???:S

LazyNomad Wrote:

thurd Wrote:@chochajin: you don't have to worry about your 50% reading because the minimum was around 19% last time for each section.

No, it`s 19 points not percents. Nobody knows how many points each answer brings, but to be absolutely sure that you passed the minimum you have to answer 19 questions correctly, which roughly makes it about 50%.

Yes you're right I don't know why I wrote it as 19%, it doesn't even make sense considering 4 possible answers.

But as raz789 wrote its 19/60 so around 31% way below 50% mark.

thurd Wrote:But as raz789 wrote its 19/60 so around 31% way below 50% mark.

60 points are distributed among 35 questions, some questions worth 1 point, some 2 points, and the rest worth 3 points each. If you are lucky and answer only 3 points questions you can get away with only 7 correct answers, if you answer only 1 point questions you need to give 19 correct answers. The trick is that no one knows how many points any given question worth. That`s why to be sure you passed you need to answer 19 questions out of 35.

*pops the lurk bubble*

Back from N1. The worst part was taking it in a classroom without heating...
Listening was really easy for the most part, though I'm sure I made at least a couple of mistakes due to fatigue and poor acoustics.
The other sections seemed waaay harder than past 1kyuu tests, or even than the n1 july test actually. I got to the last page with maybe 3 min left and had to guess the last 2 answers by glancing over the questions and applying some common sense. I'd estimate my passive vocab around the 15k mark but there were still plenty of terms I wasn't really familiar with in the vocab section (funnily enough I didn't have to check notes for most of the reading section instead).
Grammar.. I don't remember anything, what was it all about again?

Why all the hate for the poor monkey? I thought it was the best passage of the whole reading section... At least it was somewhat interesting.　I was about to cry out of boredom while reading the one on food shortage crisis management or whatever it was...

I dunno what to expect from the results, not really optimistic right now tbh, but I'm just happy to not have to think about it for a while. Now I can finally go back to learn some japanese for a change \o/

@phantombk201
no headphones, though that might depend on test area, I'm not sure. 35 qustions iirc, I think you can find the exact number and some sample questions on the jlpt site.

Hmm, pretty sure I failed (N1). D: Same story as some other people who posted, reading section just completely tripped me up. I ended leaving out 14 questions of it completely. :{

Ah well, always next year. At least we had a hot invigilator.

phantombk201 Wrote:Hey guys!How was the test!im taking the N1 next year so im really curious!
i've also never taken any JLPT tests before so i don't know how you do the listening part,do they give you headphones or what?and how many questions are there???:S

There were 35 or so questions for N1 this year, just played over loud speakers, no repeats of questions.

bennyb Wrote:My personal frustration here is that I rock at kanji reading and grammar in general... kanji reading is super-toned down compared to before AND for the over 200 grammar points I studied maybe 10 of them were actually in question-form on the test, at least that I could recognize.

Absolutely agree about the grammar.

I remember having done the 2007 1級 last year, and it was extremely harder than this year N1. It feels like they made the test much easier on purpose, so that people don't complain about the new system.

It felt a bit weird not having the old chart reading questions, or those where you have to choose a picture.

On the other hand, especially the listening part felt like being tested for your actual ability to have meaningful communication in Japanese in realistic situations, rather than turning yourself into a human vocabulary list.

Now, we'll have to wait until March.

P.S. 天気がいいから、散歩しましょう。

My only real gripe about the test is the no-question listening section. I suck at taking notes, so although i could more or less understand what they were saying, picking an answer was hard. It's a test of memory, not listening comprehension. Fair chance I'd get the question wrong if it were in english.

The pick a response section, although i sucked at it, seems like a good change imho. Although it's more a test of speaking than listening, as understand the prompt and options is not at all difficult.

On the whole, i found the listening frustrating. I could pretty much understand it, but i'm sure i fell for a few of the tricks. Several questions i felt there's no way i'll get this wrong, then struggled to select an answer.

Reading, while brutal, was ok i think. I know i got a lot wrong, but it'll be contesting the language knowledge section for best section i think.

Meh. On my N2, the grammar was okay, but the reading was a trainwreck. I think the next time I take any JLPT exam, the first thing I'm gonna do is open up to question 55, and start from there, then go back and do all of the grammar at the end.

Or just take the Japanese equivalent of Evelyn Wood.

I felt so rushed in the reading section, that I didn't have time to think about the answers properly. I HATE that. By the end, I had to guess at the last 3 questions.

One strategy I did employ was the "low hanging fruit principle." I went for all of the short, easy-looking reading passages first, then saved the long, troublesome ones for the end. That left me with the longest, nastiest one for the very end, and there just wasn't enough time. Bah. I only guessed on those last 3.

In general, I noticed a lot of business-related stuff on there, or at least a lot of business-themed stuff, which is a weak spot in my knowledge base.

So for my future study: more vocab, more reading, more listening, not so much obsessing over grammar, because it doesn't matter much either way.

Oh, and why was the stuff in the 注意 always stuff I already knew??!?? Gahhh!

sebasion Wrote:P.S. 天気がいいから、散歩しましょう。

lol

nadiatims Wrote:

sebasion Wrote:P.S. 天気がいいから、散歩しましょう。

lol

This actually made me start laughing when it was played.

chair Wrote:

nadiatims Wrote:

sebasion Wrote:P.S. 天気がいいから、散歩しましょう。

lol

This actually made me start laughing when it was played.

Yeah, likewise.

zigmonty Wrote:

chair Wrote:

nadiatims Wrote:lol

This actually made me start laughing when it was played.

Yeah, likewise.

IT HAUNTS MY NIGHTMARES!!

I wonder if they ever did go on a walk -- :<

I just came back from my test and I mean JUST came back. Evil test sucked out my entire weekend! I crammed the last three days on kanzen master and pretty much none of it was even tested. WTF? And the kanji section? What gives? The test was basically 50% listening, 40% reading and 10% other stuff. Though I thought the "collect information" was the most interesting and least amount of work so it's a nice addition. Bu there were a lot of words I didn't really know -- all well.


OooH, did anyone else get dizzy with the pages with the design between sections? Those pages were trippy. XD

お疲れさまでた！！！

First of all I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who struggled (Sorry *g*)

Actually the reading wasn't really difficult or anything. I mean I'm already partly ready to take N1 anyways. But now I know what to work on. I underestimated the "real test" situation and that my concentration might not be as good and that it would take more time than usual etc. That's what killed me in the end.
Like rich_f said I'm going to do the same. Start with the reading part next time. Grammar/Vocab/Kanji is usually something I can do quickly even without concentrating too much and even if I'm rushed. So there you go.

As for the Listening, I don't know why but it's always very easy for me and I also take no notes. Only for the very last question (in N2).
I was surprised to hear everybody around me taking notes during all questions.

I also wonder why my listening skills are so much better than my reading skills and how to work on that. Gotta find that out before taking N1. Not sure if I'll be brave enough to take it this year.
Maybe I should wait until I live closer to a testing location :/


Question to those of you who didn't take the test in Japan: What language did the examiners use when talking to you?

It's been interesting reading your posts before and after. I hope you all did well.

I will plan on taking the ２級 next year.

@chochajin English! And some Japanese. I took the test at Georgetown in Washington, DC.

Everyone "お疲れ様でした"-ed us afterwards, which was nice, because they all know what we've just been through. @_@b

LOL at the 天気がいいから、散歩しましょう。

I found that taking notes actually screwed me over on the audio section. It tripped me up, because I was concentrating so much on making notes that I would miss what people were saying. I noticed that when I tried a mock N2, so I tried *not* to do it on the Real Deal.

I took notes on the last question of the Real Thing (with the park announcement), then got tripped up when the couple started talking about which section they were going to, because I wasn't expecting that. Dammit. So I had to make educated guesses.

Did everyone in your room crack up when they randomly started playing music? Ours did. I took the time to finish answering the last question.

EDIT: And to the guy who thinks he can go from nothing to N1 in a year? Easier to just set fire to your money, unless you have 16 hours a day JUST for Japanese... Good luck to you, but yikes.

Took my first N1. I think because of a near failing experience with the 2 last year I was pretty well prepared for how bad the reading always is and didn't panic but probably still missed a lot. I do think that if you account for the different vocabulary numbers, the two tests are basically the same difficulty, and I thought the N1 listening was actually easier than the 2 last year (though maybe because this year my room had nice overhead speakers cranked way up).

I kinda feel like I blew a good bit of the grammar, especially the word positioning in the sentence, which I thought I was good at but just didn't get for some reason. I won't really be surprised if I pass or fail, I feel right about on the 50/50 line.

Well, basically the JLPT is a test of luck as well.
As people mentioned before it's possible that people who can't speak properly and have a really low knowledge of Japanese but crammed for the test, can pass it and vice versa (good Japanese level but fail the test - like what happened to me *g*).
So that N1-dude could try and if he's very lucky be successful!

I just never would take the test if I weren't sure I could pass (although I failed this time ahem) because it's just too expensive if you live too far away from the next testing location like me.

Just a tip for the last listening question in N2. There's ALWAYS two people or more talking about the info we just heard and then you have to note down who decides to do / take what. It's always the same style, so it wasn't a surprise

"Did everyone in your room crack up when they randomly started playing music? Ours did." --yes we did too.

I actually had 12 minutes to check my answers so while there was a lot of things I didn't get, I felt like I had pleny of time. >.>

Hi - I took N1 in China yesterday - and honestly i hope i got a few lucky guess in the reading part because it felt much more difficult than in the mock tests i had done... well maybe it was just because I really poorly managed my time...

the voc/gram was more or less what i expected... in the sentence building part i really didn't know what to do with that 'ni' ... can't remember exactly but it really frustrated me. (ちょっと考えれば, さっきの話が冗談　だって　くらい　分かるだろう　．．．に？どこどこ？）

the listening part was quite easy though... well unless i overlooked some subtleties ...
If you remember or managed to copy your answer sheet, here is a link to all the answers (in Chinese) - ah and now I know where I should have put the ni - i had never heard/ seen that pattern before... darouni... damn... T_T

天気がいいから散歩しましょう　－

chair Wrote:

nadiatims Wrote:

sebasion Wrote:P.S. 天気がいいから、散歩しましょう。

lol

This actually made me start laughing when it was played.

I found amusing that they used exactly the same examples from the last test (and probably have been using them from before).

BTW, my name is Sebastián. This isn't the first time someone gets it misspelled. I wonder why, since it isn't a particularly unusual name at all.

gyuujuice Wrote:I wonder if they ever did go on a walk -- :<

Here we had a very nice day. After the test, a rather big group of people headed to the Chinatown just a couple of streets from the testing place. So here, people actually could say「天気がいいから散歩しましょう」. It was funny.


Edit: I guess "天気がいいから散歩しましょう。" will be the phrase of the week.

Sebastián Wrote:BTW, my name is Sebastián.

Sorry, that was a typo, combined with bad spelling and not noticing the accent mark. ごめんね

気にしないで。

とりあえず…






























天気がいいから散歩しましょう。

I took N2 yesterday. The first part was tough for me. But even though it was tough, in a way I didn't feel like it was especially difficult, it's just that the material on the test didn't have much in common with the material I'd studied. I think vocabulary ended up being my biggest problem. I spent too much time in the reading sections trying to figure out what unknown words meant by examining the context and towards the end I was so pressed for time that I had to skim and guess at parts of the long essay in order to have any time left over for the shorter last question. I managed to mark the last answer only about 20 seconds before the time limit.

Listening felt really easy in comparison. I took a ton of notes because my comprehension is better than my memory. The details go in one ear and right out the other if I don't write it down. (It's like that even with English.) I think I got a clean pass on this section at least.

Overall I think my test results could go either way. I didn't ace it and don't think I totally bombed it so I just have to wait to find out.

Here the weather was awful. It was sunny, but cold with a fierce wind. My hotel is in Arlington, right across the Potomac River from Georgetown in DC, so I had to walk across the Key Bridge to get to Georgetown University. The wind chill had to be around 20F (maybe around -7C?) It felt like my face was going to freeze off. All I could think about was Jack London's "To Build a Fire."

EDIT: walking across a river when the wind is 25-35 MPH is not recommended. Seriously.

If I'm still in the US when I take the exam again (I hope not), I think I'll go to Atlanta. (Although DC is closer to where I live by about 2 hours.)

One really irritating thing-- my Nexus One was *turned off* (and by that, I mean I shut it down), yet during the break I clearly felt it vibrate. Dammit. So I yanked out the battery. I wasn't going to risk *anything*.

Stupid phones. I love my Nexus One, but sheesh.

Last observation: They said to "show up by 12:30 to register," but amusingly, nobody was there to let us into the rooms until 12:40 or so, and nothing really happened until 12:50 or so. Like the paranoid person I am, I was there at 12:15, killing time and getting nervous. I hate that part. It totally throws me off of my game.

And now I must do something about my Anki deck. I have 2,100 cards that are due, and they are all full of HATE. ._.