Hi guys, 87 days to the test. What are you doing to prepare for it?

This will be my third attempt at N2. I passed last time with a 60.1% so I am really hoping to get up to around 80% before I move on to more advanced studies. It will be my first time taking the test after finishing RTK so it will be interesting to see how my score improves from what I learned with RTK...

I'm giving special attention this time around to my reading skills. I'm working through some high level textbooks from Tokyo University that have insanely difficult reading passages and a few more books I picked up at the bookstore that cover reading comprehension.

Other than that it's review, review, and for fun I try to outscore my friends on kanjibox.

I'm taking N2 this year as well. (I have never taken a JLPT test before.)
I am focusing on vocab this spring, grammer this summer and listening/reading this fall.

What was something that you didn't expect to be on the test? I haven't a clue of what to expect -- but I will be using practice test later this year.

~牛ジュース

There wasn't anything that surprised me because I had seen years worth of practice tests. It was just a matter of trying to figure out readings for kanji that got me. しゅ or しゅう kind of questions.

And the damn reading sections. On the long ones I just sat there staring at the page....

This is every JLPT ever given if you're looking for practice tests.
http://jlpt.biz/datumcenter/jlpt/PDF/

I just signed up for N2 again yesterday. I got 50.5% last time which I was actually pretty happy with.

Last time I studied my ass off for it - the idea there was I used it as a source of motivation to learn a truckload of Japanese. That payed off big time. This time around I'm not studying for it at all, I'm just going to take it and see what I get. There's still some vocab I don't know for N2 but that will be less come test time and I'll probably have another crack at it in December to try get a really good score before trying for N1. By December the vocab should be hitting upwards of 12K so it should be pretty sweet. It's really the listening section I'm worried about this time round.

One thing that annoys me about N2 is that due to it only including 1000 kanji the reading passages have words in Kana which sometimes makes it HARDER to read.

"And the damn reading sections. On the long ones I just sat there staring at the page..."
I'm not the fastest reader, I will have to work on this.

"One thing that annoys me about N2 is that due to it only including 1000 kanji the reading passages have words in Kana which sometimes makes it HARDER to read."
Yeah I agree, unless we are talking about words like, 未だ, 此処, and sound effects never seen in kanji. (Which you won't see 98% of the time.)

My vocabulary is terrible, I plan on finishing Core 2000 and 6000 through smartfm, use dictation and anki it. That will probably cover 80% of my vocabulary study for this test.

I'm guessing that most of you will be taking this in Japan. =_=' How can I increase my Japanese enviorment?

皆さん、宜しくお願いします！

gyuujuice Wrote:"One thing that annoys me about N2 is that due to it only including 1000 kanji the reading passages have words in Kana which sometimes makes it HARDER to read."

I never noticed anything like that even on JLPT1. The reading section is actually pretty simple compared to the rest of the test. The only difficulty is the length of the section, so you need to work on speed and test taking skills (ex: reading the questions first, only read as much as you need to answer the questions, skimming, etc)

Jarvik7 Wrote:

gyuujuice Wrote:"One thing that annoys me about N2 is that due to it only including 1000 kanji the reading passages have words in Kana which sometimes makes it HARDER to read."

I never noticed anything like that even on JLPT1. The reading section is actually pretty simple compared to the rest of the test. The only difficulty is the length of the section, so you need to work on speed and test taking skills (ex: reading the questions first, only read as much as you need to answer the questions, skimming, etc)

Saying you haven't seen it "even" on the JLPT1 makes no sense. JLPT1 uses a lot more Kanji and has a greater vocab pool to pull from which is exactly his point. The lower sections, being Kanji limited, are freaking hiragana nightmares. If you haven't seen this then you obviously haven't looked very closely at them.

I misread what he said. I thought he was complaining about the opposite (using kanji for normally kana words in an attempt to find uses for some required kanji).

I haven't taken 3/4kyuu where it's probably an issue, but I never noticed over-kanafication to be a huge problem on 2kyuu.

How far does Smartfm's Core 6000 really go in concerns to both vocabulary and listening comprehension? Shouldn't it cover most of the study needed for (N2)日本語能力試験二級? (If one has allready completed RTK obviously.)


Also, I don't plan on learning 音読み ever. I think I mcan guess the readings from the words I use them in. 常＝じょう because I know 非常 and 常用 ...ect
What do you guys think?

gyuujuice Wrote:How far does Smartfm's Core 6000 really go in concerns to both vocabulary and listening comprehension? Shouldn't it cover most of the study needed for (N2)日本語能力試験二級? (If one has allready completed RTK obviously.)

I think coverage for the old JLPT 2 was addressed here:

forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?id=3853

It was something like 82% of vocab. I can't imagine the new N2 would be too far off of this.

I forgot about that thread, thanks for the reminder whitefox.

Hopefully if ever Core 10,000 gets released then he can run that through the analysis also.

It seems like it's vaporware.
Wasn't it suposed to be out last year?

Planning to take N1 in December together with my girlfriend (who passed JLPT1 many years ago but want to have a certificate of the new one).

gyuujuice Wrote:How far does Smartfm's Core 6000 really go in concerns to both vocabulary and listening comprehension? Shouldn't it cover most of the study needed for (N2)日本語能力試験二級? (If one has allready completed RTK obviously.)

In terms of vocabulary it will cover all you need. Of course it won't cover 100% but the words you don't know can probably be guessed from context+Kanji.

However, Core6000 is very simplistic in terms of Grammar and sentence structure. Almost all the grammar used in Core6000 is covered in JLPT3. Thus you won't get around studying the appropriate Grammar if you want to take JLPT2. (I recommend Kanzen Master 2kyuu for that purpose)

The audio for the sentences will aid memorization of the presented vocabulary but I doubt that it will help your listening comprehension since all sentences are very simple and independent of each other. It won't help you to understand conversational flow.

I would classify at Core6000 as a a vocabulary learning tool only , nothing more. But for that purpose it is in my opinion the best choice out there. I went through it in 2 months at a rate of about ~100 words/day and my reading comprehension skyrocketed over that period.

ThomasB Wrote:

gyuujuice Wrote:How far does Smartfm's Core 6000 really go in concerns to both vocabulary and listening comprehension? Shouldn't it cover most of the study needed for (N2)日本語能力試験二級? (If one has allready completed RTK obviously.)

In terms of vocabulary it will cover all you need. Of course it won't cover 100% but the words you don't know can probably be guessed from context+Kanji.

No, it won't. JLPT1 covers 10 000 words (thus obviously more than 6000) and that's just from the official PRE new JLPT1. Not only was that 10 000 words, they are allowed to take 20% of their vocab from other sources as well.

So, Core 6000 isn't even close to what is covered by JLPT1. It's about 50% what might actually come up on the test.

I wasn't talking about JLPT1 but JLPT2 since gyuujuice asked about JLPT2. I agree I won't cover nearly enough vocabulary for JLPT1.

Tobberoth Wrote:

ThomasB Wrote:

gyuujuice Wrote:How far does Smartfm's Core 6000 really go in concerns to both vocabulary and listening comprehension? Shouldn't it cover most of the study needed for (N2)日本語能力試験二級? (If one has allready completed RTK obviously.)

In terms of vocabulary it will cover all you need. Of course it won't cover 100% but the words you don't know can probably be guessed from context+Kanji.

No, it won't. JLPT1 covers 10 000 words (thus obviously more than 6000) and that's just from the official PRE new JLPT1. Not only was that 10 000 words, they are allowed to take 20% of their vocab from other sources as well.

So, Core 6000 isn't even close to what is covered by JLPT1. It's about 50% what might actually come up on the test.

Are you sure about that? The old JLPT1 had an official vocabulary of 8009 words. With the 20% rule in maximum effect that produced the often cited 10,000 number. From what most people on this forum have said in the past I was under the impression that the tests never even remotely came close to utilizing 20% of non-list vocabulary.

"No, it won't. JLPT1 covers 10 000 words (thus obviously more than 6000) and that's just from the official PRE new JLPT1. Not only was that 10 000 words, they are allowed to take 20% of their vocab from other sources as well.

So, Core 6000 isn't even close to what is covered by JLPT1. It's about 50% what might actually come up on the test."

I thought the 20% vocabulay was included with the 10,000 word count. I know the actual word count for JLPT2 is actually lower than it states. They say 6000 when it's more like 5000~ish.

this is completely off the subject, but I am looking at buying some textbooks to help me study for NI.

Currently, I am looking at two main ones,


日本語能力試験」対策 日本語総まとめN1 語彙

日本語能力試験N1文法対策標準テキスト

has anyone purchased these books or reccomends others that have been useful.

Thank you

I used the 総まとめ series for JLPT2 in 2008 and I highly recommend it, although the 1kyuu books are a different format. You should also get a book on reading, which is traditionally the hardest section of the test (due to time limits).

Anyone have any good tips for studying grammar? That seems to be my current weak point right now.

I'm consistently scoring 60-70% each time on past JLPT grammar sections. I really want to pop this plateau.

Ahh, lucky people who currently are in Japan and can take the test this July.

Oh well, looks like I need to wait until December to sit the N1. But that's ok, because then there will be an official N1 practice test out there.

Ryuujin27 Wrote:Ahh, lucky people who currently are in Japan and can take the test this July.

Oh well, looks like I need to wait until December to sit the N1. But that's ok, because then there will be an official N1 practice test out there.

They said they will no longer release past tests. You will need to rely on Chinese scanned copies.

Womacks23 Wrote:Anyone have any good tips for studying grammar? That seems to be my current weak point right now.

I'm consistently scoring 60-70% each time on past JLPT grammar sections. I really want to pop this plateau.

Just continue to take the practice tests and then SRS the correct answers on your mistakes, it should fix that 60-70% nicely.

Womacks23 Wrote:Anyone have any good tips for studying grammar? That seems to be my current weak point right now.

I'm consistently scoring 60-70% each time on past JLPT grammar sections. I really want to pop this plateau.

Step 1: Get a list of the JLPT grammar patterns.
Step 2: Get a reliable good resource of example sentences, I recommend Dictionary of intermediate/advanced japanese grammar.
Step 3: SRS a few sentences for each point, noting the important notes like differences between similar points.
Step 4: Faceroll JLPT grammar sections.

Of course, this is for the old JLPT, it's hard to say how much more advanced the new ones will be and if it will somehow test things not covered by the approach mentioned above.