Risking the wrath of posting in the wrong place (maybe?), I wanted to see what you all thought of my study plan. Taking N2 - JLPT2 this year.

My basic plan is to Anki two books- first, the Blue UNICOM Vocab (Kanji Kango Drill) book, secondly, the Green Kanzen JLPT2 Grammar Book.

If I do this and know them well by December, will this be enough? Is there anything extra anyone would recommend me doing? (Obviously I know you don't know my level- somewhere between JLPT2 and 3 I guess)

Thanks for help,

SSK

I personally am unconvinced that merely throwing a lot of sentences into anki is sufficient to learn JLPT2 grammar to the point where you can answer the grammar questions without difficulty. Also Kanzen Master is good for review but not for initial study. There have been other threads here about learning grammar which you might find it worth searching for.

The other obvious thing you want to do is (a) practice reading and (b) take some practice tests to get a feel for the format and the time limits. Many people find the hard part of JLPT2 is being able to complete the reading and grammar sections within the time limit. The listening parts are also likely to trip you up if you don't know the format -- they're deliberately a bit twisty.

In fact I'd suggest that you try taking a practice past paper now, if you haven't already. That way you'll be able to see which areas you have difficulty with and need to concentrate on.

It seems to me and a few other students that the listening tests have become easier, slower but longer. This year's practice test, found on the offical website, is easier than what I expected but it is a bit decieveing since you aren't in a classroom for 3 hours.

I am taking the JLPT2 for the first time as well this year. This is what I am doing:

Kanzen Master 文法)
The vocabulary is brutal, the points are disorganised but the book is pretty efficient. It's a nice book but I reccomend buying this next book after you finish kanzen.

どんな時どう使う500)
This book is the best grammar book available. (imo) The grammar are organized by topics and then further divided by JLPT level. It is easier to udnerstand than kanzen but there is less exercises. (But there is a workbook!) I think this book does a better job differentiating grammar points. It's full of notes and there isn't any English!

Oh, here is a journal entry I wrote in English about various textbooks I am using:
http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/529534/...English%7D

Good luck!

gyuujuice Wrote:どんな時どう使う500)
This book is the best grammar book available. (imo) The grammar are organized by topics and then further divided by JLPT level. It is easier to udnerstand than kanzen but there is less exercises. (But there is a workbook!) I think this book does a better job differentiating grammar points. It's full of notes and there isn't any English!

This is really good as long as you have access to things like the DBJ/DIJ/DAJ to clarify when the Japanese explanations aren't good enough. I used it to study for 1kyuu as well.

Interesting. I think I'll use Green Kanzen Master, along with JGram for assistance. It's a shame that there isn't an authoritative English translation for the book- English helps, no matter what anyone says.

As for vocab I think the Blue UNICOM book is really well organised, so I will plow through that, adding it to Anki.

I'm aiming for JLPT2 in December. My current summary:
I've got 4500 vocab already, about 2000 to go (including JLPT2 list). I did some grammar
from KM3 (read the whole thing), KM2 is waiting till I finish with vocab (mid summer) but surprisingly I can read/understand it quite decent now (except for grammar point itself which I have yet to learn).

My plan:
Finish vocab as fast as possible, that way I'll give myself more time for it to sink in. Add sentences with grammar points from KM4 to KM2 into Anki (use smart.fm but later plug the holes manually).

But I have no idea how to prepare for reading & listening. Since there is so little time left, the usual: read & watch stuff, doesn't cut it. Simple manga is still hard for me and uncomfortable (vocab+stupid grammar), I can't understand dramas, have trouble following anime without subtitles (though with them on I feel like I understand a great deal and should be fine without them, that is however not the case) and I don't think its possible to get past this by December. Thats why I'd like to do more JLPT2 specific listening & reading, are there any free resources for this kind of stuff?

I'm taking the midyear N2. Vocab and grammar/reading sections oughta be sweet as, no problems but I will only get 50% on the listening. Think i'll fail cos of that sadly

I'm thinking that a week before the test I'm just going to go through the listening sections for every single past test hundreds of times til I can at least bring my score up enough to pass that section.

Be interesting to see how it goes on the day.

Anyone else doing it mid-year?