After passing (just) 2級 at the end of last year I had thought that setting my sights on 1級 was the thing to do. But as there is still plenty of 2級 grammar points, vocab and a few kanji readings that I still don't own, I'm thinking of having a second go at 2級。

My rationale is that it's better, in my opinion, to pass 2級 well than to fail 1級 or even pass it without really knowing what's going on (not that I even have a chance of passing).

Last year I went to the Shizuoka test site. It's an absolute dump. So this year might venture up to Yokohama.

synewave Wrote:After passing (just) 2級 at the end of last year I had thought that setting my sights on 1級 was the thing to do. But as there is still plenty of 2級 grammar points, vocab and a few kanji readings that I still don't own, I'm thinking of having a second go at 2級。

My rationale is that it's better, in my opinion, to pass 2級 well than to fail 1級 or even pass it without really knowing what's going on (not that I even have a chance of passing).

Last year I went to the Shizuoka test site. It's an absolute dump. So this year might venture up to Yokohama.

It wasn't all that bad... although I didn't like having to walk half a mile for a コンビニ...

Anyway, different story for me as I took 3 last year.. bit of difference in difficulty there, so even though I'm not quite ready for 二級 (yet), I intend to be by the test date.

when can you start to apply?

is it worth taking a test for level four? i want to get started getting ready for jlpt...we are expecting a child in october...i have unicom book for level 3 and 4....but I'm making sooo many mistakes......I would take the test in New York.....

taijuando Wrote:is it worth taking a test for level four? i want to get started getting ready for jlpt...we are expecting a child in october...i have unicom book for level 3 and 4....but I'm making sooo many mistakes......I would take the test in New York.....

If you think you'll have time to do a bit of study, why not?

As there are about 100 kanji or so for that level, you could spend a bit of time focussing on them picking up readings and a load of compounds.

All the grammar points is stuff that anyone learning Japanese wants to be aware of too.

I just took the 2006 2級 at home and learned that my weak point is the listening portion. Can anyone recommend any essential listening practice books, techniques and websites?

on a related note, i was happy to find that heisig helped me out on many of the 文字・語彙
problems where i alread knew the words in kana, and knew the heisig words for the kanji, and was able to make the connection. must be what it feels like to be a chinese speaker!

wasurenaide Wrote:I just took the 2006 2級 at home and learned that my weak point is the listening portion. Can anyone recommend any essential listening practice books, techniques and websites?

- Just being in Japan helps.
- Past tests are good for practicing what to listen for. Especially their trick type questions, e.g. where they tell you the 3 options that aren't correct, etc.
- Miki's audio blog on japanesepod101 is the right sort of level (JLPT2ish)

My listening was what pulled me through the JLPT2 last year. It's the grammar stuff I hadn't got round to studying that gave me problems!

synewave Wrote:

wasurenaide Wrote:I just took the 2006 2級 at home and learned that my weak point is the listening portion. Can anyone recommend any essential listening practice books, techniques and websites?

- Just being in Japan helps.
- Past tests are good for practicing what to listen for. Especially their trick type questions, e.g. where they tell you the 3 options that aren't correct, etc.
- Miki's audio blog on japanesepod101 is the right sort of level (JLPT2ish)

My listening was what pulled me through the JLPT2 last year. It's the grammar stuff I hadn't got round to studying that gave me problems!

-Being in Japan definitely helps, but, sadly it's still not enough. =/
-past tests... i just dropped 1500 or so yen for just the 2006 test, is there a torrent or something of past tests out there? paying 1500 for each years test gets expensive fast.
-miki's audio blog... cool, i've been listening to the intermediate episodes but not miki's blog, i'll check it out, thanks!

Vocab lists (JLPT 2):

there's a million different ones out there. Which is the most official, the most comprehensive? I'm worried about picking one list to work with and letting other words slip through the cracks.

[Katsuo]

The most official list is presumably the one in 日本語能力試験 ー 出頭基準 (Japanese-Language Proficiency Test: Test Content Specifications) published by 凡人社 for 2,100円. The latest edition is 2006.

The book is written "to serve as a reference for those compiling test questions for the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test". I.e. it is not aimed at students who are taking the test.

The vocabulary list for level 2 has 5,035 words, whereas the test specification is 6,000. The other thousand-odd words are left to the discretion of the question compilers who are advised to choose words of "roughly the same level".

What this means, of course, is that there is no definitive list of every single word that might come up on the test.

This is slightly off topic, but does anyone have a view on whether it is possible to go from upper beginner (having completed minna no nihongo 1 and RTK1) to JLPT level 2 in three months doing full time full immersion Japanese in japan (not classes)? (which is what I shall do this autumn in tokyo).
All comments much appreciated.

wasurenaide Wrote:Vocab lists (JLPT 2):

there's a million different ones out there. Which is the most official, the most comprehensive? I'm worried about picking one list to work with and letting other words slip through the cracks.

Katsuo Wrote:The most official list is presumably the one in 日本語能力試験 ー 出頭基準 (Japanese-Language Proficiency Test: Test Content Specifications) published by 凡人社 for 2,100円. The latest edition is 2006.

Try this http://www.jlptstudy.com/2/index.html

Not sure if this is based on the 2006 test spec or earlier (possibly 2002) but it mentions the 5,035 figure.

Dom550 Wrote:This is slightly off topic, but does anyone have a view on whether it is possible to go from upper beginner (having completed minna no nihongo 1 and RTK1) to JLPT level 2 in three months doing full time full immersion Japanese in japan (not classes)? (which is what I shall do this autumn in tokyo).
All comments much appreciated.

If I were in your situation, unless there was a need to pass JLPT2 so urgently, I would probably opt for JLPT3.

Reasons being:

- I would want to spend some of my time not studying.
- I would probably be interested in studying non-test specific stuff as well.
- there is still plenty of stuff in JLPT3 that you probably haven't studied yet so would obviously be worth going over.

I didn't try JLPT2 till I'd been in Japan for over 3.5 years. However, I don't study all that hard.

thanks....sound advice!

They've been out for a bit already, but I picked up my application form yesterday. Closing date for application is September 11th.

I am trying to decide whether to take the JLPT 4 or 3 this December. I have been living in Japan and studying Japanese for almost a year now and RTK for 3 months (up to 800 kanji). From what I hear, level 4 will be a piece of cake but I don`t think I know enough kanji for level 3. Will 1000 or so RTK kanji (ie no japanese reading) be enough to get me through level 3? Will studying On and Kun reading of JLPT kanji mess me up in the future (as Heisig suggests)?
Any thoughts/suggestions would be great!

http://jlpt.info/ has the past tests and things on there last year, but looking at it quickly now i've got no idea where they are. Do you have to register now?

laner36 Wrote:I am trying to decide whether to take the JLPT 4 or 3 this December. I have been living in Japan and studying Japanese for almost a year now and RTK for 3 months (up to 800 kanji). From what I hear, level 4 will be a piece of cake but I don`t think I know enough kanji for level 3. Will 1000 or so RTK kanji (ie no japanese reading) be enough to get me through level 3? Will studying On and Kun reading of JLPT kanji mess me up in the future (as Heisig suggests)?
Any thoughts/suggestions would be great!

I was in the same boat last year. I opted for level 3 and was glad I did. I wanted the test to motivate me to study and 4 was just too easy - I would have slacked off. I scraped a pass on 3 but learned a lot by preparing. I found the excel@japanese spreadsheet really helpful for cramming kanji readings and picking up those reading outside of Heisig didn't hurt me at all. Living in Japan you'll start picking up readings almost by accident anyway - you won't be able to help it.

Frankly, level 4 or 3 don't really mean that much as far as being a 'certified' japanese speaker. I'd say it would be better to aim for level 3 and even if you don't pass you'll have learned a lot more japanese than by trying to completely master level 4.

last year is was at 450 kanji in RTK and needed to learn 200 new ones with readings and compounds for JLPT lvl 3. So, I found every kanji that I needed to know and back tracked it in RTK, learning all the primitives and all the other kanji that went into making it, etc etc. All in all it was probably about 500 heisig kanji and primitives, plus readings and compounds, and I did it in 2 weeks working about 6hrs a day.
After JLPT, I went back and started at number 450 again, but after having studied for level 3 I knew some of the pitfalls to avoid at certain points and didn't find it detrimental at all, in fact it made it much easier to change the kanji mnemonics for ones that didn't really go well the first time.

I would say you are in a better position than I was when I did it, and I passed lvl 3 no problem. Go for it!

Hey There!

I'll be doing the JLPT Leve 4 exam in 4 months. I have 0 kanji memorized so far and I have Heisig's RTK.

There's around 100 Kanji (actually 120) for level 4, and I was wondering which method do you guys recomend to memorize all them?

I really go well with mnemonics. That's how I got trough Hiragana and Katakana... I know that RTK isn't JLPT friendly and that it has it's own order...

What do you guys recommend me?

Many Thanks!
PR

Don't bother with Level 4, stick with Heisig and do Level 3 next year.

I Thinks the Level 4 will finally be a good reason to start studying all I have been learning in classes.

So I'm really committed to do it! So what do you recommend anyways?

Purchase last year's test and take it on the morning of the test date, omitting the kanji section? ;-)

Dunno. I know how you feel, but studying the kanji out of RTK order is a bit risky.

What I might recommend, since it's only 150 characters, is to stop RTK for about a month (but continue reviewing), cram the ones you need to know, and then go back to RTKing. Probably won't be a huge problem.

pricca: Good luck with JLPT4! Depending how much time you have to study, it might be worth your while to wait till after the test to really get into RTK1.

The good thing about the JLPT tests (in particular JLPT4) is that there is only a finite amount of stuff you have to learn.

Past papers; a good beginner's textbook; and an SRS/paper flashcards are all you need.

got my form sent in for level 2. let's see if I can get a result similar to my level 3 one last year... (here's to wishful thinking :p)