Finally got mine today (thanks a lot slow rural post).
N1 pass
Language 46/60
Reading 47/60
Listening 32/60
Overall 125/180

Really happy with the result especially considering I didn't pay attention properly to instructions on one of the listening sections which must have cost me a few points.

Much the same as Pounce said, I was expecting by the time I could pass N1 my Japanese would be at a level most people would describe as fluent (not really the case yet I feel). In some ways it is just really a base level for the next stage of learning.

Congratulations to everyone who passed and hopefully even those that didn't managed to improve their Japanese while studying for it (which in the end is more important than a pass anyway).

Just got my results for the N1 . I passed with 110 on 180.
After the initial joy (one of my big objectives of the year) I don't feel so great .

First complaint the general score : 110 on 180 doesn't make the original 70 percent of test . If I compare to my previous attempt when I scored 68.5 percent it looks I got worse . I know the scoring completeley changed so you can't compare but still .... It's hard to explain but I feel cheated of my big day .

Second complaint the section score
language knowledge 49
hearing 36
reading 26 (WTF!!!)

It reads like a textbook case of someone who has crammed for the exam . And I didn't . Clearly been slacking before the exam without specific preparation contrary to JPLT 2 (crammed like hell). It's been a while since I opened a grammar manual (let alone a vocabulary book:I hate those ) .　It has been 3 FREAKING YEARS since I started studying japanese and it looks like I really screwed up on reading which is the cornerstone of great polyglots throughout the centuries (burton , schliemann, mezzofanti , Alexander Arguelles). Due to my other objectives I have not been doing a lot of japanese for the past 8 months and it makes me painfully aware how I have to find a way to put a lot more japanese in my life .


Which is hard .
Reading translated material isn't really great , harder to find/waste a lot of time finding it , very edgy stuff are very unlikely to be translated . I just can't agree with khatz on translation . It's not the same thing . He likes to say : if you like it read it in japanese . Problem is : there really is a cultural gap . I'll take caricatural example : Try to compare the japanese wikipedia entry for superheroes to the american one . Reversely compare the american entry for manga magazine to the japanese one .
I'll take more concrete example : If I need to study at lenght nutrition , let's say sugar metabolism and metabolic pathway in general , I would lost a lot of time trying to gather data in japanese . Even if it exists japanese public is not that interested in those area , they don't have widely available and thorough document about it , you have to scrap datas here and there . Why ? because it's not part of their culture . I went 6 months to a first rate karate dojo , really one of the best, and I was stunned by their poor knowledge of nutrition and physiology. Americans athletes study those big time .

It may look like I disgress but my point is that it appears more and more to me there is a huge price to pay for getting fluent in asian languages . I m not only talking about time , I m talking about cultural difference and who you want to be .

pardon me as I am a noob to JLPT

but why are the standards for passing so low? jesus

I have only gotten an F once in my life and a D two times

all 3 of those I showed a lack of basic understanding for the topic at hand

it seems like 100/180 is basically a D- or F. below that is even worse

o_O I know you guys study very hard so it can't be lack of diligence

do theyh purposely just put stuff that no one will be able to get right?

What's the point of making a test that no one gets 100% on
or at least 95%

zachandhobbes Wrote:pardon me as I am a noob to JLPT

but why are the standards for passing so low? jesus

I have only gotten an F once in my life and a D two times

all 3 of those I showed a lack of basic understanding for the topic at hand

it seems like 100/180 is basically a D- or F. below that is even worse

o_O I know you guys study very hard so it can't be lack of diligence

do theyh purposely just put stuff that no one will be able to get right?

What's the point of making a test that no one gets 100% on
or at least 95%

-First most of us are westerners . I bet average koreans and chinese scores are better . A good chinese friend of mine did very well at the test while not so good in everyday life .One of his chinese friends scored EXTREMELY high (more than 90 percent). Inside the exchange student my korean comrads at waseda were the most fluent . In every dormitory/gaijin house I have been the most fluent gaijin is always korean . It's just harder for us . The same way I have met few japanese really fluent in english .
-Secund there is nothing after the JLPT 1 except for the BJT (and I m not sure I would tell it's more difficult . It's different . ). So they can afford to be demanding . I m more pissed off at scoring low than at their questions .
- Third it has been made worse with the curving bell effect I guess . I scored better comperatively speaking at my previous attempt . I think I would have been at 75 percent otherwise .

As far as I m concerned I blame only myself for my score , not the test (althought I do think the grammar part of JLPT 1 is a joke . Never met in real life .). I lacked intelligence and consistancy in my training . I will retake the test . Not before a year though I have other stuff to do.

zachandhobbes Wrote:pardon me as I am a noob to JLPT

but why are the standards for passing so low? jesus

I have only gotten an F once in my life and a D two times

all 3 of those I showed a lack of basic understanding for the topic at hand

it seems like 100/180 is basically a D- or F. below that is even worse

o_O I know you guys study very hard so it can't be lack of diligence

do theyh purposely just put stuff that no one will be able to get right?

What's the point of making a test that no one gets 100% on
or at least 95%

There probably are some people who get grades that high. However, I suspect that they deliberately keep the failure rate high and the average grade is kept very low deliberately. (As opposed to schools, where they want a higher average grade and certainly everyone passing.)

I'd guess it's because they want to keep the certification somewhat exclusive. If most people passed the test, it would be easier to obtain and there would be a lot more people around with JLPT certification, thus diminishing its value.

JTEST is harder than JLPT1 at the top end, and BJT is MUCH harder, especially when you consider that there is an optional oral component.

After that there is Nihongo Kentei which is meant for natives, and Kanji Kentei, which only tests a small aspect but is also for natives. There are also a few other native certs like Nihongo Bunshou Kentei that you could get into.

You could also just try for a 100% pass on jlpt1. There are plenty of concrete post-jlpt1 goals.

I thought that the oral part of the BJT had been suppressed ? unless it's back in the reboot ? in any case I'll take the test .
I didn't know about the nihongo kentei . Extremely interesting .
I'll definetely take again the JLPT1 . I already thought about doing that just for kicks . But now it's more serious . I feel bad to pass with those marks . As for the score I a firm believer of "aim for the moon . If you miss you'll land into the stars " . However I must point out that I never met anyone with a perfect score at JLPT 1(contrary to english speaking test ). I must also add that my japanese teacher at waseda failed one of the question of the reading test I showed her .

Congratulations, condolences, and keep up the study! &c.

JLPT1 really is the end of the beginning of studying Japanese. Congrats, now you can read at a middle school level

In my opinion after passing JLPT1 you can start referring to your level as intermediate. Everything before that is a mere beginner

Long road ahead of me...

From what I understand getting 100/180 on the new scoring system doesn't mean that the person only got 100 questions out of 180 correct, it is likely that they probably got significatly more correct (the old exam was 70% for N1). However, marks are altered with the aim of keeping the pass mark for the new exam the same. Also there are more marks for harder questions and fewer marks for easier ones, in theory making it easier to distinguish higher ability levels.
Yeah it would be nice to take it again in the future and aim for 90% plus, but I won't be making any effort to specifically study for the test again, and won't go out of my way to take it.

I'd consider 95+% on JLPT 1 to be pretty good though.

You should be proud, Ghinzdra.

Worldwide only a little more than 30% of test takers passed N1.

If you scored 110, that probably puts you above the 75th percentile.

And if you accomplished that after only three years of nihongo study, that's remarkable!

I'm guessing the reason you didn't score higher is because, especially with the new test format and scoring, you didn't have time to do more non-study, free reading. Under the new format, no more acing the grammar section by memorizing 200 sentence patterns in Kanzen Master.

My theory is the only way to crush the score at the N1 level is to do at least 2 hours of college-level reading a day, at speed, for at least a year before the exam. And if you're still bulking up your kanji and vocab, and have a career to boot, who has time for another 2 hours of reading on top of that?

So please enjoy your remarkable achievement, and take it to the next level.

chuubaka Wrote:You should be proud, Ghinzdra.

Worldwide only a little more than 30% of test takers passed N1.

If you scored 110, that probably puts you above the 75th percentile.

And if you accomplished that after only three years of nihongo study, that's remarkable!

I'm guessing the reason you didn't score higher is because, especially with the new test format and scoring, you didn't have time to do more non-study, free reading. Under the new format, no more acing the grammar section by memorizing 200 sentence patterns in Kanzen Master.

My theory is the only way to crush the score at the N1 level is to do at least 2 hours of college-level reading a day, at speed, for at least a year before the exam. And if you're still bulking up your kanji and vocab, and have a career to boot, who has time for another 2 hours of reading on top of that?

So please enjoy your remarkable achievement, and take it to the next level.

I deeply appreciate your kind words .
however I don't compare myself to others . That's the recipe for mediocrity or impossible to meet expectations . I compare my current self to my potential and I know - gut feeling - that I didn't do as well as I could have . I think it's John wooden a basketball coach who said something like " after a match you'll be the only one to know if you won . It s not on the scoreboard because you may have a bad day or some stroke of luck . It 's about whether you truely did your best . You're the only one to know if you gave it all " . Well I didn't give it all . I cut myself a lot of slack , I have been stupid in my studies so many times I want to want to bang my head against the wall when I think about it . And I m no talking about understanding better how it works , that the whole point of learning/the result , I m talking about comfort zone , knowing what you do is dead wrong and still carrying on because can't face the fact that you have to resume from the start to do it right . It's the difference between hours and quality hours . You're pretending to study but you're not : you're looking for excuses - I don't understand I spent a lot of time studying- not success . It's like the difference between running on the floor and making moves with your hand and really going for the ball which requires control under stress and effort . You may fool the audience because there is a lot of energy spent but you won't fool yourself .

So tonight is off to vent but starting tomorrow I have to find a better balance to include japanese in my life and correct the points where I know my method suck balls.
but again , thanks for your kindness . I feel a little better .

At the end of the day you still have N1. If your only rating system is against yourself anyway, what's the point of taking the JLPT? You should be able to look at your daily life and say whether or not you're happy with your progress. Can you do all the things you want to do in Japanese? Check. If not, keep working.

I just got my results back this morning and I passed N2!!! I took the test in Japan while on exchange so I was really hoping to pass because I knew if I didn't I probably wouldn't get the chance to sit it again. Considering the amount of Japanese I knew (basically N4 level I guess) when I arrived I can't believe it really. Only got 30/60 for the listening section, but I knew I bombed out on that a bit anyway.

Openes my results of N1: 67/180

Failed second time. I really need to study harder xD

animehunter, Every time you study for this test and take it you become a LOT better at Japanese. (All those hours spent studying are NOT wasted!)

Keep at it and you will get there!

I passed N2 but it was pretty girigiri- 94/180

I honestly didn't think I passed it after that horrific reading section, so I'm pleasantly surprised. It's only by 4 points, but I'll take it, because it'll help my resume here in Tokyo

Got my result through my school today (which is probably why it's a couple days slower than everyone else): I passed N3! よかった・・・

Total 125/180
Language knowledge 45/60
Reading 39/60
Listening 41/60

Pretty even marks, but a bit strange because reading is usually my strongest skill by far! Anyway, a huge relief, and now I can look forward to N2 in July

Thanks everybody and congrats to everyone who passed! ^-^

CarolinaCG Wrote:chochajin, congrats! What was your main study method?

I don't really have a "main" study method. I use Anki a lot.
I did RTK1, then something similar to the movie method for the readings, then I did KO2001, then I did the Kanzen Master 2kyuu grammar book, partly Kanji in Context book 1 and also read a lot of novels (adding words I didn't know).
I think that's pretty much it (apart from watching jdramas a lot - but I have been doing that for more than 10 years by now which is why I don't really struggle with the listening).

I wonder why I'm so much later than everyone? Just got the results today:

JLPT N1
Total: 112/180, Passed

Vocab/Grammar: 41/60
Reading: 34/60
Listening: 37/60

Vocab: A
Grammar: B

I'm kind of confused as to why my Vocab/Grammar is my highest, or even that high in general. I was almost sure I did best on the listening. Reading...I'm pleasantly surprised.

Slightly ギリギリ like I was expecting, but I'm glad I passed. Now I can say I've passed N1 instead of just "I haven't taken it yet."

Is everyone who's receiving their results in Japan?

Seems like there's still another 2-4 weeks for the UK. D= <

A friend of mine got his results today. He took the test in Venice. That test-site was linked to my University and for some reason I still don't understand, they had to apply and pay in a different way than us (Milan and Rome). Probably that's the reson why he already have his results. He took 166/180 at N2. However, I phoned the place where the results arrive from Japan before being sent out. They said me to wait 1 or 2 weeks more. They also said they couldn't tell me anything about my results :/
I need to know, that N1 is driving me crazy D;

@Asriel:

Did you take the test in Japan or in the US?

Is it possible US scores are out already?