I'd love to lend the ２級 book. After December 2nd. ;-) Seriously, though, I may be studying from it right up until the test. Give me four weeks to see how far I get and I'll let you know how it's looking.

I really like the 新完全マスター文法 book so far. Good explanations, great examples, and lots of questions to drill you on what you've learned.

Even if I fail the test, I feel like my Japanese will have taken a nice leap by December 3rd.

@TheVinster - I broke down and bought the 聴解 book today. Tons of audio content. High hopes this will help me with my listening in general.

I need to sit down tonight or tomorrow and lay out a daily study plan for the next two months. Game on!!

@TheVinster: What? There is a サマー・ウォーズ book!? I wonder if I can find it in the innocent book thread...?

@gaiaslastlaugh: I figure that even if the 聴解 book isn't the most necessary at least you can learn new words and such. I'm enjoying it so far except the one where you have to write what you hear. I haven't actually tried to write Japanese in years and I don't plan to any time soon.

@Tori-kun: Whether or not it's there I'm not sure. I bought mine from the Kinokuniya site. It's quite thick at about 350 pages.

@TheVinster: Ah, ok. I checked the amazon page and one review said that it's pretty much the film's dialogue -- is that true? That would be quite a pity to be honest. Unfortunately there is no Kinokuniya here (he, basically, everything I have here in a radius of 50km is horses, cows and land lol).

Edit: Ok, I got the 新完全マスター books, too now! TheVinster and gaiaslastlaugh, shall we study together? We could have a three party conversation at skype in Japanese and go through the grammar points and stuff together. How about it? I feel pretty safe in terms of vocabulary; listening comprehension is my worst and I am listening now 24/7 to NHK news. I'm living in Germany, btw, if we plan on having a skype chat! I'm looking forward to it very much

I couldn't say if it matches the dialogue. I'm only on the 2nd page in the book and the film I don't remember so well. Watched it a while back when my Japanese was even worse. Either way if you liked the movie why not read the book, I'm sure it was changed to some extent. Even a book like The Girl who Leapt through Time was quite different than the movie.

You going for N2 or N1? Either way we could give it a shot. I've never described grammar points in Japanese though so I don't know how smoothly it will go at first. At the very least you could add my Skype (ID: vinnieladisa) and you could talk to me when I'm on.

Also a question I have on the side, do you think live blogging would help my speech? I was thinking of using FC2 and setting up a broadcast so I can talk to a room full of Japanese. Just need to get a new webcam.

Tori-kun Wrote:Edit: Ok, I got the 新完全マスター books, too now! TheVinster and gaiaslastlaugh, shall we study together? We could have a three party conversation at skype in Japanese and go through the grammar points and stuff together. How about it?

I'm game. I'm working on Section 3 of 文法 now, and am just starting listening comprehension. A 文法　study would be cool.

@TheVinster: I'm going for N2. My listening comprehension is crap and I have to practice reading more, getting away from Anki (300 reviews per day which takes an hour). I can't help you with speech.. I talked to lots of Japanese and they told me I have a pretty native-close pronounciation, but I think this is due to German pronounciation having lots in common with Japanese one.

Thanks for your skype name. I will add you right away.

@gaiaslastlaugh: Great, I will work up to that section today. Oh, wait, why I'm so hungover lol

@Tori-kun, @TheVinster - my Skype ID is gaiaslastlaugh. Vinster, I'm adding you too.

Started on the ２級聴解 book. Really, really like this. The dialogue is all very useful, and contains a lot of examples of plain Japanese w/ common contractions. Seems great just for general ear training, JLPT notwithstanding.

signed up for the n4 in NY this december. 頑張る。

<- signed up for JLPT 3級. I wasn't sure if I could get into 2級 so... as I'm a negative person I went for the somewhat safe 3級. I've been "studying" japanese for a year now the thing is I don't quite know my level of proficiency so luckily after the test I'll have cleared many doubts about it (for good or bad).
As for "studying" I'm playing eroges, watching J-subtitled anime, and of course doing daily reviews in Anki (at the beginning of Core 6k right know but I know most of the vocabulary anyway). All of this in my free time since I go to college and that is hindering my progress but can't be helped :p

Could someone tell me if finishing Core 6k will allow me to pass 2級? I checked the grammar book of Kanzen Master 2級 and it doesn't seem to be THAT hard...

Taking N1 in Atlanta. Studying at this point is just reading all the novels and manga I procured on a recent trip to Okinawa and Tokyo. I've really just gotten into reading novels in japanese this year and it's been a fun, eye-opening experience.

Anyone up for a pre-test karaoke outing the night before? There are lots of japanese karaoke joints in Atlanta

Just did the N2 quiz/sample test from JLPTs site and got all listening questions correct, quitting SRS and using that time for study&entertainment seems to be paying off. Reading and grammar are not there yet but I'm doing something about it and will see if it works.

I give myself one week of hardcore study mode just before the test (Kanzen+practice tests) but before that I wont be doing anything specifically directed at JLPT.

Who's ready for JLPT this December?. I'm trying to prepare but school is sucking up my time. I told myself if I do fail N1, I must get it next year. So no worries...

I got those kanzen master books for each skill and 2 prep books. I haven't went through all of them but I try to do each section everyday. I'm planning on going all out soon on it though (meaning, just work through all the problems, section by section but for every skill, until it's done). Basically do 1 section for kanji, 1 for reading, 1 for listening, 1 grammar and 1 for vocabulary. Until it's all done, or most of it is. Taking breaks of course but I tend to forgot how much I can accomplish if I just put in the time, I've done it before, so I'm sure I can do it again.

Honestly, I've been so focused on vocab, reading and listening that explicit JLPT2 study has sort of fallen by the wayside. I use the 完全マスター文法 book a lot still, but can't say I'm explicitly studying for December.

I've been talking with a few Japanese friends recently, and while I think it's valuable, I'm frustrated most of the time by my inability to follow the flow of conversation. I feel like I know a lot, but I know it sloooowly; it doesn't pop immediately into my head. So I'm focusing on reading + listening. Lots of NHK - NHKジャーナル, accompanied by lots of pre-reading on the site. Running through K-On! with Japanese subtitles (and Subs2SRS for vocab import), and watching lots of アニメ on CrunchyRoll sans subs.

Also trying to be smarter about my use of Anki these days by not adding arbitrary words each day to my study load. So I developed a new Anki strategy for loading vocab:

(1) Change Rikaisama settings to save the vocab for a specific article (news article, something on Wired or Nanapi, etc.) to a separate Rikaisama file.
(2) Import the words (w/ a custom tag) to Anki.
(3) Set my daily New Word Count in my Anki deck to 0.
(4) Review my old words for the day in Anki.
(5) Review any words I missed.
(6) Create a Cram deck to study the new words I've imported from the article. I make sure the "Reschedule cards based on this deck" option is selected so that these cards are subsequently added to tomorrow's review queue.

I was getting frustrated that I was studying new words that I had found via Rikaisama weeks ago, but hadn't really encountered since. This approach makes it a lot easier to remember new vocab, as (1) I'm explicitly studying it before I add it to my daily review load, and (2) I'm adding words that I have a high probability of slamming up against again in the immediate future.

I don't know where I'll be in a few weeks. Not sure I care. At this point, boosting my vocab + listening ability feels more important than test preparation.

[Zgarbas]

*sigh*, I try not to obsessively think about the number of days left till the JLPT... last month was so hectic with school and work that I barely got any studies done whatsoever.

Zgarbas Wrote:*sigh*, I try not to obsessively think about the number of days left till the JLPT... last month was so hectic with school and work that I barely got any studies done whatsoever.

agreed but all I want now is just pass that thing. Forgot about getting 80%+. I'm realizing the more longer you've been learning Japanese, the less you start to worry about these kind of proficiency tests. I just want to get this so I can move on and try to get employment with Japanese but of course, my speaking literally has to be fluent for that. So I still have a long way to go. Guess that's languages for you.

ta12121 Wrote:agreed but all I want now is just pass that thing. Forgot about getting 80%+. I'm realizing the more longer you've been learning Japanese, the less you start to worry about these kind of proficiency tests. I just want to get this so I can move on and try to get employment with Japanese but of course, my speaking literally has to be fluent for that. So I still have a long way to go. Guess that's languages for you.

There are so many things to work on - pronunciation, grammar, vocab, reading, writing, listening, speaking - and only a finite amount of time to spend on any combination of them. It really feels at times like trying to dismantle 富士山 with a pickaxe.

gaiaslastlaugh Wrote:

ta12121 Wrote:agreed but all I want now is just pass that thing. Forgot about getting 80%+. I'm realizing the more longer you've been learning Japanese, the less you start to worry about these kind of proficiency tests. I just want to get this so I can move on and try to get employment with Japanese but of course, my speaking literally has to be fluent for that. So I still have a long way to go. Guess that's languages for you.

There are so many things to work on - pronunciation, grammar, vocab, reading, writing, listening, speaking - and only a finite amount of time to spend on any combination of them. It really feels at times like trying to dismantle 富士山 with a pickaxe.

Yea I know where your coming from on that one. Not enough time to do all of these but it's vital in getting that proficiency test. I feel that I have a good handle on vocabulary,reading,kanji and reading but my grammar for Japanese is horrible. I've been learning Japanese for 3 years now and I feel the reason why I've lacked in the grammar is because I purely focused on just gaining recognition skills (passive skills). So the best I can do is try to equip myself by doing the kanzen books, do a lot of quizzes, do a lot of past JLPT tests and keep up with my srs reps before the test in December 2nd. I hope we can all get it, because this is only step 1 for the goal of native level (sadly my opinion has changed on that one too, it's more like people just need to get more and more used to it. Just as they did with their native languages)

Ugh. I haven't had any time to review, and it feels like the test is earlier this year.

I suppose I can make a grand push in November, but I'm not holding my breath on passing N1 this time. >_<

[RawToast]

nescio Wrote:I've done RTK1, 1000 words of the core2K and a whole bunch of grammar (basic+essential in Tae Kim) and I'm not sure I'll be able to pass N4 which I registered to (though there are still 3 months until the exam so it shouldn't be hard by then, but no way I'll get even close to N3).

I plan (well Excel tells me!) to be at that point in march for the N4 in July 2013. You have plenty of time to do some N4 workbooks and past papers. Hope you make it, so I can make it too!

Hijacking my 2013 plans in here if that's okay I'll try and prepare for some N5 past papers on the day of the December test to keep on topic.

So it's that time of year again. For those who are taking the test this Sunday, how are things going?

I bought the Kanzen N2 books earlier in the year, and aside from skimming through the Grammar book, have barely used them . I'm not too worried about reading/grammar/vocab at this point, but I am slightly worried about the listening, as I haven't done any specific "preparation" for it, aside from the usual watching of news, TV shows etc.

Taking N1 and I think I'll pass.

I did the Shinkanzen grammar book for the last time I took it, and I'll review it today and tomorrow.

My real problem is vocab but this time I actually SRSed from a vocab book for N1. Only got through 900 but I imagine that will be good enough to pass.

I also did a bunch of reading practice questions for this time.

Taking N3 and pretty confident. I believe I could have prepped myself for N2 in the time period between my university graduation and today, but I would have had to study full-time to learn a couple thousand more words and drill lots of grammar. I really needed to dedicate the time to job-hunting and my internship, so I decided to take it slower with Japanese. I did manage to get a job offer from the company where I'm interning and I'm going to become a full-time employee next week, so at least one part of the plan seems to have paid off.

I have been doing my Anki reviews religiously and mining for sentences in all sorts of media, but I haven't really done much specific preparation for the test, other than taking three practice tests in three months: one from a JLPT-affiliated website and two from "Moshi to Taisaku". Got good scores on all three, but I did noticeably worse on the last one, so I think I better review the strategies and practise some more questions in the time that remains.

I'm also taking N3. I'm pretty sure I'll be all right, but I didn't study as much as I had originally planned, even though I bought a grammar book. I only got through about 10% of it, mostly because I spent a lot of time up to November 10th studying for Kanken 7kyuu (pretty confident about that one, though I haven't gotten my results back yet.) Here's hoping that kanji and vocab will get me through!