I somehow managed to pass N1 again, but with a much lower score. I got 106 this time, but like 121 last time. I'm interested in seeing what the pass rate was like. Maybe this was just a harder test or something.

My listening stayed pretty much the same while everything else was a handful of points worse. I can't really say I'm surprised at all considering I didn't spend a single second preparing for this JLPT because I've been pouring all my effort into KanKen.

I really need to sit down with a grammar drill book or work through a proper grammar text. I also need to drill listening a bunch. I hate the way the test does listening, but it's no use whining about it. I should be acing that section since I live in Japan and have Japanese conversations literally every day. I even have business-ey conversations with a decent regularity.

My hearing even for English isn't great sometimes, but it definitely gets a lot worse in Japanese. They always have the speakers up so loud, and it echoes horribly in the kinds of classrooms where they host the test. Maybe I should train for it by buying some 100円 earbuds, and slamming them in my front door a few times to make sure the sound coming out of them is nice and garbled.

You guys are making me nervous (2 more days till results are out) >.<

and there's a thread for 2012 results now

I plan on failing by a LOT of points because the stars simply did not line up for me that day... Now that I've taken nearly 2 months off from studying, it's about time to get it going again.  I was playing around with KanjiBox the other day; It's amazing how much kanji I've forgotten already.

Cramming = no good.

I had a question about that. I'll often hear shounen anime use 目的 as "intention". (e.g. a character breaks into an establishment, you'll hear the owner of that establishment ask what kind of 目的 this guy could have). I kind of always pictured it as anime-only speech, though. Can it be used like this?

partner55083777 wrote:

Tzadeck wrote:

Ha.  I failed N1 by one point.  Why am I so bad at this silly test?

Wow, I don't think I've ever heard of anyone doing that before.  Does that mean you got 99 points total, or you got a 19 on one of the sections?  Man, that really sucks.

I got 99 points total.



This is actually the first time I've been frustrated by failing a JLPT, because I feel like if I took it today I would definitely pass (since I've actually been doing anki properly lately, haha). But now I have to wait around for six months and then a couple more to get the results.  Annoying.

Last edited by Tzadeck (2013 January 29, 7:33 pm)

Not sure what you mean by study plan, but I say just study a lot of everything, then download a past N2 exam in summer, run a mock exam and try to judge your results, then spend the following months focusing on the parts you did wrong.

Also, remember to not neglect 社長 and business vocab. Whenever 社長 popped up (and he did a lot, especially during listening) I cried a bit inside.

@Inny Jan, I see . So 目的 can also represent an immediate goal with a softer nuance, not just a distant ideal goal?

I took JLPT N1 and passed by a razor thin margin (103/180), which I mostly attribute to Anki, since it really kept me on the ball with active studying. Thus, my JLPT history looks something like this:

2006 - Start studying Japanese
2009 - JLPT 2 (don't remember the score, but I failed)
2010 - JLPT N2 (85/180 - Fail)
--start using Anki midyear 2011--
2011 - JLPT N2 (124/180 - Pass)
2012 - JLPT N1 (103/180 - Pass)

Don't think I'll take the JLPT again, at least anytime in the near future, but as for continued studying, I'm going to start aiming for the Kanken tests to build up more vocabulary and engrain the kanji better. I'm also interested in the Nihongo Kentei tests, but I don't know much about them. Gotta get some new decks set up, although I did find a decent Kanken review app for iPhone/iPad that goes from 4kyu up to 2kyu. Of course, there's also always room for refining vocab and grammar usage. I'm actually taking Kanken 4kyu on Friday and severely doubt I will pass. Almost 6 1/2 years to N1 and I still feel far from "fluent", lol.

Well, that sentence was just copied from my 辞書. Other examples on 目的 are:

彼女は人生のはっきりとした目的を持っていない
She has no specific aim [purpose, goal, object, objective] in life.

彼の設計は様々の目的にかなうものではない
His design does not answer [fulfill, 《正式》serve, suit] our purpose.

目的を達する
attain [accomplish, achieve, effect] one's purpose

人生の目的を達する［達しない］
attain [fail in] one's object in life

代表団の第一の目的は両国の親善を促進することである
The delegation's primary objective is to promote friendly relations between the two countries.《形式ばった文ではobjectiveが好まれる》

As a matter of interest, here is what I found on differences between: purpose, aim, goal, object, objective.

「目的」の意の最も一般的な語はpurpose。aimは他のより具体的・特定的な「目標」に使われることが多い。objectiveは《正式》。意味はこの５語で大きな差がなく。交換可能な場合が多い。
   
I didn't bother to copy examples from  目標 but they don't differ to much...

I've never heard of anyone taking the Nihongo Kentei.  Has anyone on this forum taken it?  Or even known anyone that has taken it?  Care to share your experiences (like why you took it and how it was)? 

I wonder if Nihongo Kentei's １級 is as crazy-hard as Kanken's １級...?

Edit: Just took their 5-question practice test and got 4/5 on ６級 (damn せめて...).  Got 3/5 on the ４級 test (there was one analogy question where I knew literally 0 of the words, lol).  Got 3/5 on the ２級 test but I honestly guessed on all of the questions.  I was recommended to take the ３級 test.

Last edited by partner55083777 (2013 January 30, 8:56 am)

Thanks for the info, everyone. I had looked at the Nihongo Kentei site a little bit before, but as I was still in JLPT study mode, I didn't really look too deeply into it. When I told Japanese people I was taking the JLPT, many of them seemed to mistake it for the Nihongo Kentei. Never heard of the 語彙・読解 one, but it sounds interesting.

tokyostyle wrote:

If your main aim is to pass a Japanese test aimed for native speakers, as a hobbyist, then of course any of these tests are fair game as long as they meet your proficiency goals.

This is pretty much my goal at this point. Of course, my ultimate goal is to eventually reach a very high level of fluency and literacy, and at this point I see the tests as frameworks that provide a base of knowledge with a deadline to learn it by and an independent evaluation of my abilities at the end. While I've found that I am subjectively aware of things like being able to understand conversations a little better than a few months ago or understand TV a little better than before, the tests, while not perfect, provide a more independent, objective look at how much progress was made in the various competencies each test is built for.

tokyostyle wrote:

However, if your main goal is to have fancy resume fodder your best bet is the highest two 漢検 exams.  Although they don't test Japanese language proficiency everyone is familiar with them and they carry clout even among natives.

I agree, and I'll second this. I'm studying for KanKen pretty aggressively, but a lot of KanKen boils down to trivia. It's pretty easy to study for via Anki and that DS game, but it takes a whole lot of time. For a lot of people that time could probably be better spent practicing reading/speaking/writing instead of studying kanji in hyper detail.

I've seen definite benefits from it(around 準2級 level right now), but I think my progress in other areas has stalled at the expense of it. I'm confident that'll sort itself out in the end, though, since I have the luxury of time on the JET program.

Last edited by erlog (2013 February 02, 1:10 am)