zigmonty wrote:

I think when you're talking about order, 上 is before 下. If you're talking about rank, it's the opposite. That is, 上級 is higher than 下級.

Yeah, that's what I meant. Sorry if it got muddled in my post.

chochajin wrote:

Almost 20.000yen, oi!!~ (-_-'')

Eh? Where are you taking it? When I took it in Japan I think it was less than 7000 + postage & passport photo. Here in Australia I believe I paid $80 (+bank draft fee) + postage/photo.

chochajin wrote:

captal wrote:

chochajin wrote:

Almost 20.000yen, oi!!~ (-_-'')

Eh? Where are you taking it? When I took it in Japan I think it was less than 7000 + postage & passport photo. Here in Australia I believe I paid $80 (+bank draft fee) + postage/photo.

I live far away from the next testing location and so I need to take a long train ride and then also a bus there (round trip = expensive) plus also a hotel for one night. That plus the test fee and everything else involved is almost 200$
That's also why this is the first time for me to actually take the test. I wanted to be pretty sure that I could actually pass.

But even back in my home country the next testing location is far away and I'd have to pay probably even more than here in Japan to take it, so I guess it's okay.
And I'm sure I'm not the only one who lives in an 田舎

I hear you, I have to take a boat to my test.

Bah. 5+ hour drive each way, plus 2 nights in a hotel, because it's offered at stupid hours.

I don't want to think about how much this is going to cost me. -_-##

Oh, so the testing time also varies from level and location, I guess?
My test starts @ 12:30pm!

Just took the N2 floating around (the grammar and reading combined part, anyway)... yikes. I need another 2-3 months to study to catch the 400-500 vocab words I seem to be missing. I'm right at the 65% level for grammar, but ~50% for reading. (And if they curve it, possibly lower. It's impossible to tell.)

I get the feeling that whether I pass or fail is going to be totally dependent on whether the test has words I happen to know on it or not. That's not really a "warm, fuzzy feeling."

I'll do the listening portion tomorrow. Listening isn't usually a problem for me, but if it's anything like the first two sessions, I'm not going to be a happy panda.

I just spent the afternoon doing a little "cramzen master," as I like to call my anki deck full of just grammar terms in cram mode (the theory being that it would help speed up my spotting time... great for the old level 2, but not this monster)... but after taking that test just now, that feels like I just wasted an afternoon.

At this point, it's really too late to learn any useful new vocab or do any useful reading drills... Guess I'll just do some listening exercises, take some mock tests, cross my fingers, and start looking for a place to take the KanKen. >_>a

The worst part for me is that my normal Anki deck has ballooned to over 1500 cards due. Screw it. I'll just have to whittle it down over the holidays.

You're screwed, brother.

I've never really done the previous test style, but with the new N-style you can just do it in order. I rarely have time problems this way.

What I'm worried about is 2 hours without anything to drink or the possibility to use the toilet.
Can anybody explain to me why the hell we're not allowed to drink anything????? It's a test about our Japanese ability and not about how long we can stay focused without drinking anything

Does any of you knpw how many times they repeat the audio in 4kyuu?

Do you have any tips/strategies? I'm a JLPT first time taker so...

julianjalapeno wrote:

They don't repeat the audio at any level so you'll need to relax and focus if this is a weak point for you (it sure is for me). I take lots of notes because my short term memory is horrendous, so if you take that route I would recommend thinking of abbreviations ahead of time. I also write down any words that I don't know the instant I hear them so I can process them a few beats later.

I have been listening to JLPT 3 (new 3 kyuu, from the new alc books) during most of the day. Last monday I tried level 3-4 (2005 test) and they speak so so slowly, it was really easy.

On the other hand, my short term memory is like yours. In oral tests I take notes and end up not listening to everything ; _;



So hum, they will give us some sort of paper to take notes right?

What about the long texts? Any tips? One of my teachers told us to always read the questions first, I think that's effective because you already know what you have to look for in the text.

Btw, can we underline the texts? It is so useful...

Last edited by CarolinaCG (2010 December 02, 6:29 am)

@phantombk201
I just had to take off my lurk mantle after reading your post, because it mirrors my situation to the point of being slightly uncanny.

First things first, our timelines may have some points in common, but I didn't start exactly from scratch, I knew the kana, a handful of kanji learned the traditional way and some basic grammar before taking up rtk, could have probably managed to scrape a pass on 4級 (n5) excluding listening.

May '09 I started with RTK, and by December 2009 (7 months later) me and a friend of mine were so enthusiastic about the results we were getting from using anki, keeping an immersion environment, etc. that we made a 'bet' along the lines of "Hey you know what? We should aim for N1 come next year. Come on, it'll be fun! I'm sure I can get a better score than you!".

Yeah, quite naive of us, but the reasoning behind that was that we wouldn't study specifically for the test, just try to give our best in learning the language and around August/September (apply period) check our "jlpt level" by taking some past tests and apply for whatever level would seem doable at that time.
In the end we signed up for N1 for real. Competition is a scary thing.

Though I've done plenty of old 1級 simulations and the results were encouraging (a solid 80-84% this month), I don't really feel confident for the real deal, the new format feels more challenging for someone with no solid grammar knowledge (or should I say, who hasn't developed a 'sense' for grammar) and anxiety can really do a mess of my nerves.

My actual situation feels like I have rushed a lot of work and as a result my formal knowledge of the language could be described as 'shaky', at best. The good thing is that I got out of what I consider the "boring phase" fast, and started enjoying reading and consuming various media before I could collapse under the weight of not being able to make sense of whatever I was trying to approach.

Basically, my output skills are virtually nonexistent because I lack bases, never got around to do exercises, drill things etc because those things take time. On the other hand, I tried my best to flood myself with the language and got relatively fast to the point where I can read and appreciate a book intended for native speakers, articles on the web, games etc. which is probably the best thing I got from the whole experience, regardless of the test result which doesn't really feel that much important anymore at this point.

My friend's situations is a bit different, he started 2-3 months later but worked harder and tried to keep a balance between input and output and other things going on in his life. We're on a comparable level of reading comprehension, but I don't even come close to him when it comes to listening/speaking skills. He has no problems interacting with natives in a multitude of situations, which is completely out of my league. Which just goes to say, you can surely do better than I did if you don't try to rush things.

That being said, your situation is different after all. I'm assuming you did start from 0, whereas we had some groundwork done. You plan to take on other languages the next year, I can honestly say I literally haven't had time for anything else but japanese in the last 6 months. My friend managed better, keeping his activities going and sneaking in a little bit of chinese, corean, german, but didn't go very far with those.

If you think you could benefit from the extra motivation in a positive way, I'd say go for it, but keep realistic expectations and be ready to adjust them accordingly. Also definitely try not to center your studies around the test, because that would make you good at "taking the jlpt", but probably wouldn't translate very well in japanese ability.

Sorry for the long post, I would just like to take the chance to thank you guys, this community has always been a source of inspiration, motivation, materials and good reads. Good luck to everyone taking the jlpt in 70 hours or so, depending on timezone. I'm not trying to build up the tension, not at all =p

Back to my lurk bubble~

rich_f wrote:

Bah. 5+ hour drive each way, plus 2 nights in a hotel, because it's offered at stupid hours.

I don't want to think about how much this is going to cost me. -_-##

At least you don't have to take a flight and go to another country to take the test.

+ the flight was delayed for 6.5 hours.

They should have arcades for this kind of occasion.

I'm booooored.

Well, at least I'm too sleepy to be upset. Only slept 1.5 hours before coming to the airport.

Did I say I'm bored?