As far as I've heard, those were just the results that they had for the last test. Like it was graded on some sort of curve, and those were the results needed for the July test. So it may not necessarily be the same for this upcoming test.

I'm not sure if that's true or not, but it's a rumor I heard.


On a similar note, just about JLPT: I'm absolutely screwed. I've been super busy since coming back to America, and vastly overestimated how much time I could actually spend on Japanese. Yeah, I forgot that American university courses are hard...

So yeah, I've got one month until I tackle JLPT N1, and probably get my attempting-to-be-bilingual ass handed to me.

Last edited by Asriel (2010 November 03, 11:27 am)

I doubt it's a rumor, since they left the breakdown of scores on the FAQ page, and said nothing about it being "only for the July 2010 test."

Besides, if they say the scoring is one way before the test, then scored the test differently than how they said they would score it, there would be no end to the howls of protest from people.

It's like if your professor tells you you need a 60 to pass, then halfway through the exam, he just changes his mind and says, "Nah, you need a 75, because I don't like your face." or "I changed it to an 80 because you smell funny."

You'd flip out.

Same goes for a standardized test. They put those numbers out well in advance because they know people and publishers will rely on them, so they aren't just going to change them randomly.

pm215 wrote:

It does look from the fairly low per-section minima as if that is unlikely to be a problem for anybody, contrary to some early worries, although again how many questions you need to get right to score "19 points" is going to vary from year to year.

IMO they're targeting students that used to cram the kanji and grammar and hope that they could ace those sections, miserably fail the listening and still pass.

The most significant change to me is that it's now 1/3 listening, 1/3 reading and 1/3 kanji/grammar - they are trying to make it a test for people who actually can understand Japanese instead of those that can just cram cram cram.

I'm psyched because listening is definitely my best section- if I can score 75% on the N2 listening (45 out of 60 points) then I only need to get 23 points on each reading and kanji/grammar to get 90 points (assuming it's the same pass level as July). Score 52/60 and one would only need that minimum 19 points on the other two sections to pass.

*by the way the significant increase in my listening skills is due in large part to the KO2001 anki deck- I've spent over 14 days (that is, 336 hours) and 51k reviews on my KO2001 deck since like Sept. last year and my vocab and listening have exploded. I'm sure it's also that I spend time talking to and listening to Japanese natives as well

Last edited by captal (2010 November 03, 10:45 pm)

Truth be told, they should have native speakers take the test to help determine a reasonable minimal level to pass.

Assuming the JLPT is meant to show level of Kindergarten (N5), 2nd grade (N4), 4th grade (N3), 6th grade (N2), 9th grade (N1) then have about 30 people in each age bracket take the test. Their average score of the bottom 5 in each area should determine what counts as lowest score for passing. The average of the top 5 is the 100% mark.

After that, you can set a minimum

I've heard the same- that the N1 listening isn't that much harder than the N2. I listened to some of the N1 questions on the JLPT site and was able to do ok. To make it harder I think they throw in more formal speech.

I think the point is that the jump from N2 grammar to N1 grammar is pretty big, since a lot of N1 grammar tends to be written only and difficult.

Just about done playing through Tales of Rebirth in Japanese as well- at the 32 hour mark and a whole lot of it is dialogue. Highly recommended for anyone with a PSP or PS2. One day I'll get a PS3 and play some of the other Tales of ... for sure.

One of the few games I've played with a positive moral lesson as well (instead of save the princess or kill the evil race of aliens, etc). I wish more Japanese people would play this game and take it to heart (especially politicians associated with immigration and legal matters).

Sorry for the tangent, but I guess that's really been most of my 2級 prep. I'm trying to do as many practice tests as possible as well, but they're so boring...

If you have time to be posting, you should be studying instead!!!

Says me who is just now posting.

Back to studying now.

I just did another N2 (not old 2kyuu!) mock test.

Vocab/Grammar: 85%
Reading: 52% (complete fail *sigh*)
Listening: 91%
Overall: 80%

I'm so shocked about the reading. This was not my first N2 mock test and the reading has never been so bad I wonder what's wrong.
*panic*

The test I did a few weeks before looked like this:
Vocab/Grammar: 78%
Reading: 81% (!!!!)
Listening: 81%
Overall: 79%
(- since that test I focused on vocab and reviewed grammar again)

Also, they say the listening takes 50 minutes, but actually it's shorter - more like 40 minutes or so. Why?

Does anybody know if there's a break between the vocab/grammar/reading and the listening test?

Any good last minute tips for me? (Guess we all need some, hehe.)

Edit: I always have some leftover time at the end of part 1 (about 10-15 minutes, so I should probably read more carefully and go slower through the reading section?!)

Last edited by chochajin (2010 November 05, 10:03 am)

Chochajin, 52% sounds bad but this isn't a score test like the SAT. It's more of a pass/fail test. I would still work on reading but don't freak out! Those other scores are awesome. I need to get a move on.

I got 50% on all of my practice tests and I am going through grammar still, I haven't covered half of them yet! I work on vocabulary for 2 hours everyday and I have been working on listening.

I wish I could crank out 80% like that. But maybe in one month I can add 20% to these areas. I did say "maybe".

julianjalapeno wrote:

(and this percentage is only from the July 2010 test, it could be higher or lower for the next one).

Where are people getting this from? The FAQ on the official website is clear about what's required for a pass on the N2, and what isn't. They aren't going to start changing pass percentages for the tests randomly on us.

The website says nothing about the pass rates being provisional nor does it say that they will change for every test. It just says, "You need this much to pass the test."

The only pass rates that have *not* been set yet are for N4 and N5, and they have said that they will be set after the December 2010 exam. (Sucks for N4 and N5 test-takers, I guess.)

Unless you have a source that administers the JLPT that SAYS they're going to change the pass/fail plateau, then by all means, tell us.

Interesting.

I never really liked this exam before... now I *really* don't like it. Too bad the BJT is going the way of the dodo.

Well, there's always KanKen in February if this is a disaster.

I'm doubting a 6th grader would be able to pass N1... there's a lot of grammar and kanji that they haven't been exposed to. Then again given that listening and reading are 2/3rds of the test, maybe they could do it.

I showed the N2 test to a native speaker and she thought the reading was exceptionally hard for the the supposed level of N2. 

She said especially with the time limit and the possibility that multiple answers fit a lot of Japanese would miss quite a few questions.  Although, of course they would probably pass.   She even thought most jp students would have a hard time with it and her parents too, but probably an exaggeration.

It's like if I took the toeic for english, I'm sure I might miss a lot of the questions just because I'm not use to taking that type of test.

Last edited by socrat (2010 November 08, 1:14 pm)