kainzero wrote:

jishera wrote:

That post about JLPT and Indigo was hilarious. I'm the complete opposite of this guy right now. I've gone through 800 kanji in RTK, super basic grammar, and hardly any vocab :-). won't be taking the JLPT for a while! But if I ever do, I think kanji will be my strongest area after using RTK.

just note that...

-that entry was old. the test has changed, so it's no longer a grammar/listening/kanji test but it has grammar/listening/reading.
-knowing RTK won't particularly help, since they won't test you on a kanji and its definition straight up; but a multiple choice question where you have to choose the right word and they put 4 words with changes to only one radical. 働く vs 動く so you need to know the right word (not keyword) in order to pick out which one to use.

It always had a reading component... was he just lumping that in with grammar? And the kanji section was never *that* big. You'd have to be pretty borderline for the kanji section to cause you to fail.

Anyway, still hilarious.

drdunlap wrote:

Drawing inspiration from AJATT and, upon beginning to use RTK, the posts and users on this forum, I dove into native material beginning my second year of Japanese study and never looked back. (I'm not usually one to post on forums, however. :])
With a few months to go in my third year of study I was feeling good about my progress and took the JLPT for the first time.

N1
Vocabulary: 57/60
Reading: 52/60
Listening: 60/60
Overall: 169/180

Now I can begin learning Japanese.

Thanks for the inspiration. 8)
(and the handy website!)

@Drdunlap Just came across this post and was impressed that you made it to this point after 2 years of study. Wondering if you could elaborate (in another thread) how you went about achieving it i.e. study materials, method etc.

Thanks

rich_f wrote:

PASSED N2! Woot!

No idea what my scores were, because they wouldn't tell me by email, but because of my circumstances, they did tell me that I passed.

On to N1!

I didn't see your post. Gratz man
I'm still waiting for my score report/certificate <.<

dusmar84 wrote:

drdunlap wrote:

Drawing inspiration from AJATT and, upon beginning to use RTK, the posts and users on this forum, I dove into native material beginning my second year of Japanese study and never looked back. (I'm not usually one to post on forums, however. :])
With a few months to go in my third year of study I was feeling good about my progress and took the JLPT for the first time.

N1
Vocabulary: 57/60
Reading: 52/60
Listening: 60/60
Overall: 169/180

Now I can begin learning Japanese.

Thanks for the inspiration. 8)
(and the handy website!)

@Drdunlap Just came across this post and was impressed that you made it to this point after 2 years of study. Wondering if you could elaborate (in another thread) how you went about achieving it i.e. study materials, method etc.

Thanks

Well 2.something years. 8)
I could tell you my study methods, but there are enough of those on this website already. I'll consider writing exactly what I did in the "Users study methods" thread sometime if I get time.
I just said it in a post elsewhere on the site but I'll say it again here. It's my secret(..?) to language study.

drdunlap wrote:

"There's (at least) one universal truth in language learning- keep in touch with the language as it is used by natives of that language as much as is possible and you, too, should one day come to understand the language as they do. -- The actual steps of the process must, to some degree, fit the individual."

So my secret (if we can call it that) was to make Japanese a part of me. To understand it on its own grounds instead of attempting to study it and ask it why it works like it does. Having done that for 2 years, the JLPT N1 was just what I saw everyday. I can no longer think as a "learner of a second language" but only as a "user of a second language" and thus the idea of studying for the JLPT, the idea of having an incredible amount of knowledge only to fail the JLPT- things like this make no sense to me.

I used to hate it but am now very happy with the N1 as it only asks "Don't explain it to me, but have you seen this pattern several hundred times? A native of Japanese has."

Oh, I also went to Japan, which means I soaked up all the power from particles in the air.
/sarcasm and derail off.
ごめんなさい

kainzero wrote:

drdunlap wrote:

I used to hate it but am now very happy with the N1 as it only asks "Don't explain it to me, but have you seen this pattern several hundred times? A native of Japanese has."

my japanese friend keeps telling me

"if you pass N1, you'll know more japanese than me."

i highly doubt that!

Right? Unless that friend has not yet graduated from middle school. Then it might mean you know more than he does.
I had a Japanese friend telling me just yesterday "I looked at some study material for that N1 you took and it looks soo haard. I mean, I'm Japanese so it was really easy for me, but I mean for foreigners right? That's just native Japanese. Isn't that hard?"

kainzero wrote:

who uses 7 adjectives on one noun?!

a big, old, green, intellectual, narcissistic, half-baked, raging dinosaur. That's who.

Hmm... if you're not planning to use an SRS program like Anki or Mnemosyne already, why not?!

Otherwise I say give yourself time to experiment with how you enter facts from the JLPT books into your flashcard software. It will pay off well to use a different approach to grammar than what you use for vocabulary, for example.

What I found works best for me with grammar is to enter example sentences from the grammar book on the question side of the card, and on the answer side of the card I put furigana and dictionary translations for words I don't know. Then reviewing the cards consists of marking my understanding of the example sentence, and how easy it was to remember the meaning.

For vocabulary and kanji I have the vocabulary/kanji item on the question side of the card, the translation and furigana on the other side of the card, and I must write out the word on paper each time I see it. I mark it based on how easily I was able to recall its meaning and its reading.

These are just my SRS techniques and I am not saying these are the best, merely suggesting ideas for how you could use your new N2 books :-) Like I said earlier, experiment until you find what works for you.

Splatted wrote:

Is the Kanzen bunpou series really just for test preperation?

No, not really, I'd say. I had Tae Kim previously and Genki 1 and 2 and then just continued mining Kanzen bunpou JLPT3 like that in order to accomplish the whole grammar needed for the 3rd level. I had not intended taking the exam at some point at all but now I'm glad I did it after all. I can recommend the book; it is pretty straight-forwarded and systematical.

NoSleepTilFluent wrote:

So I'm studying for N2 now I got the application and will send it off tomorrow.

Be careful. Assuming you're in America, the deadline is based on -receiving- the application, not on postmarks. You may need to overnight it. The rules  may vary in other countries.

Registered for JLPT N2 in December!
I'm in the same boat with a lot of you now

So happy 2 months studying!
About 65 days from now!

Splatted wrote:

I have just started on the Kanzen 3kyu grammar book, and I'm wondering if it's meant to have a companion book or something. It seems like it might be geared more towards applying what you know to the JLPT test format than learning the actual grammar.

The format of the Kanzen books is more of a "review and drill" book than an initial reference. The assumption I think is that for at least the more complicated points you have learnt most of the grammar from a textbook or some other reference (although for the simpler things that are just obvious from the examples KM alone can be sufficient). So if you feel like the explanations are a bit minimal then yes, I'd recommend finding another reference/textbook/whatever to use alongside it.

NoSleepTilFluent wrote:

@jettyke Idk why i thought you were like fluent already and just helpful to everyone on the forum. But awesome are you in Japan as well?

Hey!

I'm enrolled in APU ( Ritsumeikan Asia Pacfic Univesrity) so I live in 大分県 now. I really like this university, very unusual and multicultural. The view of the mountains from my dorm window also looks as if I live on a cloud Especially when it's misty and clouds go by and sometimes intrude into my room.

From 2012 they will have an online system for applicants in Japan. You will be able to register and pay online. It saves your information so the next time you take the test it will go by "smoothly" and

You can check your results online.

Detailed information on Internet application will be notified on the JEES website in the middle of January 2012.

--taken from last page of my Application guide 2011 (December)

@nagareboshi:

The ones I see the most at the bookstore are Unicom/Nihongo So-Matome/Kanzen Master. I also see the Target 2000 vocab book and kanji as well.

If you're eventually going to go take N1, you really should stick to the same series for a specific discipline （文法、語彙など）otherwise you run the risk of repeating or missing grammar.

When I was about a little over halfway done with KO2001 I started KM 2級文法。 I'm not sure about the extra time or discipline that you have but it took me about a year to finish. My goal was just to add 2 grammar points from KM 2 and 5 kanji from KO2001 every day, but there were times when I was just too tired. (I work full time.) I think that once I hit 3/4ths of the way with KO2001, KM2 really started to pick up and make sense.

I also worked through the So-Matome Vocab book. There were a lot of words in there that weren't covered in KO2001 so I think it was a worthwhile purchase.

IMO it's a waste of time to pick up a Kanji book because it's really just vocabulary; just make sure when you're learning your vocabulary you learn the Kanji forms if they're common.

I have the Unicom N1 reading and KM N1 listening. The N1 reading book is pretty nice because you actually have to reflect on the reading and test your comprehension. Yes, you can just go and read articles on the internet, but sometimes there are points you don't understand even if you understand the majority of the article. The listening book, I'm still working through and I haven't formed a opinion on it yet.