Finish the KO before doing anything else.
And be prepared to find some really tough kanji, its not level two for nothing.
Good luck!

I got the results for the JLPT like test I did. I get like 59% which was a suprise since I hadn't even started my grammar study at that point. I also did the 2004 test about half way through my grammar study and scraped through with 61%. I am feeling fairly confidend of passing though. I know all the grammar now and have not found my vocab or kanji to be a problem at all so far. The listening section is fairly easy IMO as well.

Also, I heard from a friend that the 2007 test was too hard, in the sense that they generally want/expect a certain percentage of people to pass and many more people failed than expected. So 2008 is supposed to be a bit easier. That is what he was saying anyway which more or less makes sense to me.

It's funny though. I don't need this qualification for work or anything so it's more just challenge for me and the more I study it the less I care about it. It doesn't show much more than a decent vocab and reading ability. I have been purely focusing on increasing my passive knowledge to pass the test, so I can't use half the stuff I have learnt recently. Can't wait to get it behind me and going back to learning Japanese again

Last edited by thermal (2008 December 01, 1:03 am)

Here are the average scores (out of 400) for candidates taking level 2 over the last few years. The test seems to be getting harder.

2002    226.1   
2003    227.9   
2004    228.9   
2005    215.6
2006    217.6
2007    208.7

>The common opinion was that the farther back you go, the easier it is, the easiest one I personally tried was 2003.

my impression is kind of like the complete opposite to this -
I did the 2006 one several weeks ago, then did the whole 2004 and the vocab section of 2007 yesterday.

for example the vocab section ( because that's the only one I've done for all three until now ) :
Surprisingly, I had a hard time answering 2004, got 59% in the end and passed the 2007 one with 74%, and had even like 15mins of extra time left.
so 59% and 74% on the same day - when everybody's saying the test is getting harder ? how's that even possible?! o__O

The tests do get harder year by year. Just look at a JLPT1 test from the early 90s and compare it to current JLPT2.

I did a few questions of (early 1990s) JLPT1 listening yesterday and it seemed downright easy.

Last edited by Jarvik7 (2008 December 01, 12:09 pm)