Last year was my first time to write the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. I wrote level 4: it was too easy. I received my certificate in March, and as I thought, I passed with flying colours.
Since I thought level 3 was quite similar to level 4, I thought for this year’s JLPT, I would be best to simply skip 3 and write level 2!
I went to Toronto last Sunday and wrote the exam. It was a big mistake. My derrière got served to me on a silver plater. Plus, I didn’t study a lot of kanji this year, so I’ve been punished for that too. At least, the listening part was a bit funny.
One interesting note, we’ve been warned if ever we reveal any information about the JLPT, the Japan Foundation will disqualify you. Since the test happens in the morning of the same day around the world, I heard some people in Japan, for example, are giving out answers to people in other countries. (Because of time zones, the exam starts later than Japan in many countries.)
Did you write the JLPT this year? If so, which level, and how was it? I’m also interested to know how you prepare yourselves for such an exam. I’m thinking I’ll simply learn and practice a new word everyday, starting New Year 2008!
Level 3 requires about two years of college Japanese to get a decent score. Level 2 is a giant step above that, as you learned. I did quite well on L3 last year, but skipped L2 this year for two reasons: not enough kanji practice, and too much jet lag (I got back from Japan the day before…).
The secrecy of the test content only applies to the weekend it’s being run; several publishers release the complete test every year, including correct answers and official audio. Buying one of these and taking the test at home is the best way to find out if you’re ready.
There are also a number of prep books that use content from previous tests to help you understand the required kanji, vocabulary, and grammar. The only publisher I’ve seen that covers all four levels is Unicom.
-j
My policy is to skip ANY test, whatever it is.
I took the level 2, but I’m not sure if I did well or not, I get the feeling that my score is somewhere at the 55%-65% mark, booooooooooo.
Also, I’m not so sure about level 3 needing two years of college, I took it last year, after 3 years of highschool Japanese, and passed with a somewhat-solid 75% score.
But then again, I have no idea.
I’m going to take level 1 test, hopefully not very difficult
The “two years of college Japanese” is about how long it seems to take most textbooks to cover the required grammar. I can certainly see three years covering pretty much the same ground in a decent high school program.
And if you’re not in Japan, 75% is more than somewhat solid; most years, the average score for level 3 is slightly under 60%, with the average listening score under 50%.
-j
i did level 4 this year — first section i was 100% confident in, about 60-70% confident in the second, and a bit more in the third. it was ok over all =)
although i dont know very much about the JLPT it sound about comparable to the GRE for a ESL student. is this gauge about correct, or am i misjudging the difficulty.
damn….level 4 is easy, but ive seen a mate of mine studying level 3….and that was already damn difficult. So yeah duh level 2 is like learning japanese upside down inside out! . I dont even want to begin to wonder what level 1 is like
I heard from some Japanese people that level 1 would even be hard for them! I was discussing about the exam with a friend of mine last year when I was in Japan, and she was teasing me, bragging she did level 1.
Maybe if I was a Korean Chinese living in Japan like her, able to speak Korean, Mandarin, Japanese, and English, it would be a lot easier!
I guess when I’m with her, I can brag about my French!
The GRE doesn’t have levels, just a score. It would be similar to the EJU (examination for japanese university) test, I think.
GREs have four levels, so you have to choose which one you think you can pass, so it’s much different.
I wrote level 3 this month.. I was surprised how many people wrote it. Since I’m in Japan, only level 2 or 1 are useful here, I think..
To study, well, I live in Japan, so to be honest, I picked up a lot just emailing on mixi or watching TV. For grammar, I bought a small grammar book for level 3, I think it’s published by 3A.. really clear and succinct. Then, just wrote out all the difficult words on a few hundred small flashcards and drilled a few minutes every day. Writing kanji can be incredibly boring so for that I really recommend “Tadashii Kanji Kakitori-Kun” for DS, or something similar.. really, without DS, I don’t know what I’d do to get motivated to write out kanji…
yeah… JLPT1 is bad@ss, it’s incredibly hard… though I think any Japanese person that went to post-secondary school wouldn’t have a big problem with the test. Japanese are overly modest… and it’s true that kanji skills are getting worse, that mostly just applies to writing, not reading. The “kanji kentei” test is ridiculously hard… but it’s intended for Japanese, so you can imagine how hard it is :o)
of course, knowing Chinese is a huge help.. and apparently Korean grammar is similar to Japanese. From what I’ve heard, many English-speakers have difficulty studying japanese full-time in Japan because most of the students are Chinese, Taiwanese, etc.. and it’s hard to catch up in terms of reading/kanji…