It’s the start of May. You know what that means…July 1st is fast approaching. If you’re in the know, you can probably already guess what I’m eluding to (spoiler’s in the header):
This year, I’ve registered for the JLPT N2 in July. Raise your hand if you’re also taking the JLPT in July. Now raise your other hand if you haven’t started studying for it yet. Stretch it out. Take a big breath. I’m in the same boat.
At the end of last week I took a look at the calendar. Not one of those mindless glances to double check the date I’m writing. A proper look. The kind where you’re like, “Wow, we’re almost four months down in the year already!” and your brain starts calculating time frames. In my head, I was calculating how long until my summer holidays. The school holidays here start on Tuesday, July 24th. A Tuesday – seriously Japan, what’s up with that?
I digress. To cut a long story short, the JLPT date hit me upside the head like a football coming out of left-field (that’s a true high school story for another time). I realised then that if I wanted any chance of passing, I needed to get stuck into it!
This will actually be my second time sitting for the N2. In December 2017, I took it as a “practice run” for the real thing (July 2018). I say practice run because originally, I never intended on taking it in December. But since it’s cheap and easy to attend in Japan (no flying halfway across the countryside to the venue) I figured what the hell.
If you follow me you’ll already know I failed. I was expecting that though. I didn’t really study for it and I was out of practice for sitting exams. What I wasn’t expecting was being so close to the pass line it wasn’t funny; 5 more points and I would’ve scraped in by the skin of my teeth.
Despite my lack of success, I learnt a lot from my initial attempt about my current Japanese ability and weaknesses in the exam that I’d like to share with you. First, let me give you a run down of what the N2 entails.
The JLPT N2 consists of two separate tests and three overall sections:
Language knowledge (vocabulary and grammar) + reading comprehension (105 mins)
Listening comprehension (50 mins)
When you receive your score card, you get a mark out of 60 for each section, totalling 180. For the sub-categories vocabulary and grammar, you’re graded with an A, B or C based on the percentage of correct answers for your own personal reference.
My language knowledge and listening scores sat smack bang around 30 points (give or take a few), but I lost out in the reading comprehension, sitting well below the fifty-percent mark. That surprised me since I’d always thought that the reading section would be my highest area (and potentially my saving grace). Apparently not.
That part of the test is a funny story really. I ended up miscalculating the time the first test would finish by 15 minutes. When I was down to a few minutes on the clock, with over half of the reading comprehension questions to go, I hit panic mode and madly filled in the answer sheet at random. Maybe I’d get lucky?
When the supervisor didn’t stop us, I realised my mistake: I was 15 minutes too early. So then I had to furiously erase my dark bubbles and attempt to properly read through as many of the passages and questions as I could. I still ran out of time.
Hopefully this time I will accurately calculate when the test will finish to avoid unnecessary stress and erasing like a madman.
Time management is definitely the biggest hurdle in the first test. In the language knowledge section, you either know it or you don’t (but hopefully you can make an educated guess). I took too long deliberating over some of the grammar questions and lost valuable time I could’ve used for the reading comprehension. On a side note, the grammar section was my worst in the language knowledge section.
In the reading comprehension, I first read the longest passage with the most questions. It took a big chunk out of my remaining time, causing me to rush through easier passages and probably miss answers and therefore points.
I’m not sure yet what would be the best strategy tackling the first test, but I aim to sit a couple of practice ones and find what works best for me. At the very least I should be able to get a better feel of the pace I need to go at to not scratch around like a headless chicken at the end.
Studying for this section of the test, I’m focusing on increasing my N2 grammar awareness and extensive reading. For grammar, I’m using the 新完全マスター series. It’s my favourite for the easy layout, good explanations and example sentences.
I then input the grammar into Anki flashcards so I can constantly review what I’ve learnt (otherwise I’ll just forget it).
To get a better understanding of grammar points with similar meanings, I use the youtube video series ‘VS JLPT N2 Grammar’ by Nihongo no Mori.
This series is also good for listening practice because it’s entirely in Japanese. The spoken Japanese is well enunciated and not too fast or too slow – it’s just right (like Goldilocks!).
I also mentioned focusing on extensive reading. In my blog post Japanese Journey 2018: Read More Books, I talked about wanting to improve my reading speed because I feel I read too slow. For the first exam of the JLPT, speed (and accuracy) is key to success, and reading more frequently can only be a good thing. I haven’t actually read that much more on my 名のないシシャ novel, but I’ve read a lot of NHK news articles to branch out into more subject areas and increase my general vocabulary.
The second test, listening comprehension, is an entirely different kettle of fish. Unlike the first test, there is no time management; the entire 50 minutes is dictated by the CD. Surprisingly, this was my best area (I always pegged my listening comprehension to be lower than my reading).
Living and working in Japan, I have a definite advantage on listening because I hear Japanese all the time. It’s inescapable. I also tend to eavesdrop on conversations around me (purely for practice, I swear!) and repeat what I hear quietly to myself to practice speaking.
However, my main weakness in the listening exam was my note taking skills (the lack thereof). I haven’t had to take notes for so long that I didn’t know how and whenever I tried, I stopped listening. There was also the mini dilemma of “Do I take notes in Japanese or English?”.
In the first half of the exam, it wasn’t an issue. The dialogues were short and the answers were written down, which is a good vocab prompt while listening and can clue you in on the dialogue situation beforehand.
The latter half however gives you zilch. There are no answers written on the page anymore, they’re all on the CD. With nothing but a blank white page before me, my focus started drifting and I zoned in and out. At this point, exam fatigue has set in. Others who took the N2 also complained of zoning off partway through.
The long dialogues were the hardest. By the time the track reached the end, I had forgotten everything said earlier on and had no notes to jog my memory on the details. Additionally, every dialogue, question and answer is only said once, so if you’re not paying attention and miss something you don’t get another chance.
To get more familiar with the format of the listening questions and practice actively doing something with the incoming information, I’ve bought the 新完全マスター聴解 book. I haven’t opened it yet, but my old Japanese tutor used to use them in our sessions sometimes, so I’m sure it’ll be good.
With that, I’m going to call it a wrap. Hopefully coming into the exam with a bit more preparation under my belt will see me across the pass line (or even higher!). Now all I have to do is stop watching crime/detective shows on Netflix and actually do some study…
Are you taking the JLPT this year? Let me know what level below in the comments and what you’re doing to study for it!
Already passed? Share your tips and tricks with us!
Check out my latest #blog post about my experiences taking the #JLPTN2 and how I'm studying for it. It's the start of May. You know what that means...July 1st is fast approaching. If you're in the know, you can probably already guess what I'm eluding to (spoiler's in the header):