Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) Q&A Thread

[Bokusenou]

As a way to kick off JLPT Week here on Gaiwa, I decided to create a follow-up thread to my articles on the JLPT. If you have read my intro article on the JLPT, you now know the basics about the exam. Have you ever taken it, or plan to take it? Talk about your JLPT experiences or goals below!

[Aryth]

I have been studying like crazy for the JLPT since I finished my minor in 2012. I passed the N3 last December and am studying pretty much non-stop to take the N2 this coming December. I happen to live near a Japanese consulate, so I can practice frequently and they let me borrow Japanese books and movies from time to time. By far, the kanji portion of the test was the hardest. They always ask for the most obscure readings and I studied a lot of kanji, but it was as if they went out of the way to use ones I'd never seen.

I was aware that the level shift was to compress the difference between N3 and N2, but there's still quite a difference. There's just a mountain of stuff to get through for N2... It's daunting. Haha.

[Jembru]

So, is it quite random what they'll ask you to read? I've used apps to check out JLPT vocabulary and from them, it seems to be everyday vocabulary, but I imagine they like to throw in the occasional tricky word too. I guess so long as you have a good grasp of kanji, you should be able to make an educated guess when faced with a completely new word. Maybe that's what they're trying to test?

I recently started using a course on memrise that covers vocabulary from N3 to N1 and have found the list the creator must have gone off;　www.tanos.co.uk/jlpt/jlpt3/vocab/ it seems a bit on the short side, and I don't know if I trust it. A few of the words on this list are words I believed to be written in kana, but I could have just been wrong, or maybe the JLPT does like you to know things like that? I'm always cautious about using too much kanji because a Japanese friend once said that foreigners learning Japanese seem to like using kanji for everything, even when it isn't necessary. Since then, I've been really nervous of looking like an overzealous foreigner, who's heavy-handed with their Japanese input system. Anyone can type a word and just pick the pretty kanji that show up, but it takes someone who is genuinely at home in Japanese, to know when to write something in kanji, or when kana feels more appropriate. When I finally master Japanese, I want to be THAT kind of user, so suddenly being told to write things like 幾ら or 否 makes me very uncomfortable. This surely can't really be on the JLPT? 

Luckily for me then, I'm not planning on taking the JLPT. I just thought going off those lists would help to patch up holes in my vocabulary. I sometimes use the kanji games on nihongo-pro to practice reading too, and they're also seemingly listed by JLPT level. Those games don't contain any obscure words though. Not that I've come across anyway.

Anyway, best of luck for the exam in December Aryth. I'm sure our Bokusenou and Jade could give you pointers if you need them. They've both sat N2 and lived to tell the tale!

[LittleGaijin]

I'm planning on taking the tests at the end of this year. (Not sure though, because Fall semester at TUJ starts in September, so I might be in Japan during this. However I heard a rumor that TUJ forces all students with Japanese classes to take JLPT tests each year!)

I think I'll aim low, and study for N4-N3 haha. Like Aryth said, the gap between N3 and N2 really is daunting, and I'm already intimidated by the kanji lists for N4-N3 alone! I wish I lived by a Japanese consulate! 

[Jembru]

Yeah, if it were cheaper to take the JLPT here, I might consider taking N3, but as it isn't, if I do ever take it the JLPT, I'd much rather wait until I can comfortably handle most N1 material and then take N2 for an easy pass. Otherwise, I risk wasting days off work, travel costs, the cost of the exam and all that stress and pressure on nothing.

Have you checked out the sample questions on the JLPT website to see what the material is like? I know it's just one of each style of question, but it gives you some idea of the level. I tried the N3 questions just now and didn't think it was too bad (amazingly, I only got one wrong, which was the だんだん/どんどん question.. I always get those two mixed up). It seems pretty bluffable at times to me. Like, there was a word I didn't understand in the reading passage about the types of holiday, yet it didn't affect my ability to get the question right. The word I didn't know (something ending in saki) was even in the right answer, but because of the context, I knew it was the right answer anyway, despite not knowing exactly what it meant! Then the onion passage.. why on earth did it make me read all that text, only to ask me something I could have answered without reading it? My eyes were bloomin' watering by the end of that. I felt so cheated by that question ^^

I haven't looked at N2 yet, I was just curious to see if it really did include obscure readings like the vocab list suggests (didn't see any). I tried the N2 questions about a year ago though. I can't remember how many I got right, but I remember many right answers were lucky guesses, or processes of elimination rather than genuine knowledge!  Honestly though, I'd struggle too much with the kanji and most likely run out of time in the real exam, so I'm not under any delusions that I could handle either N3 or N2 in real life. Still, I recon with plenty of time to prepare, I could maybe manage N3.

I've definitely decided to copy Rin and start using JLPT material to guide my regular study. It seems a great idea and means I won't have huge gaps in my knowledge to patch up if I ever do decide to take the JLPT.

[chocopie]

Mar 13, 2014 11:09:35 GMT Jembru said:

It seems pretty bluffable at times to me. Like, there was a word I didn't understand in the reading passage about the types of holiday, yet it didn't affect my ability to get the question right. The word I didn't know (something ending in saki) was even in the right answer, but because of the context, I knew it was the right answer anyway, despite not knowing exactly what it meant!

I think the old JLPT used to be more obscure but the new JLPT is meant to test your ability to use Japanese and working stuff out from context is something that you do in a language so I think that's a good sign that the test has improved   There's no official test content specification anymore though so any current lists are probably based on past tests and guesswork.

I've taken N2 and N1 and I don't recall the vocab being particularly obscure, but looking through my old grammar books I can see that I've forgotten a fair amount from N1 because I've never came across it outside the exam. Possibly I would if I read more formal/older literature? I still regularly come across vocab that I don't know, mainly descriptive words in books or specialised vocabulary. At the time of taking JLPT it felt like a big thing, but now it feels like it was just another stepping stone in using and learning Japanese. But it's not a bad thing! The structure of the JLPT textbooks and the exams definitely helped as motivation and I wouldn't have learnt as much as I have without them.

[Jembru]

Aww Chocopie, you're so humble ^^ I love how you're playing down passing N1 like it was nothing. You never even mentioned having taken it until it came up in conversation. I see it isn't just the Japanese language you've mastered, but their behaviour too!

I wonder if that's how the rumours came about that the JLPT includes weird vocab that the Japanese know but never use? It sounds to me then, that the person who created the list I was going from, maybe used an online dictionary or similar, to compile it and didn't take into consideration the 'usually written in kana alone' after some entries. I guess I can't rule it out just from taking 20 sample questions (or however many there are, I forget), but from what you've said, and from how normal the Japanese seemed to me in those questions, I'd be pretty surprised if those words really do show up in kanji on there. Thanks for putting my mind at ease over that.

Does your exact grade make any difference on the JLPT, or is it simply pass or fail? I'm just wondering if the exam is designed to be passable so long as you genuinely have studied to the level you're sitting, and yet throws in a few tough questions to enable the exceptional students to stand out from the crowd?

[Bokusenou]

To all, I released my N2 guide on the main site.

Aryth Good luck! For the kanji section, the main way to pass it is to read a lot. Some of the words on it weren't in my prep books, but I had seen them from reading YA novels.

Jembru Yeah, the tanos.co.uk vocab lists helped me a lot when I was studing for the test. Some of the words on them use too much kanji, although others used kana when there was a semi-common kanji they could use, and which often showed up on the tests.

Does your exact grade make any difference on the JLPT, or is it simply pass or fail? I'm just wondering if the exam is designed to be passable so long as you genuinely have studied to the level you're sitting, and yet throws in a few tough questions to enable the exceptional students to stand out from the crowd?

You get a score sheet with how you did, but as long as you get the minimum number of points to pass on both the main score, and the section scores you pass. People who barely pass get the same cert as the ones with a perfect score. You still need at least 70% (I think) to pass, and can't do too badly on any one section.


LittleGaijin Good luck with N4 N3! I'm sure you'll do great.

[chocopie]

Mar 14, 2014 1:05:41 GMT Bokusenou said:

You get a score sheet with how you did, but as long as you get the minimum number of points to pass on both the main score, and the section scores you pass. People who barely pass get the same cert as the ones with a perfect score. You still need at least 70% (I think) to pass, and can't do too badly on any one section. 

The pass score used to be 70% on the old test, but the old test also had no minimum pass score for each section.

Now each test is out of 180 and the overall pass score and minimum pass score per section varies between levels. The score doesn't correspond to one point for one correct questions though as the scores are scaled so that any change in difficulty between tests is accounted for.

[Bokusenou]

The N1 guide is now posted.
As JLPT Week draws to a close, why not challenge yourself to a few JLPT-style questions? Nihongonoki is a Japanese quiz site, where "Level 1" is around N4-N3, "Level 2" is around N2, and "Level 3" around N1, and I used the app version of the site in my N1 studies. When you choose a category it asks you 20 questions. Can you get all 20 right?

chocopie Ah, yeah! Thanks for checking that. For some reason I forgot that the pass score for N2 was 90 and N1 was 100. It's been a busy week for me...

[chocopie]

Looking at the test result stats is quite interesting. The N5 pass rate is also about 20% higher in Japan than overseas countries, but for the other levels it doesn't seem to make a difference whether you're in Japan. I suppose it shows that immersion in Japanese can get you to N5 quite easily but after that you have to study regardless.

[LittleGaijin]

The N1 guide is so informative, and just as amazing as the N2 guide! Check these both out, and leave some comments guys! Rin worked so hard on these, and I'm sure anyone studying for any of the JLPTs can benefit hugely from reading either of these awesome articles!! I know I am!

[Bokusenou]

chocopie
That is interesting! It could be different in Japan, or even other US testing locations, but in my testing location the people taking N5 seemed to be mostly little kids from what I could see. All the kids were Asian-looking, so my best guess as to why is that Japanese parents use N5 to give their second generation Japanese kids a goal for learning their heritage language. N5 in Japan might have more older test takers, which might change the pass rate.


LittleGaijin Thanks! I hope these articles end up helping a lot of people taking the JLPT.

[Jembru]

Yeah, I'd always thought that pass rates for all levels were higher in Japan, but I guess not. There's definitely something else at play. It's reassuring then, that contrary to popular myth, you're not at so much of a disadvantage after all, if you aren't in the country. Perhaps it is the belief that being in Japan will magically make you better at Japanese without much effort, that accounts for some of the discrepancy? That people feel they don't need to try so hard because they're in Japan so of course their Japanese will improve overnight! Whatever the cause, it's one less reason to keep telling myself I'm doomed to failure!

Anyway, just to add to what others have said; do check out the JLPT articles even if you're not planning on taking them. The skills you need to pass the JLPT are the same skills you need to succeed in mastering Japanese, so it's always worth taking the tips and applying them to your own study, whatever your personal goals are.

[NinKenDo]

Pretty silly question, but what if you DO want to be "better" at Japanese people, than Japanese people? I guess the only benchmark after that is kanji kentei?