JLPT December 2020

Japanese
#1

Just thought I’d create the topic for people taking the JLPT in December 2020. How are we all feeling?

Personally I’m doing my N2 and I absolutely have to pass it this time round. I’ve already taken it twice and both times failed on the reading section. I can pass grammar, vocabulary, kanji and listening comfortably so I’m currently studying for N1 on those sections, but the reading section always seems to let me down.

I’ve been getting my head down and doing lots of practice questions and I’m happy to say that last time I went to my community Japanese class I got 90% right, so as long as I don’t have a raging hangover (JOKE! I won’t be going out the night before!) I feel like I can get it this time round.

I missed it by ONE POINT last time, but there were 2 idiots blatantly cheating next to me, which really put me off.

Anyway, let’s have a discussion about the looming test!

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#2

Are you taking it in Tokyo?

I was going to take N2 as well but it’s been canceled in America. :frowning_face:
So I’ll cheer you on instead! がんばれ！ :smile:

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#3

I’ll do mine in Mito. Not got my card through yet though. It should be any day now.

#4

Prices doubled where I am from; presumably due to social distancing measures so I should not be taking it any time soon =(

#5

I’m going for the N3. I SHOULD be able to pass as we spent ages on N3 stuff in my Japanese class but I failed the N5 once and N4 twice many years ago when I wasn’t formally studying so I’ve got experience-induced fear of failure. I’m most worried about kanji and vocabulary. I think my grammar is pretty good (bunpro is not an accurate representation of my studies at the moment) and my listening is my strongest suit. With the formal study I’ve been doing for the past year I shouldn’t have anything to worry about but well… I guess if worrying were an olympic sport I’d be a medalist :sweat_smile:

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#6

Wow if I were you I would have raised my hand and told the invigilator that those two kept making sequential noises.

Anyway I will be taking the JLPT N3 this December. From the test, Kanji knowledge will be no problem, but I fear from my reading and listening. I am too used to looking at the Kanji radicals and characters so when it’s just sounds or hiragana e.g 取る, 撮る, 捕る, 採る or 帰る, 変える, 換える, 返る, I really cannot distinguish them from the sound, and since the listening text is only repeated once, I start to lose track of the passage when trying to interpret the context.

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#7

Oh man, if you include conjugations into the potential form…
カエル
変える
買える
替える
換える
代える

還る
飼える
返る
帰る

On the bright side, if you hear a pitch drop, it’s one of the last four (I think).

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#8

Mfw doing the JLPT

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#9

Just 2 more days! I’ve been studying with Japanese friends and learned some new vocabulary. For me it basically comes down to, if I can concentrate on the day then I should be able to get through the reading section but if I can’t…
Also if I pass this time round, my work is sending me to Shiga prefecture on a translation and interpretation course, all expenses paid - so I have some real motivation to pass this time.

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#10

Sounds awesome! Just curious, what is your line of work?

#11

I’m an ALT on the JET programme haha

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#12

So how did we do? For me, the listening was pretty easy, but on the vocabulary section, quite a lot of words I’ve never encountered before came up, so I dunno…
We’ll see…

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#13

How?! And why?!

#14

The JET programme holds translation and interpretation courses every so often but you need at least N2 to be able to join. My supervisor at the town hall asked me if I was interested and said that the town would pay for it if I went. I asked her to hang fire until the JLPT results came through but I’d love to go.

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#15

I was supposed to do that course after I passed N2 too but I missed the deadline. Then this year they cancelled it completely outright. Ugh. Oh well.

N1 seemed easier than last year. I definitely got the last listening question right which is sometimes my bench marker. I think I probably did the best on listening overall.

Reading seemed harder, didn’t have as much time left over as I did before.
Kanji was a breeze. Vocabulary was hit or miss like always. (There always seems to be one more 擬態語 that I don’t know that just magically appears. ) Grammar seemed alright as well.

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#16

I hate 擬態語 with a passion. It’s my number one weakness. I reckon I got all my kanji questions right but might have fallen on choosing the appropriate usage of vocabulary. Anyway, おつかれ, I hope you get it this time round. We’ve been waiting ages!

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#17

Results should be out tomorrow. Good luck!

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#18

Really? They posted on the website couple of days ago that results will be available online on Jan 25th(at least for those who took test in Japan). Or am I missing something??

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#19

Oh… I saw it on some web site I’ve never heard of so it might well be wrong. I’ll still check it out tomorrow just in case though haha. Honestly the wait frustrates me. My friends who take Eiken usually have to wait around 1 week for their results. There doesn’t really seem to be any excuse for them to take the best part of 2 months, since they just feed the papers into a computer…

Thanks for this. I must have missed it.

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#20

Yeah you were right. Looks like I got the information from a dodgy web site :cry:
Well… looks like I’m gonna have to make it through the weekend before finding out. Hopefully I’ll have something to celebrate this time!

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