JLPT Listening Speed Weakness

Japanese
#1

I’m getting so discouraged with the listening parts of the JLPT practice tests. Taking N4 in a couple weeks and I’ve been going through the N5 tests first. Grammar, reading, vocab, kanji absolutely no problem: finishing in half the time allotted.

But even though I’ve been practicing listening via podcasts and youtube like 3-4 hours a day (at my level of comprehension) for the past 5 months now, getting even the slowed-down N5 listening questions right with only one chance to hear the whole dialogue still just feels impossible. It’s just too fast. I could get 100% of them right if I could read them or just pause briefly to catch up.

I don’t know what else to do to get better at this specific style of question: where they throw a whole bunch of stuff at you and you only get to hear it once… and some of the questions seem designed to purposefully confuse you.

This message is mostly venting… but also curious if anyone has recommendations for outside practice that’s good.

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#2

I think it helps to look at the 4 answer options before listening to the question and the dialogue. This way you can prepare yourself to parse key words, and also to mark off incorrect options as the dialogue goes on.

In the actual test you will have the test paper in front of you, so you can pre-read it. In Bunpro’s mock tests you can pause the audio first, look at the answer options, mentally prepare, and then listen to the audio once.

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#3

Good advice

#4

The way they speak in the speaking section of the JLPT speaking is unique to the JLPT. It starts becoming very predictable the more you practice.

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#5

@casual is absolutely correct. Skim the answers first and eliminate answers as you go. Sometimes, even if you only understood half the passage you can normally eliminate two answers. Then based on context you can make the best decions out of the remaining two.

The very last section of the listening part is where you can really clean up and score easy points. The only problem is… your brain is absolutely cooked at this point, haha. At the N4 level, these are very easy standard responses and there are only 3 answers to pick form instead of the normal 4. One you can eliminate right away and the two others will be close but if you recall the question you should be able to pick the right one. At this point you are going to be ready to throw in the towel and just start guessing becuase its so close to the end of the test, don’t fall victim to this and really lock in that last 5 minutes.

I take the N3 and I am also stressing for the listening section. This is pretty normal, just get as much practice in as you can and just try to relax and get some good sleep in the day before the test. Good luck.

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#6

You might’ve tried it already, and not sure how helpful it will be for you, but using the cram audio feature to listen and recall on Bunpro might help exercise your listening muscle.

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#7

I’ve always felt the same, but I passed the N4 (even though I was convinced I’d failed). Don’t be too discouraged your accuracy rate doesn’t have to be that high just better than guessing at random (although honestly I did a lot of that in the N4 listening section).

#8

This is just my recommendation as someone that has never taken a JLPT test but has helped others in prep. This advice will most likely not help you now as your test is imminent, but may help you in the future. I would recommend watching native language content; whether that be Twitch, YouTube, Netflix, NicoNico, TVer, DAZN, etc. That will get your brain used to natural speed (especially if there is a kansai speaker) and will force your brain to pre-process as opposed to mentally translating in real-time.

best of luck on your JLPT

#9

Have the same issue as the original poster. My conclusion is, listening is so hard because there is no kanji; it’s all hiragana. :laughing: :rofl: And then every syllable is important but you miss hearing some of those syllables.
Agree with @casual about reading the 4 options first.
Amazed that @chrispthompson listens to Japanese 3-4 hours a day. I hardly get in an hour a day. But I do like Comprehensible Input via:

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#10

What you should know about the JLPT listening test, is that there are sections that are designed for you not to 100% comprehend, that what they are testing is your ability to ‘get the gist’ of whats going on rather than understand every single thing that’s said. Certainly part 3 of the N3 test is like that.

For the sections where they speak the potential answers, I draw a little grid, and as I hear each option, I will mark it as ‘yes’,‘no’,‘maybe’ then afterwards decide which one is my best guess. (but yes I still get ones where I think, err…)

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#11

Having context helps a lot when listening.

I’d wager, the material you listen to is very repetitive. That is, the speakers will rephrase the same information once or twice. The next minutes or so will then likely also revolve around the same subject. While you may not have understood everything in the end, you still got the gist and it felt like you understood everything.

The JLPT is different. They rarely repeat the same information twice. The context and setting also changes for every question. Sometimes you can understand everything except for a couple of key words or grammar points and get the gist but will find yourself unable to answer the question.

In essence, if you want to pass the JLPT listening section, you will need to practice the JLPT style questions. As others have mentioned, you can use the included answers and pictures for context clues for some questions. Also pay close attention to the announcement for a question. They will tell you who talks to who and about which general topic for most questions.

Alternatively, and perhaps the more correct method, is to invest a lot more into generic listening comprehension training. A good method is to listen to one sentence and actively think about whether or not you understood that sentence. Then, try to reproduce that sentence verbatim from memory. Just listen to the sentence again until you can reproduce it.

This helped me a lot. 知らんけど :man_shrugging:

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#12

JLPT listening skills and general Japanese listening skills are a little different. As other commenters have mentioned, you aren’t necessarily supposed to understand the audio 100%. You just have to understand the question and the answer options.
Since you’re a few weeks out from the test, I would personally practice reading the answers in the short gap they give you before the audio starts, then listen specifically for those answers in the audio. Typically you can cross out 2 options just by the audio saying it’s not that. But sometimes, like you said, it likes to throw out a bunch of stuff that changes the answer lol, so don’t 100% mark out an answer until the very end.
Listening is one of my weakest skills. Without this method I would have split my brain in half trying to decipher lol

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