I’m back home now, after taking that JLPT exam, and I must admit it didn’t go very well. The first part went worse than it usually does, and had lots of things I had to guess the answer to, the listening part went worse than it usually does, but went well enough, and the third part went worse than it usually does, which is to say it went pretty much to crap. I hope it went better for you others.

Then again, I’m comparing the outcome of “the real thing” to the exams I’ve taken at home, and I can only say there’s quite a big difference, even though I put in the effort to make it as similar as possible (time restraints etc. were all the same).

What had me worried before the exam was whether I’d end up not actually hearing the listening part, speaker-wise, but that wasn’t a problem at all. I may still pass, but that’d take some major luck. If I fail, I’ll be disappointed but not “you’re shitting me” surprised.

I bought two onigiris and one triangle-sandwich, two bars of chocolate and a bottle of tea on my way there, and realized that I should’ve bought more food and less chocolate.

There is a supposed 50 (I think?) minute break between the 2nd and 3rd parts but for some odd reason, we had to listen to the 12th problem one more time and so we only got something like 25 minutes of lunch-break. I wanted to eat more but I didn’t have anything with me and going to a store was out of the question (everyone else goes to the store on the lunch break so the lines are too long).

In any case, that’s it for 2Q, on to 1Q. I decided from the beginning that I’d take this one once and then move on, no matter how it went. With a bit of luck I might pass after all, so that’s what I’m hoping for. Will know “in the middle of February”.

It’s midnight between Friday and Saturday now, and on Sunday morning I will be taking that JLPT exam I’ve been going on about all this time. It’s been a slightly bumpy road (starting my kanji studies less than a year earlier) but with a bit of luck and a good attitude I should pass without problems. Then on to Ikkyuu (the level 1 exam) next year, and I can go home without regrets. Tomorrow I’m waking up at 8.30 am simply because I usually wake up around 10.00, and I don’t want to feel sleepier than necessary on Sunday.

In the morning, knowing me, I will get very little studies in and will simply doodle about doing nothing special, then dinner with the girlfriend in the evening, and then to bed early since I get up early. I will hopefully be tired enough from waking up earlier than usual on Saturday that I’ll fall asleep despite nervousness etc. Yeah, I’m pretty nervous about this in the end. I have this one shot and I paid money and all that so I don’t know how I will react to this all ultimately. I don’t think I’ve ever prepared for something for as long and as intensively as I have for this exam, so I guess it’s no wonder I’m antsy.

Anyway, wish me luck. I won’t actually know whether I pass or fail until February (…!) but I bet I’ll have a feeling whether it went well or not. The others of you out there — Thomas, Mark, Shiho, and all the damn Swedes zerg-rushing Kyoto, new and old friends alike, good luck on Sunday!

Awhile back, I posted about having tried the 2006 Japanese Language Proficiency Test (日本語能力試験) for Nikyuu, i.e. “level 2″. The JLPT is divided into 4 levels, where 1 is the highest, and I am going to take the level 2 exam in a little less than a month (December 7th). Today, I once more gave it a try, this time the 2005 JLPT exam (the book I bought has 2004, 2005, and 2006 in it), to see where I’m at. I intend to do the final 2004 exam a week or so before the real exam, just to stay warmed up.

The test is divided into 3 sections - a kanji/vocabulary section, a listening comprehension section, and a reading comprehension section. The third section is by far the most difficult of the 3, and it comprises 200 of the 400 total points, that is, it is half the test.

In any case, my results in the individual sections below:

1. Kanji/vocabulary: 57/65 correct (87.7%) => 87.7 points
2. Listening comprehension: 22/27 correct (81.5%) => 81.5 points
3. Reading comprehension: 36/59 correct (61.0%) => 120 points

Thus I scored 288/400 points, which puts me at 72%. With a 12% margin and almost a month left of studying, I think this will go okay. Now my biggest enemy is, of course, relaxing TOO much because I think it’ll be a breeze.

I think back on when I in May-June asked one of my teachers if she thought I’d be able to pull off the Nikyuu test and she said “Um… probably not, but you should give it a try!”. I’ve come a long way since then, if I may say so myself.

Keep your fingers crossed for me on December 7th, regardless. I’ll update (on this topic) again once I’ve done the 2004 test in about 3 weeks and again once I’ve taken the exam. I guess it’s almost time to start focusing on Ikkyuu (Level 1) at this point. That won’t exactly be detrimental to my Nikyuu exam or anything, so why not…

Yesterday I took the 2006 JLPT level 2 exam, the same level that I’m going to take in December, to see where I’m at and what my weakness is. The test is divided into 3 parts — kanji/grammar (35 minutes), listening comprehension (40 minutes), and reading comprehension (70 minutes).

The kanji/grammar part was surprisingly difficult, but I ended up figuring the right answer out on a lot of the questions anyway. The listening comprehension part was shockingly easy. I had heard before that the listening comprehension part of the JLPT is quite easy, but I didn’t expect it to be quite this easy. The reading comprehension was a bummer, because as I was doing it, a big argument ensued outside my door, which I knew instantly would cause me to not be able to concentrate and thus fail.

So I stopped the timer, put the book aside, and walked outside to see what was going on. That’s another story. When I returned, I was still on “problem 1″ though, and it took me nearly 40 minutes to finish it, out of the 70 minutes I had at my disposal. Once I moved on, things moved a little quicker, but I still ended up running 20 minutes over before I had gotten to the last question in the test.

Because of that I of course failed the test. The required percentage is 60% and I got 56%. If I hadn’t gone 20 minutes over (i.e. if my answers to the questions I didn’t even get to when the time was up were to count), I would have gotten 70%, which would have passed me with a 10% margin.

Thus, my #1 problem right now is reading speed, though I can’t help thinking that I would’ve done a better job if I’d not been disturbed halfway thru.

Some stats:

- Part 1 (kanji/grammar) — 65/100 points.
- Part 2 (listening comprehension) — 74/100 points.
- Part 3 (reading comprehension) — 85/200 points
(Part 3, if we ignore the fact I ran 20 mins over — 138/200 points)

Total: 224/400 = 56%
(Ignoring 20 mins overtime: 277/400 = 69.25%)

Alright, I’m done with the Nikyuu (level 2) kanjis (Japanese Language Proficiency Test). Now a short break in working on new kanjis and focusing on learning a shitload of words which have the kanjis I’ve studied up until now in them.

The actual exam is December 7th, so it’s not a lie to say that I’m on schedule. Then again, some kanjis tend to take me about a month or so before they actually “sit there”, so I think later than now could’ve been a mistake. And besides, my ORIGINAL plan was to be done with these little blobs in the beginning of September but I ran into a brain fart moment (it wasn’t pretty).

Anyways, 79 days left. Now to focus on vocab, grammar, and listening comprehension. I pretty much think I’ve got reading down, considering I score higher than a lot of the Chinese in my class but I won’t neglect that either.