It did not go well. I’m actually really disappointed.
The reading section was my worst and spent too long on that section. Which meant that when it came to doing the grammar section I had to rush and I had no time to properly read the questions.
The only one I can say I did good on was the vocabulary/kanji section.
I just feel so useless now. The test is in two weeks and I will clearly fail it if this is any indication. I feel like all my studying has been a waste of time.
I think study to be able to use language in daily life and study to pass the test are two different things. Unless, your langauge ability is above and beyond the test requirement already.
Just don’t give up!! I faced the same problem when I took English test for immigration. My English was good enough to work as an Engineer but I failed the test (it required almost perfect score) because the test is designed to trick you to answer the wrong question. I think even some native speakers would fail if they go to the test blindly without prior knowledge of the test format.
Two weeks should be enough time for you to analyze the test’s formats and patterns to be ready to use your time efficiently. You can do it!!
Even if you fail, don’t think too much about it. The effort you put in will pave your way for the future test.
I’m in the same situation actually. I guess it’s pretty common. As you probably know, you do only need 90/180 points to pass overall and 19/60 points to pass a section so at face value the JLPT is actually pretty forgiving. But it’s also way more complicated than that and there’s some kind of a grading curve, but not a grading curve, based on the difficulty of the questions that no one seems to really understand…So anyway, I think you won’t “clearly” fail, there’s still a fair chance. I also am a very slow reader so in my practice test, had to frantically skim a lot of the reading without really understanding it at all and basically guess which answer I thought made the most sense and completely guess the last few without even looking since I still ran out of time and I still got a lot of them right, if that helps.
I’ve seen people discuss the JLPT before on here, and especially the need to use techniques to quickly assess the reading sections. So, not actually reading the whole lot, but just the pertinent parts. If you look around the forum you might find some tips for how to better attack that section of the test, as it’s a time sink in nature.
Don’t give up just yet. Try to work on reading speed by just reading a lot the coming weeks.
I agree! I feel like the tests are quite challenging. I do much better at reading books and such lol.
Thats the thing about these tests they make it like this to catch you out! But thanks your words have been reassuring.
I’ll have a look at these! I did watch a video online talking about tips for the reading section where you shouldn’t read it all because you don’t have the time!
Yeah every official langauge test reading section are designed that way. They don’t expect you to be a fast reader and read the whole lot. They design it to test your ability for skimming the article and extract only the neccessary information to be able to answer the question.
Exactly my advice. Allocate extra time to practicing reading. Time is pretty short in the JLPT, and if you read slowly it’s easy to lose time. I passed the JLPT N1 on the third attempt after practicing reading Japanese texts on the train to work (just reading for gist comprehension, not JLPT practice). Read 10 or 20 texts before your test, and watch the clock during the test. It’ll make a difference.
Just wondering, is there a reason you do the reading section before the grammar section? It’s really easy to spend too much time on the longer reading passages - personally that’s why I think it’s best to leave reading until last.
Now that you’ve done a practice exam, your mark will be better next time, so don’t give up! Good luck!
Just wanted to add a note about the reading section. When I first took a mock N2, it was my lowest category and I was quite surprised since it’s the thing I feel the most confident in and have spent the most cumulative hours doing (pre-covid, I would read at least 1-2 hours a day every day on my commutes for years). It made me start questioning myself. Could I even read Japanese? Had I just been lying to myself somehow? I read the sections and felt I understood them but the questions confused me so much, particularly when I was asked to choose the “best answer” and I felt none of them really captured what the writer was saying and had to choose between two that somewhat applied.
I then started reading the 新完全マスターN2読解 book and realized I had been doing it all wrong. I figured that since it was a reading comprehension test, being able to comprehend it was enough. But I found out that there’s a whole method to how to go about these questions. The book breaks it down into categories and walks you through lots of exercises and examples to learn how to quickly spot keywords and important grammatical phrases to answer effectively. I’m sure there are other resources out there that teach you the same sort of thing. Knowing what to look for can dramatically cut down your times.
I did the reading first because it is a long section for me and involves a lot of reading. Especially reading long texts, so I thought it would be best to do that first as I know I’d probably run out of time for that. It’s worth a lot of points too!
I loved the grammar book of this series, but I couldn’t get into the reading book of this series. Something about it wasn’t clicking with me so I didn’t do it. I think I felt overwhelmed about how I should tackle the book. Do you have any advice? I could try and go through some of it before the test!
The first time I tried it I skipped ahead to the exercises to see if I could read them. The second attempt though I actually sat and read the “how to use this book” section. It’s only a few pages but it helped to give an overview of what I was looking at. I confess that I haven’t had a chance to go through the entire book yet. You don’t have to do all the exercises but even just doing the examples they give you and comparing your process of how you try to answer them vs. the way they break it down can be a helpful way to learn.
Alright, nice! You don’t know for sure if it’s a failed grade. I’m sure you know this already but the test is weighed in certain ways where you can actually have quite abysmal scores in one section of you nail the rest. There are minimum points to each section however. Also the passing grade is weighed compared to other people who take the test as well, so the practice test results may be misleading. I wish you the best of luck on the real test and keep reading! Keep us updated here on the real test !!
You don’t know for sure if it’s a failed grade. I’m sure you know this already but the test is weighed in certain ways where you can actually have quite abysmal scores in one section of you nail the rest. There are minimum points to each section however. Also the passing grade is weighed compared to other people who take the test as well, so the practice test results may be misleading. I wish you the best of luck on the real test and keep reading! Keep us updated here on the real test !!