Hi everyone
I was wondering if someone can share tips for cracking (get 20 points) the grammar and reading section of jlpt n3. I get above 70% in vocab and listening but struggle in the middle section.
I have completed shin kanzen reading and a couple of books on grammar ( about 120 grammar points) but barely pass/ fail in some of the mock tests i have taken. any 10 day strategy to improve?
Also any tips on how to approach the sentence order question ( usually question 15 -18)?
Sorry if some of these questions have already been answered.
So in the mock tests, why do you get wrong the questions you get wrong? There’s a variety of possibilities and I think my advice boils down to “identify exactly what your difficulty is and focus on that”:
Are you missing mostly grammar questions or mostly reading questions?
Do you not remember the grammar point at all, or do you remember the general meaning but forget the detail of what particles/verb form/etc to use?
Are you OK with the reading if you have infinite time, but running into the test time limit?
Are your reading question errors “I didn’t know that word/that grammar structure, but if I look it up I see why the answer is what it is”, or do you have a lot of “I know all the words but don’t understand why the answer to the question is what it is” errors?
For the sentence order stuff, it helps enormously if you have had enough input to be able to intuit what sounds right and what doesn’t. I think the other thing I used to do is start with “what pieces clearly need to go next to each other” and then fit the rest in around those.
Thanks for your reply !
I am missing both. grammar, i just tend to guess unless i remember the rule very clearly (which is maybe 2 or 3 questions). I get that there are over 180 grammar points but i won’t be able to do them so just wanna stick to what i know.
Reading is very difficult for me. I get the idea of the passage but the answers sometimes are not straight forward in their word choice - I know the answer but they might use synonym / confusing sentence structure.
If i have to get the answer right i need about 12-15 minutes per passage to answer 4 questions (shin kanzen).
Is shin kanzen more difficult than jlpt? the passages i found towards the end were difficult to answer given the time constraints.
I haven’t done N3, but certainly for N2 and N1 the time for the test is deliberately set to require you to have a reasonably fast reading and comprehension speed to be able to complete the questions within the time limit. The only fix I know for “reading speed is too slow” is to read more (in the “extensive reading” way, not the slow and carefully analysing everything way), unfortunately.
My grammar skills are horrible too and my reading is just ok. Doing the shinkanzen master N3 helped me pass N3 last year, but as the before says, you have to read for speed. Maybe pick up a few mangas, while the comprehension level is less than the exam, it does help with speed. As to grammar, I am going to try reviewing every day, as I do vocabulary and kanji, and hope they stick so maybe try doing an anki deck?
Thanks for the feedback everyone
Has anyone tried japanesetest4you? If yes, how do you feel about the mock tests on that website?How does it compare to shin kanzen?
Lastly, any tips for information retrieval question in the reading section? For instance, who is eligible to borrow a book from the library based on information provided. I am never able to do those questions.
For information retrieval questions, what are you having trouble with? For example, in the scenario of who is eligible to borrow a book, are you not understanding:
the requirements to borrow a book
the information you have about the people trying to borrow
how to interpret the documents/charts given
or some combination of all of these? None of the above?
Personally, I find it easiest to just do process of elimination for the information retrieval questions. Looking at the first answer choice, I read over it, then go over the information given to see if anything there disqualifies them. I do that for each answer, and cross out any disqualified answers as I go, until there’s only one possible choice remaining.
Mostly time is the problem. Sometimes interpretation is also a problem especially if unknown kanji or words pop up.
I was told not to read the answers first because it creates a bias in our mind. So i tend to read only the questions and scan the passage for relevant information.
How much time should i set aside for the reading section and how much time for question 6 and 7 within the reading section?
Thanks.
It’s best to allocate as much time to reading as you can. With grammar section I remember planning to spend around 30 seconds per question. If I can’t solve it, I skip over and come back later if I still have time.
Then with reading you should time yourself and figure out how much time each type of question takes. With information retrieval you’re supposed to just skim the text quickly and find relevant info. To be honest it’s can be a bit much based. If you noticed the relevant info right away you can finish it fast. If not, then you might have to read all of it.
But you don’t have to get all questions right to get a high score on JLPT. The grading is statistical, based on how you did vs the rest of the test takes.
This, you can plan to not do that assignment at all if you think that you need the extra time to get the other assignments right.
Yes, you definitely need to move quickly through all the short questions – the points allocated to each one mean there’s not much return for sitting there for minutes on that one tricky one.
Also, because the reading questions are effectively worth more points, if you have to guess at random because you’re out of time it’s better to do that with the last handful of grammar questions than with the reading questions. So some people like to start with the reading section and then go back to the grammar section afterwards.
I did a few mock tests and the one thing i am struggling with is grammar. The guide recommends 7 minutes and some folks here are also doing 2 questions per minute. How is everyone able to do that? I take 10-11 minutes for 13 questions.
Some of the questions are a short conversation. A says something and B replies. Do i skip directly to the part where the blank is or should i read the entire conversation.
Also for text grammar is it recommended to go directly to the line with the missing word or skim through the whole passage?
I have managed to do the reading part in 50 minutes so some progress there
Thinking of skipping the sentence composition questions and selecting random options since i struggle a lot with them.
The idea with the grammar questions is they really shouldn’t take more than like 30 seconds to read everything. At that point, you have all the info, and so if you don’t know how to answer right away, spending considerably longer is probably a low-payoff proposition.
If it’s taking you longer than 30 seconds to read the sentence and the options, just working on reading speed will be the most impactful thing.
Any tips regarding Usage section in the vocabulary test? What to do when the you have no idea about the meaning of the word, any way to eliminate some wrong answers? I just did a mock test where they had used the kanji for sky but the reading was nara. First time i came across this reading lol.
If you have genuinely no idea, then put down a random answer and move on. I recommend “4”. There’s no particular trick for those questions, they’re just do you know the word, or not. They’re not generally worth very many marks, so as long as over the whole section of the test you aren’t dropping too many of them and you don’t take too much time over them it should be OK.
What, 空? That’s not a standard reading for that kanji, so you might want to double check. I suspect that either it wasn’t that kanji, or else it was ateji, or you misremembered that question or answer.
Ah, yeah; that’s the kanji being used in its other sense of “empty” (as seen also in 空手 karate).
This is actually an example of a case where (depending on how much you remember) you might not have to make a totally random guess. If you know the kanji can mean “empty” then you can at least narrow it down to answer 2 or 3, since 1 and 4 are using the word in ways that don’t really fit with “empty”, even if you don’t know that 空 isn’t used for empty schedules.
PS if you see a taxi with the sign 空車 it means it’s empty and you can flag it down, not that it’s a flying car
Ya i remember now. i had asked someone why the sky kanji appears outside a parking lot. But i didn’t make that connection while answering the question lol
Just wondering what would a score of 9/23 grammar and 11/16 in the second section look like? So total of 20/38 - pass or fail? I know jlpt uses some formula to arrive at the score.
