Joint Mock JLPT to substitute for cancelled 4th of July JLPT [who is interested?]

[NathaLire]

@Scylie

Does it?

OKAY FAIR it doesn’t, you’re right haha.
How about a poll in the ‘main thread’ when it’s there (march 8th) to decide on the mock exam to use?

@Scylie

If we’re not doing a live session or something, then I vote for whenever we want

@sushi-fish

I agree to that, as long as we set a timer it doesn’t really matter at what exact time we take it and so no one gets excluded!

@DaisukeJigen

More on topic: I also think whenever we want as well, time wise. For those of us with kids, work conflicts, etc.

OKAY ALSO FAIR especially for those with kids, work, etc., The benefit of doing a more casual test is that you can plan it around your daily schedule, instead of the other way around!

I didn’t plan on checking where everyone’s taking it and when anyway, so consider it more of a guideline! It would be nice if we could discuss the questions after everyone has taken it, so we could (for example) set a ‘limit’ on when all countries are on the 5th of July (phrasing is weird but I hope it’s clear lol). Until then we could agree to not discuss any of the questions. Then if there’s anyone who really cannot make it on the 4th, they can of course take it another day, but they should be careful checking the thread from the 5th onwards. This also makes it easier to take two levels I think.

Again, I’m not checking what people are doing so please feel free to do the test when it suits you, just keep in mind we might discuss the questions and answers once July 5th has started everywhere.
Related:

@APerson962

How do you find this out? Would you be able to just look it up?

@bearytoast

I was able to look it up on my country’s page. If you go to the official JLPT website it’ll have a link for people taking it outside of Japan and then you can click on your country and a testing center and it should have like a schedule from the last time the test was offered!

Yes this is what I meant! But as others pointed out, it makes much more sense if everyone is free to take the test whenever they want, just try to plan it on July 4th as much as possible!

@sushi-fish

If it is needed then I think we could add some structure for the people that want it by having an optional weekly / biweekly progress-check up (for example with those checkboxes like I often see them in self-study threads) and if there’s still people that want even more structure a 2nd thread should be easily set up where they could post their exact shedules etc.

Yes exactly! I can also imagine that people only start a stricter schedule closer to the actual test date, so it’s also possible to start another thread later on.

@rwesterhof

Yes, no problem. Last time I only weighted N5 - the one I took - because I had a decent idea of how difficult the questions were afterwards. But it was mostly a freehand thing to get to the 120/60 split between the sections. If I’m going to participate, I will refuse to look at N4 beforehand but I can look at the others.

Thank you!!! I also did it like this that time I took it, but I don’t remember how accurate my calculations were. I can definitely do the N4 (and other levels)! Fortunately we have some time to figure this out. We could also try to both try for all levels (except N4 for you and N1 for me) and compare!

@rwesterhof

In the community event thread of last time, it was rightfully noted that this kind of weighting is not how the JLPT calculates its results - the weights there are dynamically determined by how many people got it wrong!

YES good that you emphasize this again, because it is very important. In the main thread I’ll make sure to state this VERY CLEARLY so that everyone knows it’s an indication and not how the JLPT calculates the results. I saw @tls also posted an example of that in last year’s thread, so I’ll probably link to that because it is very clear.

@jenw

What a great idea. I’m pretty new to the community - more of a lurker than a commenter but am getting braver! I really like the idea of sharing progress and encouraging each other towards a specific goal and doing a mock JLPT would be brilliant.

I’m glad you think so!! And welcome!

I’ll make the main thread soon, before March 8th. I just have to think of how to set it up and which information to include! In the meantime, if anyone has any other suggestions, feel free to post them here!

[bdumtzz]

@DaisukeJigen

not even sure what the main word in the question is

wait really?? but you got high level on wk… im also planning to take n4… my confidence has become negative xD
as for grammar, what resources did you use?

[Scylie]

@NathaLire

How about a poll in the ‘main thread’ when it’s there (march 8th) to decide on the mock exam to use?

Sounds good!

@NathaLire

It would be nice if we could discuss the questions after everyone has taken it, so we could (for example) set a ‘limit’ (…)
Until then we could agree to not discuss any of the questions.

Yeah, that makes sense!

Thanks for organizing this, I’m looking forward to the discussions with everyone

[bdumtzz]

@rwesterhof

the weights there are dynamically determined by how many people got it wrong!

wowww is this a new scoring system or was that how its been done? i heard they also changed a bit of the test structure and timing recently…

[bdumtzz]

how about a mock test for the mock test?

im not sure how studying together would look like… we have 3 months tilll july…
im thinking of a schedule like his>
March - study all you want
April & May - mock exams on weekends: vocab w1, grammar w2, reading w3, listening s4

just throwing an idea, its ok if u dont like it or not implement it

[DaisukeJigen]

Just means I spend too much time on WK, and not enough elsewhere. It’s also taken me years to get to where I am on WK. I’m just all around not great at this.
Plus, other things in life mean I don’t get nearly enough time to properly study. WK is much easier for me to be consistent on than other things.
I started with Japanese For Busy People many years ago before quitting. Now, used Genki and Bunpro mainly. Human Japanese app as well. Couple random smaller ‘Japanese grammar’ books I forget the names of. Then just random stuff around the internet here and there.

[tls]

@NathaLire

@Scylie

Does it?

OKAY FAIR it doesn’t, you’re right haha.
How about a poll in the ‘main thread’ when it’s there (march 8th) to decide on the mock exam to use?

I looked into the JLPT 2012 (N5) and this seems to be the one that is offered on JLPTSensei as well. So why not make it this one for July session as it was suggested? In case we are doing another event in December we can switch back to the JLPT 2018

@NathaLire

@Scylie

If we’re not doing a live session or something, then I vote for whenever we want

@sushi-fish

I agree to that, as long as we set a timer it doesn’t really matter at what exact time we take it and so no one gets excluded!

@DaisukeJigen

More on topic: I also think whenever we want as well, time wise. For those of us with kids, work conflicts, etc.

OKAY ALSO FAIR especially for those with kids, work, etc., The benefit of doing a more casual test is that you can plan it around your daily schedule, instead of the other way around!

Last year we did little bit of both. We had two time slots for a live session. But everyone who could not take part into any of the sessions was very welcome to take the test when it suited them. We just agreed to post results after the weekend, I think. Kind of same same it is suggest in this thread… to give everyone a chance to take the test before discussing it in the forums.

@NathaLire

@sushi-fish

If it is needed then I think we could add some structure for the people that want it by having an optional weekly / biweekly progress-check up (for example with those checkboxes like I often see them in self-study threads) and if there’s still people that want even more structure a 2nd thread should be easily set up where they could post their exact shedules etc.

Yes exactly! I can also imagine that people only start a stricter schedule closer to the actual test date, so it’s also possible to start another thread later on.

I feel the same. I don’t think everything has to be organized by one person. Providing a thread where people can check-in is very helpful and welcoming, I think. On the other hand, if some durtles want to form study group they can create a new thread on demand and maybe link it here.

@NathaLire

I’ll make the main thread soon, before March 8th. I just have to think of how to set it up and which information to include!

Why not keep on using this one as the base thread?

@NathaLire

@rwesterhof

Yes, no problem. Last time I only weighted N5 - the one I took - because I had a decent idea of how difficult the questions were afterwards. But it was mostly a freehand thing to get to the 120/60 split between the sections. If I’m going to participate, I will refuse to look at N4 beforehand but I can look at the others.

Thank you!!! I also did it like this that time I took it, but I don’t remember how accurate my calculations were. I can definitely do the N4 (and other levels)! Fortunately we have some time to figure this out. We could also try to both try for all levels (except N4 for you and N1 for me) and compare!

Maybe it is okay to calculate the weights afterwards, I think. In that case we can see which levels actually have been taken. Maybe those durtles can give feedback and help with the calculation of the weights.

Also during the test no one is tempted to opt for the questions that give most points… since this would not work with the real test as well. And as if taking the real test it takes a little bit until results will be known. (luckily it won’t be months of waiting though… ^^⁾

@NathaLire

Were there any things in particular you found useful or effective last year?

Everyone was very supportive and gave feedback and ideas in how to improve stuff. And durtles were very open to let us know in case plans changed. And as far as I can see it is same same with this group

[NathaLire]

@bdumtzz

how about a mock test for the mock test?

im not sure how studying together would look like… we have 3 months tilll july…
im thinking of a schedule like his>
March - study all you want
April & May - mock exams on weekends: vocab w1, grammar w2, reading w3, listening s4

just throwing an idea, its ok if u dont like it or not implement it

I like this idea! I think we even have 4 months, including June I would definitely participate, because mock exams are my favorite way of preparing for exams. I like calculating the results and seeing how I improve, haha. Since the two mock exams online will probably be used for either this or a potential December event, we could for example set up our own mock exam with questions from the japanesetest4you website. The scoring would be a bit different, and we’d have to work around some things, but it would give us plenty of material to use

@tls

I feel the same. I don’t think everything has to be organized by one person. Providing a thread where people can check-in is very helpful and welcoming, I think. On the other hand, if some durtles want to form study group they can create a new thread on demand and maybe link it here.

I agree!! For now, I only intend to set up the main thread and do the monthly/weekly check-ins, and then everyone is free to add anything they want (I’ll ask for the first or second post to be made a wiki so everyone can edit it!). In this main-thread, I also want to make sure the ‘rules’ (as far as there are any) are clearly posted there, so everyone knows what’s up at first sight. I’m still thinking out the details to make sure that the thread is organized and everyone knows where to go, for example for a second, more structured studying thread. Any other threads and related events could be set up by anyone! I think it would be nice to have a list of possible study activities as well, your idea fits there perfectly! In addition, I would add the participants list (where people can add their own names), and probably leave a spot for result calculations (with help from @rwesterhof, but as @tls mentioned this is probably also fine to do afterwards). I just have many ideas, that’s why I’ll take a bit of time to organize the thread, sorry for that! In the meantime of course any discussions can continue here.

The reason I want to create a new thread is that this one was really always intended just to gauge interest, but the actual thread I want to organize better so everyone can add to the main posts and participant’s lists, etc.! And you’ve all come up with all kinds of extra ideas, so I want to try to include those there as well. Especially since so many people are interested, I want to make sure the basis is organized well and includes everything, for that reason I felt a new thread is more appropriate

@tls

I looked into the JLPT 2012 (N5) and this seems to be the one that is offered on JLPTSensei as well. So why not make it this one for July session as it was suggested? In case we are doing another event in December we can switch back to the JLPT 2018

This is a good point as well! With that all in mind, I’m also leaning towards the JLPTSensei exam for this event, so if a December event is planned the JLPT 2018 can be used again. If other people give good reasons for picking one over the other, we can still poll of course (@Scylie).

@tls

Last year we did little bit of both. We had two time slots for a live session. But everyone who could not take part into any of the sessions was very welcome to take the test when it suited them. We just agreed to post results after the weekend, I think. Kind of same same it is suggest in this thread… to give everyone a chance to take the test before discussing it in the forums.

That’s really nice!! I think it’s also nice to have a live session to kind of simulate actually taking the test together. This is also something we can still decide on later, and there might be more people who are interested in doing it live! Then someone could create an extra thread for the live event. Either way, as you said, most important is that everyone has the chance to take it before we start discussing the questions!

@tls

Everyone was very supportive and gave feedback and ideas in how to improve stuff. And durtles were very open to let us know in case plans changed. And as far as I can see it is same same with this group

That’s super nice, and you’re right!!

---

Short conclusion: I’m working on a new, better organized (lol) thread as we speak. The goal is that after that thread has been created there is space for everyone can organize their own related events/ideas. If anyone has any other suggestions don’t hesitate to share!

[EatAtJoes]

I thought this was a POLL thread and ignored it the best I could. Maybe change the title?

[TenkoKitsune]

Where is the join button? I voted but don’t know if it counts, little confused.

[NathaLire]

@EatAtJoes

I thought this was a POLL thread and ignored it the best I could. Maybe change the title?

Done! Someone else also pointed this out, but I didn’t realize that people might purposefully ignore this thread lol. Thanks for pointing that out!

@TenkoKitsune

Where is the join button? I voted but don’t know if it counts, little confused.

This thread was only made to check if people would be interested! I’m working on a thread where you can actually indicate that you’re joining! I’ll make that more clear in the first post, thank you for letting me know!

[APerson962]

I can’t find it on my country’s page, but thank you anyway! I think I’ll just have to decide my own time to do it.

[NathaLire]

Made the event thread here!

[Scylie]

@NathaLire

If other people give good reasons for picking one over the other, we can still poll of course (@Scylie).

hi
If no one has taken that one yet then it’s all good! That might just be the case.
I just figured that without a poll, it’s hard to tell. Then we just have to hope that no one’s too shy to speak up if the other test would be better for them
On the main post, can you make a note that the jlptsensei test is the same one as the official 2012 test on the normal jlpt website? Just so there’s no confusion and no one accidently takes it as practice.

[NathaLire]

YES thank you for making sure, I’ve just added that to the thread!

[tls]

@NathaLire

The reason I want to create a new thread is that this one was really always intended just to gauge interest, but the actual thread I want to organize better so everyone can add to the main posts and participant’s lists, etc.! And you’ve all come up with all kinds of extra ideas, so I want to try to include those there as well. Especially since so many people are interested, I want to make sure the basis is organized well and includes everything, for that reason I felt a new thread is more appropriate

I see I was ingenuously curious about the ideas behind having different threads. Thanks a lot for elaborating on that part. …And after seeing the intro post of the new thread and wiki and stuff I totally get it! I really like the lively vibe you (and others) are bringing into it.

Another thing that popped into my mind was the section were to put the thread. Last year I ended up choosing the campfire section cause it is limited to people who have forum account. The Japanese language section definitely is a perfect fit for the topic … just felt to mention it.

[NathaLire]

@tls

Another thing that popped into my mind was the section were to put the thread. Last year I ended up choosing the campfire section cause it is limited to people who have forum account. The Japanese language section definitely is a perfect fit for the topic … just felt to mention it.

It’s really funny you’re mentioning this, because I also had to think quite long about which was more appropriate I never even considered that the campfire section is limited like that, but now that you’ve mentioned it I’m glad I went with Japanese language in the end

[Saida]

@NathaLire

I’m glad I went with Japanese language in the end

The only thing that’s different is that non forum members can read along (but not comment), and that it’s now searchable from outside of the forums, like with google.

[RollyPolly]

This sounds like fun! I will aim to do the N5 and expect to fail spectacularly. Not sure about studying together, I don’t really know what that would involve.