So the most recent thread I could find for this topic closed over a year ago, so here I am. Has anyone taken the Business Japanese Test recently/planning to take it soon? If so, what resources are you using to study?
I’m planning to take N1 in July, so if I pass (very, very big if), I want to start studying for the BJT because I my Japanese studies become a directionless mess if I don’t have some kind of test to study for…
Any tips, or, any other tests you recommend taking before/after/in lieu of the BJT?
I took BJT twice, once in college (old format on paper, got J2) and again after I started working because my company asked me (new CBT format, got J1).
I never really studied for it, but what I can tell you is that
It has a shit load of keigo questions. If you are planning on getting something like J1 or even J1+ be sure to have your させていただく together. Being able to correctly identify 二重敬語 and mark it as a mistake is also a must.
Reading speed is required. You will have those ridiculously long business emails with season greetings and all the bs for you to search one tiny information lost in the middle. The test actually expects you to be able to quickly recognize what’s unimportant and jumps over whole paragraphs, there is no time to read everything. I also remember questions having as much as three different texts. Like one e-mail, one poster about an event and one leaflet, so you need to connect the info to answer. Speed is a must.
There is a lot of workplace related vocabulary, so mastering words such as 弊社 and 御社、先方 and 当方、小職 is important. Also being able to use keigo as semantic clues. As in the subject of a sentence cannot be inferred except for the fact it is written with 尊敬語 so it must be the customer side, or the speaker side if on 謙譲語.