#JLPT Tips for First Timer?

6 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

void sluice
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I want to take the JLPT in December, and would greatly appreciate a complete rundown of EXACTLY what to expect because I'll be nervous until I know.

  • Is the test paper or computer based?
  • What EXACTLY is each section like?
  • Are questions in Japanese?
  • Should I take care to study up on kanji, or just focus on vocab and allow my kanji recognition to develop naturally that way? Is vocab the whole point of learning kanji for JLPT? (I've seen elsewhere like on reddit people suggesting it's only relevant to reading words correctly and knowing the meaning of the word as a whole?)
  • Would practicing by keeping a journal and writing literally anything at all - thoughts, critiquing/reviewing entertainment, summarizing what I read in a book or learned that day in lessons, etc. - be really good or distracting for practicing for the JLPT?
  • I do want to learn natural Japanese; but does the JLPT focus exclusively on textbook Japanese?
  • Would it be smart or really dumb and setting myself up for a "help I need a toilet ASAP" crisis to drink coffee before the exam? Stick to water?
  • For anyone who's taken the SAT, is test time flow kind of like that?
  • Where can I go to get my journal entries checked for grammar - both naturally (as if speaking) and textbook (to prep for the test and ensure I've decent enough grammar skills)? I'm religious, and in my experience find that people get irritated when it's expressed, so I want to check and see if it's fine here, or if I should look elsewhere...?

Please treat me like I'm five because I literally have no idea what to expect. Thank you!!! ^^

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Also - how early can I expect to be at the testing center if I'm in the southeastern US? General time table?

small sequoia
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Paper or Computer based? - I've only done the test in Japan, but paper based

Japanese Questions? - Yes. All Japanese. The test is made for people that could be from any country, so they can't put stuff in English and hope that the Malaysian's (for example) will understand.

Study Kanji? - It depends on the level you're going for I guess. Kanji is a part of the test, in that there are question specifically testing your Kanji knowledge, but even if you have no idea for every Kanji specific question, A) You can still guess the answer with a 25% chance, and B) most questions involve Kanji, but are not the main focus of those questions so as long as you can understand the rest of it all, you should be fine.

Writing practice? - There is no production whatsoever on the JLPT, so if that's you're only goal, you probably shouldn't worry about writing.

Casual or Textbook? - JLPT is textbook only. They really care about the correctness of grammar and whatnot.

"Help, I need the toilet ASAP"? - I'm not quite sure what you mean by this, but you should avoid anything that will distract you. The test is long (almost 2 hours for the first section, and then 40-ish minutes for the Listening section). If you need to go to the toilet after 30 minutes, you'll probably lose focus as you desperately try not to wet yourself. Because once you leave the test room you're not allowed back inside until that section is finished.
The general good health habits apply, get good sleep the night before, eat well, drink enough water to not be bursting, and get some fresh air.
And of course the general test rules apply, go to the toilet beforehand.

I didn't answer some stuff, but hopefully that is helpful.
NS also has an article about the JLPT you may not have seen which should also be helpful.
Best of luck to you.
https://help.nativshark.com/guides/what-is-the-jlpt

void sluice
small sequoia
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For the Kanji, I can remember three types of questions.

One is showing the Kanji and asking for the correct reading in the sentence provided.

Two is giving a sentence, highlighting a hiragana word and asking for the more appropriate Kanji for that hiragana word.

Three is giving a sentence, highlighting a specific word, and then asking you to choose an alternate word with the same meaning. (This one is more vocab than Kanji, but the highlighted word will probably have some relatively whack Kanji)

void sluice
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@small sequoia That's a huge help, that really really helps with what to expect! Thank you! If there's anything else you can advise, especially with the test - huge help! But no worries if not, you've already really helped a lot ^^