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December's N2

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amost
Been Around a Bit
Posts: 46
Joined: April 19th, 2009 10:41 pm

December's N2

Postby amost » December 6th, 2010 7:17 pm

Took the N2 yesterday.
I'm happy to say that the difficulty was not a problem, in fact, the listening section was slightly easier than I expected :)

Unfortunately, time kicked my ass.
I was about 40% into the reading section when I looked up and saw that I had 15 minutes left. So yep... had to rush through it :( I hope I didn't mess it all up and end up getting below the required mark for that section!

It's kinda frustrating in that if I fail, it's not like there's something extra I need to study, it's just a time management problem. I'm sure that If I had dome the reading section first, there would be no question of not passing, but unfortunately now we'll have to see... Gotta learn how to speed read!

David123456
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Joined: September 3rd, 2009 11:43 am

Postby David123456 » December 15th, 2010 1:47 pm

Pretty much the same thing for me - listening OK but just not able to read quick enough.

I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on whether or not it's worth getting a premium subscription as opposed to my current basic one?

I would say my level is 'nearly able to pass level 2.'

I have to say that the vast majority of what I can see as a basic subscriber is not challenging enough to help me move forward, even
just as a supplementary resource to offline study.

I don't have any clear idea as to whether/how a premium subscription might help.

David Whitehouse

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Javizy
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Joined: February 10th, 2007 2:41 pm

Postby Javizy » December 15th, 2010 4:11 pm

Have you tried something like this or this? They're good for structured study if you do a section per day or something, but these sort of books do tend to be quite boring. A more interesting approach, and something that you could do with the books as well, is to look for some short novels, magazines etc that you'll enjoy reading. If you've only learnt the N2 kanji, you could try a manga like Death Note, which still uses some high-level sentence structure, but includes furigana.

If you need more general practice, you could try chat rooms or finding a friend for instant messaging as well. That's a motivating way to practice reading, and you can get in some good production practice at the same time. I'd really recommend pushing on with kanji, even if you don't intend to study for N1 for a while, since being able to read is an invaluable skill.

David123456
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Posts: 4
Joined: September 3rd, 2009 11:43 am

Postby David123456 » December 15th, 2010 6:48 pm

I'm reading Norwegian Wood. I imagined an auto-erotic sub-text which I am told
isn't really there ...(':D')

mutley
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Joined: July 5th, 2008 9:01 pm

Postby mutley » December 16th, 2010 8:43 am

I wouldn't say there is a huge amount on this site much higher than JLPT 2.
There are some slightly harder bits in there so it's still worth listening to and using the PDFs but I think once you've reached that level it can only really be used as something to listen to on the side while trying to get stuck into more 'raw' Japanese (i.e. things written for Japanese people).
I've generally used a mixture of general textbooks/JLPT specific books/Normal Japanese fiction and non-fiction/Anki. It seems to work quite well but can be hard to keep an even balance of them, especially when you get short on time.

I did the N1 this year. The hardest part was definitely keeping your concentration through the long reading section (though I found the length of time you were given just about right in the end). My opinion on the new test was that it seemed a lot harder for people who just cram vocab/kanji/grammer and don't focus much on reading actual written passages. (A bit of a shame for me as kanji readings is one of my stronger skills)

David123456
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Joined: September 3rd, 2009 11:43 am

Postby David123456 » December 16th, 2010 8:59 am

Thanks Mutley. I had the same impression on level two. Less testing of specific kanji readings and grammar points, and more, longer
written passages, and more listening. All of which I guess is a good thing.

amost
Been Around a Bit
Posts: 46
Joined: April 19th, 2009 10:41 pm

Postby amost » December 18th, 2010 5:40 am

Thanks everyone,
yeah I think I'm more along the lines of one of those people that crammed vocab/kanji/grammar (although in my opinion quite well!). So the next step is really more actual reading practice; I'm gonna agree :)

amost
Been Around a Bit
Posts: 46
Joined: April 19th, 2009 10:41 pm

Postby amost » March 18th, 2011 4:49 am

Woo~ passed N2! :) Time to start N1 study!

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