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Japan Japanese Language Proficiency Test

Today I went to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test level 2. It was my first time passing the test, at any level.
I can't quite tell whether it went well or not until I get my scores in mid-February.

There are three parts to the test: writing/vocabulary, listening, and reading.
I think I did ok in writing (which doesn't involve actually writing but just picking the correct answer, since the whole test is choice-based) and expect maybe between 60-70% (alright, that's not so good but it's above the pass mark), and I think I did quite well in the listening part, perhaps around 80-90%.

However, I had quite a bit of trouble in the reading part. The test began with long texts and I spent a while on these, and at the end I didn't have time to do about 10 questions so I picked randomly. Overall, the reading test was also pretty hard and I didn't have much confidence with a lot of questions, so this one is left to 運 (un, "luck"). I wouldn't expect scoring more than 40-50%.

So, adding up my estimates, I'll be either just above the pass mark (60%), or below... I'll know in 3 months.
Although it would surely be a waste of my money and time if I wasn't to pass, it's not like if the test was decisive for a job or something, I took it mostly for testing my skills (or the lack of) for myself, so I'm not overly worried.

Anyway, I surely feel like I still have a lot to go through in my learning of Japanese.

At least I'm glad this is over with. :)

Posted on December 5, 2004 at 19:45 | Tweet |

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gambatte !!!

you should reward yourself with a nice t-shirt .. or a new record ... or ... hmm .. some food treat :)

Posted by Peter on December 7, 2004 at 03:52

Am I not supposed to wait for the result? :)
Anyway, too late, I just got P5 "In The Bag" yesterday!

Posted by Patrick on December 7, 2004 at 08:16

Any chances of a picture of you "modelling" the bag ? ;-)
Can I be rude and ask you how much you paid for it ?

Posted by Mauro on December 7, 2004 at 22:03

Me modeling it? Not really. :) But it does deserve its entry!

Posted by Patrick on December 7, 2004 at 23:01

i thought patrick rewarded himself with records and t-shirts on a weekly basis already. :)

even if you don't pass, at least you have some idea of your proficiency. i don't think we have a similiar thing like that here for mandarin(though i have seen adverts about japanese proficiency tests - go figure). i'm frightened to know how bad my score may be if we had one though.

Posted by william on December 8, 2004 at 23:05

> i thought patrick rewarded himself with records and t-shirts on a weekly basis already. :)

"daily" may be closer to the reality. :)

I'm pretty sure there must be mandarin tests in Taiwan. Perhaps they're just not too advertized?

Posted by Patrick on December 8, 2004 at 23:50

i was originally going to say "daily" but thought it might be a bit too much. figures it was closer to the truth.

yes, you are right about they may not be advertised. plus it's been a few years since i've taken any formal mandarin classes, so i'm a bit out of the loop. but i'd think they'd advertise them in the english papers if such a thing existed and i've never seen them. but they may just exist within universities, and so have no real need to advertise.

Posted by william on December 9, 2004 at 19:10

yeah i thought quite the same as you about the test(i took it in london). and even if you've studied a lot of japanese it felt like you really had to have gone though the preparational books to be sure to pass. and well, i didn't do that. btw, did you have a phone going off during the listening part?

Posted by iensu on December 10, 2004 at 01:07

I took the test too in L.A. That last part was rough... I jumped to the second half first and then went back and finished just in time.

What I don't understand is why it's gonna take 3 months for them to run some scantrons through the machine.

Posted by Brent on December 13, 2004 at 04:51

Yeah, that long wait is a real pain...
Maybe they just say that to seem all hi-tech, but in fact they get the hard job done by poor baito!

Posted by Patrick on December 13, 2004 at 13:26

hahaha, or more likely, they've got to run the tests through 10 different offices, and then double check each one making sure that the results are safely tucked away in 10 kilogram books on shelves where they will never be accessed again.

Posted by Brent on December 14, 2004 at 01:09

iensu > Sorry I had skipped your question. No phone ringing here. Was it part of the tape?
Btw, I hadn't studied much either. :)

Brent, haha! That must be it! :)

Posted by Patrick on December 14, 2004 at 08:26

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