These are the tips from the students who passed Grade 2 exam.

Philippa Symington - 3rd March 2003

This was my second time of taking 2 kyuu so I knew my weaknesses and felt more comfortable with taking the exam. After the first attempt, I realised that I hadn't appreciated the length of the exam, so this time I did timed sections of the paper. This was particularly relevant for the reading section, which I had guessed most of at first attempt.
While practising these, I made lists of the many kanji I couldn't read, which slowly became more familiar.

I did the same for the grammar section, for which I practised using books published by the examining board.
I knew the grammar rules well and also the types of questions likely to appear by the time the exam came. Since these questions can be answered quicker, in section three I answered the second half of the paper first, giving me the confidence to tackle the beginning. Even then, my reading was too slow to get through more than one and a half passages. I should have read some Japanese daily before the exam to improve my speed.

I was very lucky to pass.
My knowledge of kanji would not be described as perfect but from the lists I'd made, my recognition was not bad. I hadn't paid enough attention to how the kanji is read however, and long or short 'o's for example was still mystery in the exam. With the slowness of my reading preventing me from completing the third paper, I therefore only got just over half marks in the first and third papers.

Thankfully, the listening section compensated. This was the most enjoyable part of the exam, also the easiest to practise for; watching Japanese videos, chatting to Japanese friends and listening to tapes of Japanese stories.

To scrape through like I did, I'd recommend concentrating on your strengths. To have a solid base, there's no substitute for daily revision of old papers.

Paper 1: 54/100
Paper 2:90/100
Paper 3: 105/200
Total:249/400 (62%) Pass

Charles Coyne - 1st March 2003

Your Japanese Achilles heel - advice for passing the Level 2 Japanese Proficiency Exam

My advice for getting your hands on the level 2 certificate is to spend some time analysing the equivalent of your Japanese Achilles heel. It may seem obvious but concentrating on your weakest area will have the greatest impact on improving your overall score.

As most of you are well aware the exam is broken into 3 distinct sections - Writing-Vocabulary, Listening and Reading-Grammar with an overall percentage of 60% required to pass. Although we all have a weak points you can't afford to have a section where you really have a disaster. I was very lucky to have spent some years working for a software company in Tokyo and although I haven't spent as much time studying Japanese formally I picked the language up step by step while I was over there, through lessons at my company, private study and communicating with my colleagues.

Consequently it was clear to my teacher back in the UK that my listening skills were relatively strong and it would be the Reading-Grammar section that would decide whether I passed or failed.

Identifying your weaknesses is a great way to help you focus and concentrate on the task in mind and each week we practised and practised previous Reading-Grammar section exam papers. I would go through one section each weekend, making conditions as close to exam conditions as possible, ie. no looking up vocabulary and equally importantly strictly timed.

It soon became apparent that reading Japanese quickly which you need to do and understanding the subtlety of the expressions was where my teacher and I needed to concentrate our efforts.

Luckily for me I had a teacher who was able to identify this area of weakness and we both managed to overcome it sufficiently enough to pass the exam, it is the area that will need even more effort for Level 1.

Paper 1: 70/100
Paper 2: 90/100
Paper 3: 97/100
Total: 257/400 (65%) Pass