These are the tips from the students who passed Grade 4 exam.

Nobert Fogarasi in December 2000

I passed this exam with over 80% score after 9 months of regular (2x1.5 hrs/week) Japanese study in Japan, and 3 months of specifically preparing for the exam by reviewing the last five years' papers.


I used the book "Japanese for Busy People" (JBP I), and I got about 75% through, during the first 9 months. In doing well on the test, studying the prior years' exams was instrumental.


Note, however, that when I first switched from JBP I to doing practice tests, my scores were extremely low. This will likely to happen for most people, but do not dispair!
With hard work, your score will gradually climb up, as you do more tests.


This is particularly true for the grammar questions, where I first scored less than 50%, but week after week of merely doing more tests, my score improved gradually.


As a review you can re-do ones you had practiced on before, and you should make sure that at the end of all your practice you can consistently do 80% on the previous 5 years' tests.


Some tips for each of the sections:

(a)Kanji / Vocabulary:
This is the easiest part. You shoul get the list of ~100 kanji which you need to know. This is publically available, and you should make sure you know it well. There will be 2-3 kanji on the test which is not on the list, but can sometimes be guessed, since it includes parts of known kanji. Also, make sure you study the pervious years' exams, there is often repetition in this part of the test.

The vocabulary is more difficult to prepare for, but all the words should be at the level of JBP I. A good strategy is to quickly go over all the questions first, answering the ones you know outright. Then go back, and spend some time thinking over the ones you missed. This way you can allocate your time cleverly.

(b) Listening:
The best way to prepare for this is to go over the previous years' tapes in a simulated examination environment. After you have gone through all the questions, go back and carefully listen to the ones that you missed. There were 2 very tricky questions on this test when I took it, where there was an obviuos-looking answer, but if you listen carefully, the answer is actually another one. Watch out for this trick. Overall, you should do well on this part if you had practiced enough using the previous years' tapes.


(c) Grammar:
This is the most challenging part (and is also worth double!) I was expecting to ace this part, since I did the most practice for this by far.

However, you must also consider that this is the part where they have the most room to mix it up, and that you are most tired by the time this rolls around, so save your energy throughout the day! I employed the strategy of going through quickly once, leaving the ones I didn't know outright.

This allowed me to pick up some easy points in the final reading section which others didn't even get to. Important point for this test is to not dispair or feel down if you think you don't know the answers to a stream of questions.


The test is long enough that you have room to make mistakes! Keep a cool head and carry on, coming back to the hard one later.
Cheers: Norbert