The tip from the studendt who passed Grade 1exam

Elizabeth Lingard - Nikkei Europe (April 2009)

Ifve sat the JLPT Level 1 exam a grand total of 3 times, so I can tell you that itfs no walk in the park.
It involves a lot of Japanese that can only be found by reading a lot, and reading a wide range of subjects, and so you are unlikely to pass it with the sort of Japanese you can pick up in conversation.
The only way to pass it is to study hard and systematically, and have a good knowledge of what is likely to come up in the exam.
On my first two attempts at the JLPT 1 I was relying on my strong areas (listening, reading comprehension) to compensate for the areas where I was weaker (kanji and vocabulary).
This is quite a risky strategy as you need to get 70% overall to pass. In preparing for my 3rd attempt, I made a point of working on my weak areas and I believe that is what made the difference.
I would give anyone tackling the JLPT 1 the following advice:
  1. Get hold of as many past papers as you can find. Try a few of these and work out what your weakest points are. For me, it was Paper 1 as I had a very limited range of kanji and vocabulary.
  2. Familiarise yourself with the kind of questions that get asked. For example, Paper 1 is theŠ¿ŽšEŒêœb paper, but there are several different sections that test different skills. Itfs not enough to learn a lot of kanji and vocab, you need to be able to use words and kanji correctly and in the right context.
  3. Really work on your weak areas. Even a few more questions right could make the difference between a pass and a fail overall.
  4. When learning kanji, learn lists of the kanji in various compounds.
  5. When learning vocabulary, note down example sentences. The examiners are not just looking at your understanding of the wordfs meaning, but also how it is used and in what kind of setting.
  6. Get hold of a good grammar book that lists all the points covered in the exam and work through it systematically. The eJitsuryoku Upf books are great for this. Although the grammar seems quite unfamiliar initially (and Japanese friends will tell you that most of the JLPT 1 Japanese is not that common), I keep seeing a lot of these grammar patterns come up in Japanese novels, so it does eventually come in handy!
  7. Tips for listening practice would be to download some podcasts in Japanese (you can download them for free from Japanese iTunes), or watch some films or Japanese TV dramas without the subtitles. Pay attention to the nuances in peoplefs conversations and speech patterns. A lot of the listening questions wonft spell out the answer for you; you may have to work out the answer from what is implied.
  8. Therefs always a few keigo questions, especially in Paper 3, so donft forget to brush up on that.
  9. Keep preparing for the test by doing past papers. Above all, know what is expected of you at each stage of the test (e.g. how to fill in the answer sheet in Paper 2), and what kind of time you will have to complete it (Paper 3 is particularly difficult for the time constraints you have) and test day wonft be so daunting.
Finally, make sure you are well rested before the exam. It is quite a gruelling experience (3 papers in just over 4 hours), and involves a lot of concentration on the day, so take plenty of brain food with you to keep you going through it all, and stay positive even if you feel it not going as well as you thought.
Above all, the best advice I can give you is to be stubborn with it and donft give up! The first two times I took the exam I failed by 1%.
By my third attempt I was even more determined and by focussing on my weak points I somehow managed to pass it quite comfortably, even though the exam itself felt like a nightmare!

Good luck!

Sasha Armour - Nikkei Europe ( March 2008 )

I chose to study Japanese at Edinburgh University; an experience which I think gave me the best insight into Japanese life -the study abroad programme. Being a Scottish university, we were allowed to pick three different subjects to study in the first two years, and therefore the Japanese I learnt during this time was very basic grammar, kanji, and essay writing skills.

The grealh Japanese study came in my third year, when I spent one year studying at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto.
Suddenly I found myself in advanced Japanese classes which were incredibly challenging; these involved giving presentations, reading novels, writing academic essays, debating, and advanced grammar.
I was also given the choice to attend normal lectures, and although it was extremely difficult to follow the lectures at first, I found that over the year, it was gradually getting easier and I thoroughly enjoyed studying such a variety of subjects.


Now, although much studying came from inside the classroom, most of my geverydayh Japanese came from normal day-to-day life in Kyoto.
Of course, this included interaction with Japanese friends at school (through the tennis club and their gbuddyh system), but I wanted to get to know Japanese people of all ages and backgrounds.
Therefore, I took the opportunity to teach voluntarily at a local primary school, and got a part-time job teaching conversational English. There were some cultural differences which became apparent through life in Japan ? for example, us international students had to accept that most Japanese people were not as frank as Western people, and therefore we found it difficult to work out what Japanese people were really thinking inside.

Returning to Edinburgh, my fourth year was primarily focused on Japanese studies, such as history, modern and classical literature, but we continued the language study through translation classes, writing and listening classes.
I would have liked to have had more lessons in Japanese rather than lectures in English, but I kept up my language acquisition through private study.
This was due to the fact that I had signed up for the Japanese Language Proficiency Exam Level 1, and so I bought a JLPT textbook and worked my way through.
It was extremely challenging, and I found myself writing out lists of new vocabulary and kanji, which I practiced over and over again. However, I donft think it is possible to pass the test by solely studying from this textbook.
The fluid and fast conversational Japanese in the listening exam, or the slight nuances from the use of subtle vocabulary or grammar, can only really be learnt from living in Japan and using it every day.


Now, having successfully passed the JLPT Level 1 and completing my Japanese degree, there was only one thing for me to do - go and work for a Japanese company! I didnft want to undo all of the work I had done at university, and I knew there was still so much more to learn, especially in the way of advanced vocabulary on topics such as business, economics or politics. Therefore, I now work at the London office of the Nikkei, where I am pleased to be speaking Japanese every day.

I now also have a new aim to pass the JETRO Business Japanese Exam which will test me on more practical usage of Japanese, something I felt the JLPT lacked.
With the business Japanese lessons I am now getting, along with working in a Japanese office, I hope that I will continue to improve so that I may return to Japan with total confidence in the future.

Nicola in December 1999

My thoughts on Level 1 exam is that it is a useful learning thing to do - i.e. studying for this makes you sit down and focus on grammar and kanji.
My colleagues did say that they thought a lot of it was very theoretical and not so useful for business.
However, I found that I learnt all kinds of things that it is nice to be able to throw into a conversation anywhere.
The best study materials are the Japanese 'Jitsuryoku up' series.