>

These are the tips from the students who passed Grade 3 exam

Gregory Roath - February 2007

I started studying Japanese with Udagawa-sensei in November of 2005 without having had any formal lessons in Japanese prior to this. A general interest in Japan and Japanese was my sole motivation...


I've been to Japan 3 times, but never for more than 2 weeks. I picked up a few words through self-study on the internet but certainly had no knowledge of grammar or sense of structure. However, I have studied other foreign languages as well as linguistics at university.

A few months in to the lessons I decided to take the JLPT exam simply as a benchmarking exercise. However, during the Summer months...about 6 months into my lessons....Udagawa-sensei and I decided to aim for JLPT 3 rather than 4. I wasn't sure what to expect but I trusted Udagawa-sensei and looked forward to a slightly tougher challenge.


In addition to the weekly 2 hour lessons (I have a full time job at a bank that requires me to travel frequently plus my wife and I also had our first child in Feb 2006), I was able to get some studying in on flights, on the tube, and on weekends. I found that for the kanji, the flashcards from white rabbit press were quite good .


For general vocabulary I simply wrote out lists and used Udagawa-sensei's materials. Lastly, I used prior Level 3 exams to test my progress and record areas that required further study. Beyond that I can't say I did anything special.


Udagawa-sensei guided me through the various grammar points that the exam would cover as well tested me on the listening part. Finally the day of the exam arrived...approximately one year after starting lessons.


Truthfully, I could have better prepared myself (but work was very very busy).
I missed a couple of kanji that I should have known but I also did much better on the listening part of the exam than I had expected.
I found the reading/grammar part also went quite well. I didn't approach the exam in any special way...I did every question in order and found that I generally had 5-10 minutes to go back and check some of the questions I wasn't sure about. Of course, there's no time go back on the listening section.


When I finished the exam I wasn't quite sure really how I had done...it seemed as if I knew the majority of the questions...but I thought the same for some of the practice exams only to find out I hadn't scored so well.


However, this time, I really did know the answers:
81/100 kanji/vocab
70/100 listening
170/200 reading/grammar
321/400 total (80%!)

Thank you Udagawa-sensei!
Greg san studied with me just around 70 hours when he sat the exam in December 2006.
本当に、おめでとうございます。

Valerie Michele - December 1998

For grade 4 (1997) and 3 (1998). I made hundreds of cards for kanji, vocabulary and grammatical functions. Each vocabulary card carried just one entry, the meaning of which was clearly illustrated by one or two examples. The example cited were both from both the past exam papers and the workbooks chosen by Kazuo The grammar cards had just one function on each card, and carried brief and clear definition of each function in English, plus some examples to illustrate this function. The ‘Tari,tari’ form, for example, was defined as "doing several things" with the example being 'Watashi wa resutoran ni ittari sampo o shitari shimashita.' My kanji cards had the on-yomi and kun-yomi, some phrases from relevant materials to illustrate the meaning, and a brief definition of its meaning in English. I chose not to cite any kanji or its example from cards commercially available from Japanese bookstores in London because some cards had the irrelevant kanji and examples. I worked very hard from September to early December by taking two two-hour private lessons. I did listening practice only in the class with Kazuo because I believed that I could not do it properly on my own. In the exam, the time allocated to was very tight, so I did not have enough time to ponder. I really had to jump from one question to another. I did not remember so much of what I had answered after the exam. Everyday I went over these cards to learn new things or refresh, and revise what I had learned in the previous months in the run-up to September. Card making was a very time-consuming process but I knew I could only remember well what I had written myself.

Tigger Mills - December 2000

As far as preparation for the exam went I principally used the past paper that you gave me, as well as books of 3 kyu type exams that I had - it was a case of going through each one in the time allowed and correcting them then looking up reasons why things were wrong. For the kanji I used flip cards that I made (very useful), as well as some kanji test/game programs that I had on my PalmPilot. One was called King Kanji and the other one was called Hanabi. The first one goes through different levels of kanji characters and gives you a multiple choice as to the meaning of the character. The second one goes does something similar but has romaji/hiragana/english choices. Having said that the hardest part of the exam for me was the listening and I would probably have like to have spent more time working on that. You don't realise how quickly it goes and since you only get to hear it once, if you lose your concentration you're messed up for the following questions. I hope that this is of some help.

Nobert Fogarasis - December 2001

I passed this test with a 60-70% score after 15 months of regular (2x1.5 hrs/week) study in Japan, 6 months of less regular study (1 hr/week) in London and 2 months of intensive practice of prior years' tests. Again, a key part of my success was working through meticulously the previous years' tests and listening to the tapes in a simulated examination environment. Some tips for each of the sections:

(a) Kanji/Vocabulary:
The amount of studying I did in this area was not enough, so I threw away a lot of points here. I scored the lowest in this section, even though with relatively small effort, I could have picked up more easy points. For the kanji, find a method that works for you. Again, the list of kanji is well defined and published. I used an associative grouping method to learn which didn't work so well. I think writing kanji cards would have allowed me and motivated me to spend more time on this.
As for vocabulary, I don't have a good shortcut recommendation. I took this test prematurely, since I didn't complete the recommended 300 hours of classroom work and this came back to bite me in this section.

(b)Listening:
After a certain amount of practice, you will see your practice scores converge to a certain level somewhere between 60-90 percent. Once it stabilized at that level, it will be extremely difficult to move it, unless you actually live in Japan and can make a spectacular improvement.
However, you will see that your score on the test will be roughly the same as where you converged. I was lucky because I spent enough time in Japan at the early stages of my study in Japan that this score was around 85%.

(c) Grammar:
I found this to be challenging, but less tricky than for level 4. Again, I used the previous years' tests as my source, together with Udagawa sensei's database which has the questions sorted by the grammar-type which they test.
This gives you a good indication of what to expect on the test, and tells you what to spend time on.
Again, it is important to not spend too much time early, as there are some easy pick-ups towards the end.
Surprisingly, I found that I finished this test well in advance though, so I had a lot of time to go back and review my answers.I hope this helps - good luck for your exam!
Cheers: Norbert

Arthur Pollock - December 2002

As you go through the Japanese for busy people books write the grammar down especially or words you dont know on a separate pice of paper then refer continaully to that as well as going through the books. It then only takes about 30 mins to do all the grammar this way wheras it takes hours to go through the book. Every time you go through the book is really important. Keep going through it but make sure you read everything aloud to yourself . Try to do a little every day.
Do the tapes every day for at least an hour- you could be listening to the tapes much more than you think. If you do it regulary it is far easier to remember new things as your brain is far more tuned in.
The kana version tapes have shorter phrases which are better for practising for the aural paper as they are random like the aural exam and make you more mentally flexible. The workbook tapes are best when you know all the words then you can just concentrate on the grammar.

Listening-Paper 2:
In the aural exam write down who is talking: for example a boy and girl and then make sure you make notes of the choices becasue you wont be able to remember if its one of the longer questions. Make a note of the question number too! You defineltey wont have time to do back and check your answers without this. When the exam starts forget about listening to the examples go straght to the questions and study the differences in the pictures especially the difficult ones which have those four pictures or numbers. You can then work out the question ahead of time and give yourself more time to think about the answers.This will help avoid getting stuck not knowing the differences in the picture which would then make it impossible to answer. Write down as many things as you can to help you get to the answer quickly when you come to it. Use the introductions to scan ahead too. Really listen hard in the exam as it is quite muffled. Practise with the tapes turned down really low it will make you listen better on the day. Dont panic on the day if the questions look hard. Only think about the next question if you are struggling-it may be a really easy one!

Grammar-Paper 3:
On the grammar paper you have to really motor. Be careful if you are skipping questions that you are filling in the right lines on the answer sheet but this is the corect thing to do. Really push on this and then come back to the ones you dont know. It's unlikley you will know them later so dont waste time on them .Do the ones you know first Do section five and six first as they carry higher markes and are relatively easier.If you are short of time then you wont be throwing away so many points.

Kanji/Vocabulary-Paper 1
On the kanji paper do section six first it carries alot of points and you need to nail them. If you are short of time you will probably panic and get it all wrong if you leave it to last. Then do sections three four and five. If you do the kanji last you wont panic so much and it wont matter as much. Either you know the kanji or you dont,theres nothing to work out if you are short of time so its much better at the end and they dont carry so many points anyway. Its better to study grammar and voabulary rather than kanji for the exam. They have easily the highest time of study per one mark in the exam.

Paper 1 (Writing-Vocabulary) 67/100
Paper 2 (Listening) 67/100
Paper 3 (Reading-Grammar) 161/200
Overall 295/400=Pass


Shaun - I sat and passed the sanku exam in December 2003.

Paper 1
Each week I tried to learn new Kanji to make sure that I could understand about 300 Kanji by the time of the exam. In practise papers I was able to get between 75 and 85%. However, the exam contained a few surprises and I did not recognise some of the Kanji.

Paper 2
Many English people who have not lived in Japan find Paper 2 to be the most difficult paper because native Japanese speakers speak quickly in their own language. I listened to past tests in my lessons and also at home to try and improve my listening skills. This was still the toughest paper. It is a good idea to speak in Japanese to any Japanese friends or colleagues. I have several Japanese colleagues and if I had taken advantage of speaking to them in their own language, the paper may have been a little easier. In the exam I concentrated hard on every question.

Paper 3
To begin with parts of paper 3 were difficult. However, by going through those particular sections from past papers from the previous 10 years, I was able to improve my understanding and practise scores. Overall the key to passing was hard work. I revised almost every day for the 3 months before the exam.

Final marks:
Paper 1 - 76/100
Paper 2 - 62/100
Paper 3 - 145/200
Total - 283 /400 - Pass

Shaun

We started preparation for this exam 9 months ahead of the exam instead of normal 3 months. - Kazuo

Simon

Udagawa sensei
Perhaps like many of your other students have already done, I'd like to tell you the result of my JLPT (Level 3) exam:

Vocabulary: 72/100
Listening: 48/100
Reading-Grammar: 141/200
Total: 261/400 (65% - pass)

My initial reaction was of course very relieved to see the big envelope at home this evening, but then it did shock me to learn that the marks for P2 was quite a lot lower than I expected; I was equally surprised (in the opposite sense) that my score for P3 was higher than I had expected.
However, I trust that scores are accurate and I must have done better than expected!
I just wanted to say a big thank you again for all the kind help you have given me in preparing for this exam, also for your time in travelling to Reigate twice a week for the extra lessons!
I am confident that having achieved this pass my company will have no objection in letting me extend my lessons, but am still unsure when they will give approval for my JBP book, and god forbid, the CD sets as well! A sincere thanks again and looking forward to our next lesson.
Regards Simon