My experience of the AS exam - Summer 2007

I sat the AS exam in Summer 2007, having previously taken and passed the Japanese language Proficiency Test at 4 kyu and 3 kyu.
The grammar level at AS is no higher than 3 kyu but AS requires:
  1. A much larger vocabulary and knowledge of kanji
  2. The need to write an essay including the use of Kanji
Udagawa sensei advised me to concentrate on vocabulary, kanji and essay writing.
There were 2 main areas where i needed to improve:
learning kanji and essay writing in a way that used a wider variety of grammatical structures.
Based upon these weaknesses, these are the main steps that I took to prepare for the exam.
By writing essays every week and using as many kanji as possible in the essays, I found that the number of kanji I could read and write increased significantly.
Regular essay writing (and reviewing them in my lessons with Udagawa sensei) gradually helped me to express myself more clearly using better grammatical functions.
Over the three months up to the exam, I wrote more and more essays on relevant topics and practised translation of Japanese into English.
I increased the frequency of my lessons and also took a weeks holiday to study every day for the week before the exam.
In summary, I worked as hard as I could and concentrated on my weaknesses.
The effort paid off as I obtained an A grade with 277 marks out of 300.
Shaun De Boo

Gillian Nothard- September 2006

Having lived and worked in Japan for three and a half years, you might think that passing AS-Level Japanese would be a walk in the park.
However, Ifve been back in the UK for almost 6 years now and the kanji just seems to fade by the day!
Cue Kazuo-sensei!
Kazuo-sensei is an excellent teacher; he checks exactly what your objectives are and then assesses your level of Japanese to see how much work is needed.
In my case, I needed an additional AS-Level for an application to university and had very little time in which to prepare (only a couple of months). Japanese seemed an obvious choice, since I had already passed the 2-kyu exam whilst living in Japan, but looking at the AS-Level past papers,
I discovered that I would have to write an essay as part of the 3 hour exam and it was then that I felt I needed some guidance in the form of Kazuo-sensei!
Essay writing was never my strong point at school, but Kazuo-sensei helped immensely.
He set me a few essays to write on various topics and then highlighted the key areas in which I most needed to improve.
Having been fluent in spoken Japanese, it became very apparent that I was often writing as if I were speaking, and there are many spoken words and grammatical constructions that are not permitted in proper, formal written Japanese.
After laughing at some of my colloquialisms in my essays, I worked hard at home (though I think Kazuo-sensei might debate that!) and sat the AS-Level exam in May 2006.


I needed to get an A-Grade for my university application and kept my fingers crossed that my work hadnft come too late. Results day arrived and would you believe that I achieved 300/300 in the exam?!

I couldnft believe it either!
I was so extremely happy at my result and it most definitely would not have been achievable had it not been for Kazuo-senseifs classes.
In summary, I highly recommend Kazuo-sensei as a Japanese teacher, no matter what level youfre at.
Kazuo-sensei: makoto ni, arigato gozaimashita!