Studying for the JLPT N5, Week 1: Rude Awakening

Last Friday, I voluntarily plopped down $100 and decided to take a standardized test. I’m not doing this for any career requirement, and heck, I already got through college so it’s not like I needed some shiny credentials for an admissions application. I was just carrying through on a promise I made myself. That being, “If one of the 50 seats serving the entire damn tri-state area is still open, I’ll sign up for the test.” I seriously did not expect to be one of the first 5 to complete registration for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (N5 level, the lowest level) for my testing center. And beyond that, I did not expect the week ahead to end up with so many revelations about my Japanese study approach either.

A Rude Awakening

My whole self-study strategy, no matter the topic, has been built on a “don’t study for a test, study for real life” attitude. I still remember being in high school and being incredibly pissed off about having to learn words only to use them on the SAT (and then effectively throw the knowledge away). Specifically for my Japanese studies, most of my resources have been relatively JLPT-avoidant. I might use JLPT rankings (N5, N4, etc.) as a benchmark to see if something is too difficult for me, but I generally hadn’t bought books made specifically to study for the JLPT. One of the exceptions I had made was for a listening book prepping the reader for the N5 listening section. I had figured listening was going to be the hardest thing to prepare for if I did take the test, so why not get a book and have more material to study with? (Also, I had already bought the other non-JLPT listening books at my level that were offered at the store I usually shop at.) That book ended up being a serious wake-up call.

A lot of standardized tests just love to try and trick people by being… generally convoluted. With the SAT, it felt like there was usually technical nuance hinging on a single key word. With the JLPT’s listening section, it seems that the conversational back and forth in questions ends up negating what might be initially thought of as the answer. This was the thing that made me end up getting half of the questions in the JLPT N5 Listening Speed Master’s warm-up section incorrect (or unconfidently guessed). Mind you, those were noted to be easier than the test questions! Not only that, but you’re only given one chance to answer the question. No playbacks. I knew I needed to start working on the Listening section ASAP. Unlike the others test sections, I knew that’s the least likely thing I’ll be able to cram for.

I had thought I would be more prepared for the listening portion – I do a lot of Japanese lessons on italki. (At time of writing, I have 118 completed lessons.) A tutor can and will, if they’re good, speak both to your level and at a speed that you can understand. And most times when you’re talking to a tutor, you’re not talking about the situations that are covered by the test. Only really talking to tutors doesn’t help with audio that’s pre-recorded (that does not care about your level and listening speed), nor does it help when talking to people who aren’t trained to do simplify things to your level. Tutoring has absolutely been key in increasing my confidence, but for the time being I might need to pump the breaks on the non-textbook lessons.

Learning About Learning

After doing a full practice test, I found out that my problem was mainly in that one question type of the listening section (and a cluster of grammar questions I didn’t do well on, but that I know how to solve). So the problem for the purposes of taking the test isn’t as bad as I had expected, but it did indicate a specific failure in my current studying strategy. Knowing that there is a problem is simple enough. I needed to do some more research to find better solutions. This ended up getting me into a research rabbithole, involving some of the following questions (and answers):

1. How the heck do you effectively train your listening skill? I found this out by reading this series on a Mandarin learning site.
2. Where are some accessible resources that won’t require me to look too much up? Turns out looking up material that people make graded for your textbook is an excellent way to start. For Japanese learners using Genki, Japanese with Shun has a great playlist of mercifully short podcasts, and Tokini Andy has a ever-growing Immersion section on his website.
3. How might I be able to get to a point where I don’t need to look up as much? A convincing article tells me that expanding your “passive vocabulary”, ie just things you’re able to recognize but not necessarily use, is the key here.
4. How the heck do you use language learning podcasts (with transcripts) anyway? No one tells you! But this article provided some guidance.
5. Where can I find more practice questions in case I go through all my books? Google.

The main conclusion I ran into was that I needed a lot more input then I realized. And that I’ve been focusing a little too much on output. To alleviate that, I’ve identified 3 things to focus on and build good habits around. If I do them with the right resources, they should be self-reinforcing and overall less work. And if I do them sustainably, I’ll have healthier study habits that will last well past the test.

1. Train listening skill
2. Learn and acquire a much larger passive vocabulary
3. Review grammar knowledge

My notes for these are getting longer and longer (and I promised myself I’d write shorter posts so I can post more frequently), so for the time being this is where I’ll stop. Tune in next time for my strategies in tackling those focus points!