Sunday, October 22, 2006

Bump

That's the sound of me coming back down to earth after taking another JLPT 2 kyuu practice test today. I only got a rather disappointing 54%, which is a full 12% down on last time and, more importantly, a fail. This time I used the 2nd test in this Unicom book and it is obvious that it is much harder than this other book of practice tests which I've also been using. However, there are still another 6 weeks which should be about enough time for another 6% improvement, even if this harder style is the more accurate guide to the real thing. To be honest I've been a bit lazy in recent weeks as I thought I was already quite comfortably up to the required level. This result may motivate me to start taking it more seriously again!

There was one bright spot - over the last 3 weeks I've ploughed right through to the end of the grammar syllabus (using this book) and I passed that section, with a higher mark than any I've previously reached (even in the easier tests). I've still got a lot of reading practice to work through now and my teacher is threatening me with the 2004 paper as yet more exam practice.

2 comments:

EliRabett said...

FWIW, you might think of dropping back a level. After all, you plan to be in Japan a while. But then again, I am a scardy Rabett.

James Annan said...

Eli,

Too late for that! The deadline for entering the exams was some time ago. If they weren't at exactly the same time, I might have entered both levels, but actually the 3kyuu is way too easy and I wouldn't learn much by taking it. I still think I have a fair chance of passing the 2kyuu, especially if I do a bit of work...