So finally, I finished my JLPT N5 today. Yay! (^_^)

And I found my weaknesses and my strengths through the exam. It was totally worth it even if it was “mere” N5. I’ll go section by section but obviously I can’t tell the questions.

Vocabulary: The 25 minutes section was the first one and contained 32 questions I think (Not very sure but the number was in 30s). Now, when I saw the answer sheet mentioning the number of questions, I panicked! That meant less than one minute for each question including the marking time. But this, kind of led me to finish the section on time.

The most enjoyable portion I found here was Kanji. I was always clueless as to how to learn Kanji but guess everyday reviews really help a lot. I’ll recommend an app called JLPT N5 by V-Next Software which helped me a lot apart from the regular flash cards practice or studying from lists. I would take the Kanji test every morning just after I wake up  And in three weeks, it did wonders! I’ll review it in my next post.

The types of questions? Hmm… I don’t remember much but I do remember that there were four or five questions which had parts making a total of 32 problems. One of the questions was to replace Kanji with their readings according to the sentences.

Reading and grammar: My weakest section! I didn’t know a lot of words in the questions and could think of them from context or my intuition developed from watching anime. There were a lot of times when I would read a sentence to fill in the blanks with all the options and something would click in my mind that I had heard the type of sentence before.

Anyways, there were 35 problems in all which included particle filling in the blanks, replacing a part of the sentence with similar meaning phrase, assembling the options to form a meaningful sentence and then marking a part of it and comprehensions and the time allotted was 50 minutes.

Comprehensions were a little tough considering that they were lengthy but only one or two questions were asked. (They actually had a page long paragraph and only one question was asked of it! （￣□￣；）)

The number of questions were less but it takes time to form a meaningful sentence from the options and read the whole passage to find that one useful info you need to solve the question. I still need to improve this.

Listening: For me, it was a breeze! I finally can say that those four years weren’t a waste. I adapted myself to listening to Japanese! I was so happy when they were calling the practice questions before beginning of each question, the sir in my class had to tell others that it was practice whereas I knew what they were saying. Moreover, the speed was quite slow for me, might be suitable for a total beginner who doesn’t get involved much in hearing Japanese.

And for this section, you just need to listen carefully, nothing else, and mark the answers as soon as possible. The audios aren’t repeated even once so if a question is gone, it’s gone! Ah! This section had four type of questions with parts ahead which would make around 22-25 questions in 30 minutes.

Other things: I had no idea that the test would be full 3hrs test. Yup, you read right! There were breaks in between the sections and that would make the test, a full 3 hours exam. Not to mention the time before the exam for finding and arranging the seats and all.

After thoughts: it was probably the first time that I appeared for an exam without any worry or pressure. When reaching the venue, I was a little nervous, but once I occupied my seat, I was completely relaxed. After all it was just for me and by my will. And I had nothing to lose. Even if I don’t pass, I have no regrets now. And it did motivate me, a lot. Now I can start with the next level and more revisions for this levelヽ(★ω★)ノ .

The people were from all age groups from 12 years old to probably 40 years old. The arrangement was good and the teachers were very helpful. they took care of everything, especially listening section. Otherwise who tells when the questions are starting and when is mike testing going on?

I remembered one more thing. I desperately need a speaking partner. I do have a lot of Japanese friends but no one has yet agreed to speaking exercises. Today, every class had a Japanese person too to watch over the examinees. When my classroom’s sensei asked me if I had been to Japan, first of all, I was taken by surprise. We were three people in the class and I was unable to answer her. I stuttered! I understood what she was saying the moment she spoke but even then I asked her to repeat her question. So embarrassed (*/□＼*).

So if someone out there is learning Hindi and is native Japanese and wants a speaking partner, please, please comment in the box below or contact me through the means provided on the blog. I would be very very thankful. I need to take my speaking skills to next level too, though JLPT doesn’t test it!

Alright. Now is the time to analyse where I stand after so many years of passive learning and mere days of active Japanese learning.

I have always been apprehensive about my studying techniques. And I have read a lot of blogs regarding the same. Everybody says a different thing. Obviously it’s what suits them the best. And after reading many a times, I have reached exactly the same conclusion, there is no best technique at all (not that I am qualified enough to say that (^_^)).

My study techniques have involved flash cards making and flash card apps, revising the lists, practise writing, taking quizzes through various apps, one word a day apps etc etc and of course, watching hours and hours of anime and drama. The extensive use of some apps have been very useful! (I’ll review some of them in the near future)

After everything, I have come to know that there are a lot of things which are beyond N5 and I know them. Sometimes, I would see a kanji in my dictionary and lo, I know it because I saw it in the OP of some anime. Whereas, there are a lot of N5 vocabulary that i still don’t know. I might have heard the word but I don’t know the meaning or I might not have heard it at all. Or I might know the meaning of certain kanji but I might not know it’s Japanese pronunciation.

And I don’t know about you but for me these two things have been very important till now (which I discovered very recently （￣□￣；）). First, if I learn some new word and I hear it the same day or subsequent days in some anime, it gives me ultimate happiness. “Oh! I just learnt that word and it means this~ Great!” That leaves a very deep impression and I won’t forget the word, ever (Yeah, it keeps ringing in my head, for like a whole day! (☉__☉”)).

Second, people talk about learning vocabulary by associating them with something related. For me, even if it’s unrelated and I think of something to associate the word with, it works for me. I’ll give an example: “しんせつ” (shinsetsu) in Japanese means kind, gentle. First thing that came to my mind was “shin” the part of the body (I don’t know why. Please don’t judge me on that (#／。＼#)). Now it has nothing to do with kindness but whenever I try to remember this word, my mind automatically goes to shin, kind, shinsetsu. I know it’s a lol thing but works fine for me (I do hope this will resonate with some people out there).

Anyways, I need to practice a lot more before I appear for the test in these 10 days. On a side note, I would like to tell all those people who think taking N5 is futile just because it won’t be accepted anywhere in Japan and it’s funny to appear for it. Please! There are a lot more people out there who get motivated by these things which appear funny to you. Don’t take that from them. Even I needed to start somewhere. I chose N5 not because I want to prove someone, but I need to test myself and see where I stand and what I need to do next.

I very well understand, N5 won’t take me anywhere in Japan, but there is something beyond finding jobs with my JLPT certification and I want to achieve that – the satisfaction of learning the language myself and testing myself. (Yes, yes. I got flustered after I saw people dropping the idea of appearing for N5 just because other people said it was super easy and not worth it. What does that make me? o┤*｀□´ *├o)

Whatever, I’ll stop my rant here for today ! I so wanted to upload pics of my kanji practice notebooks. Guess, I have become a pretty notebooks buff too after reading so many blog posts of fellow bloggers using various stationery. But this room of mine and my sister’s is such a big mess, that I don’t know where they would be right now. Oh, well! I’ll do it some other day.