I've been self-studying with Genki for a little while now, and plan to take the level 4 JLPT this year. By that time I'll (hopefully) be done with Genki I and probably be in the first third or so of Genki II. What I'm wondering is, what kind of overlap is there between the Genki books and the JLPT regarding kanji, vocab, grammar, and all that? Any folks out there have experience with Genki and take level 4? I assume there's going to have to be some outside stuff for me to learn, but I don't really have any idea how much, and how early I should get started studying it.
(By the way, this site is amazing. My progress has been SO much faster since I've discovered it. Well done!)
There is definitely a large amount of overlap between the genki texts and the jlpt. Im not at my house now, but I can run some quick checks later that will tell me exactly how many words and kanji are in the genki texts, how many are in the jlpt level 4, and how much of it is overlapped.
As for the grammar, I skipped 4 and went straight to 3, but the impression I got from 4 was that it was extremely extremely basic, and that someone who has done most to all of the genki books would not have much of a problem covering the additional ground for the 4kyuu.
There are plans in the future for the site to have grammar resources (so you could see an overlap of what is required), but that will not be up for awhile, eventually.
Ill get the numbers for those kanji and vocab overlaps for you (in fact, I might just make a large chart that measures it for all the textbooks on the site, or something where you can tell it what youve learned, and it can tell you what you still need to do.
If you study all of Genki I: There are 391 vocab terms (from the lesson vocab) that are in the jlpt level 4 that you'll still need to study. There are 11 kanji terms (from the lesson vocab) that are in the jlpt level 4 that you'll still need to study. If you study all of Genki II: There are 271 vocab terms (from the lesson vocab) that are in the jlpt level 4 that you'll still need to study. There are 1 kanji terms (from the lesson vocab) that are in the jlpt level 4 that you'll still need to study.
Now, if you include the darkened vocab terms in the kanji lists If you study all of Genki I: There are 341 vocab terms (from the lesson vocab) that are in the jlpt level 4 that you'll still need to study. If you study all of Genki II: There are 219 vocab terms (from the lesson vocab) that are in the jlpt level 4 that you'll still need to study.
So, just to clarify... You're saying that for instance if I study all of Genki I, there are 391 vocab terms I need to learn [i]in addition[/i]to what's in Genki to be ready for the level 4 test? Not too bad... I guess the sooner I get started the better.
That's really helpful. Thanks a lot!
Oh, and the idea you mentioned of the chart with all the textbook overlap sounds really appealing. Or telling it what you've studied and it telling you what else you need... that would [i]really[/i] help people move between texts, or use any text to study for a given test. I know I'd certainly make use of it!
I'm in a rush to get a few more features in before renshuu 1.0 is officially closed and renshuu 2.0 becomes the main site, so I probably won't be able to focus on this until after then. However, I'm equally excited about getting this feature put together, so it'll definitely happen at some point.
