According to the Japan Foundation's website, the JLPT will get an overhaul in 2010, and will be available in five levels instead of four. A quick overview is on there as well: http://www.jlpt.jp/e/info/index.html
How do you all feel about that? Will it change any plans? (And is マイケル glad he has a whole year before he really needs to overhaul the jlpt content? xD)
I need to figure out whether I want to take 4kyuu or 3kyuu next year - though I guess I'll know better by the time August rolls around.
Won't change much for me; sure it'll be a pain splitting up the vocab, but I think an additional test level is good; there really is a HUGE gap between 2 and 3 when compared to what's between 3 and 4, so this will give the students a chance to progress at a more realistic pace.
Apparently 1-kyuu will be more difficult in the new test, so I am wondering if they are going to differentiate between old 1-kyuu and new 1-kyuu in any way (I don't want to have to take the new JLPT as well if I managed to pass this time around!).
I was planning on taking JLPT3 this December, but since in the past I delayed JLPT4 by two years (due to time issues), there's no telling I'll make JLPT3 for sure.
Do you folks think I should just skip this year and take the N4 in 2010 instead? I'll be done with university by then so I'll have plenty of time. Plus I sorta feel like our regular JLPT results won't mean much once the new system is in place. Do we get to "claim" N-level automatically, like on a resume? Will they send replacement certifications (in exchange of a small fee of course)?
Sorry for the vague questions, just looking for opinions on the new test format VS current.
So has anybody heard anything more about N3? I understand that they don't want people studying specifically to lists, but unless they give us [i]some[/i] idea of what we'll be tested on, it's difficult to study at all. For now my plan is just to study for N2, but take N3 (since there's no way in hell I'll pass N2).
Maybe after the test in July (in Japan, at least) more info will crop up?
(I'm still peeved that I just passed level 3, and now I'm studying for... level 3. But that's a whole different rant!)
ジャック、if you're going to study for N2, you might as well take N2. That's my opinion at least!
Not having a list upon which to base your study schedule is definitely annoying, but I wouldn't count on more info cropping up even after the test in July. The only way I can see that happening is if a huge amount of people fail the new tests. I know they're trying to make it tougher, but even they probably have a threshold they don't want to cross.
I intend to study genki 2 and minna no nihongo 2 in these summer vacations (I'm almost finishing genki 1 and mnn 1).
One of my japanese teachers teaches us how to speak like a native (she sends us some grammar points that don't appear in genki and mnn 1, some little stuff but very usefull.) She says that if we study till lesson 50 and with the preparation she will give us in october and november we will pass jlpt3.
But doesn't mnn only cover jlpt4 (out of the 5 levels)?
Mnn1 - jlpt 5 mnn2 - jlpt4
I also have an integrated approach to intermediate japanese (which I intend to study after mnn and genki2). But I know I will not be able to study it fully until december.
