How to Pass JLPT N2

Now that you know what the JLPT is from my last article, you might be wondering how to pass it. Well, you are in luck! I took and passed the two hardest levels of the exam, and in this guide and the upcoming N1 guide you will learn exactly how I did it.


N2 is the lowest level of the JLPT which still is hard enough to put on a resume.

 It is the second hardest level, and the format is much like the hardest level (N1) if you decide to take that later on. I do believe anyone can pass N2 if they put in the effort, and have the motivation to pass it.

When I passed N2 I had a lot of things working against me:

• It was my first JLPT, so I didn't know what to expect.
• I was a full time college student, meaning I had to devote less time to Japanese.
• I didn't live in Japan, thus I didn't have many chances to make use of Japanese in my daily life.

In spite of these things, I passed, and I believe anyone can do the same.

The exam has three parts: Vocabulary/Grammar, Reading, & Listening. I'll get into these in more detail later on.

Before Studying for N2

Before studying for the exam, make sure you have finished these things :

• Remembering the Kanji I or another book which covers all the General Use (常用, jouyou) Kanji

• Core 2000/6000 Anki deck or equivalent

• Basic grammar, such as in Tae Kim's Guide.

To study for the exam, you will need:

• Kanzen Master Grammar 2kyuu or N2

• Anki

• An N2 Anki vocabulary deck

• Lots of native media and books

• A book of mock tests

• Past tests

Optional:

• Other JLPT prep books

• A smart phone with a dictionary and text reader app/A denshi jisho

Vocabulary

Complete the N2 vocabulary Anki deck while adding sentences and deleting known words as necessary). If using a vocabulary prep book as well, after you complete it, cross check the words that you learn with the Anki deck, and learn any new words.

Prioritize vocabulary over everything, even grammar, and put new words from from Japanese media/books into Anki. Vocabulary is likely the single most important thing to know for the test. If you surround yourself with native media and books, most of the things on the test will seem almost too easy.

Grammar

For grammar, go through Kanzen Master, adding all sentences to Anki while making vocab cards for any new words. Make sentences of your own using the grammar points if that helps. It might be helpful to add sound (via the GoogleTTS plugin, or another way), and repeat sentences aloud after the sound for it plays.

There is a flaw about relying too much on JLPT grammar books. Kanzen Master's explanations are very bare bones, so it would be advised to add explanations from kokugo dictionaries, the "Green Goddess" Kenkyuusha dictionary, the smaller Kenkyuusha dictionary available online, Niwasaburou's guide, and/or 日本語表現文型辞典 to the back of flashcards.

Image source

Reading

 There are two main schools of thought when it comes to reading:

• The "Read without using a dictionary" method, AKA Tadoku.
• The "Look up every word you don't know" method.

While I think both methods of reading are be useful, and my use of them switches depending on the type of book I read, I tended to use another technique when getting ready for the reading section.

I learned it from someone I knew who was fluent in English & Japanese.
It involves reading each page three times.

1. Read normally and don't look up any words.
2. Read/scan the page, and look up new words, adding them to a list for adding to Anki later.Read the page as quickly as possible.

Now, different things work for different people, but this really helped quicken my reading speed, as well as build my vocabulary, and it doesn't take as long as it sounds. After the first 20-50 pages of a book, new vocabulary would often drop to a few per page.  Ultimately I don't think it matters how you read too much, as long as you read something in Japanese everyday, and keep putting unknown words into Anki.

Make sure at least some of what you read is actually on paper, printed vertically.  People read differently on screens and paper (I read faster on paper), and a lot of the reading passages have vertical text.

As for what to read, I'd recommend essays and literature. I just read literature, because I really like it, and I still passed, but most of the reading passages on the test are essays.

Now, I have heard of some people who passed the test by reading manga. While it is great to read manga, and I am a huge fan of it myself (and read some between practicing for the test), it is extremely important to get used to reading books.  Many people run out of time on the reading section, I finished it with 20 minutes to go because I was used to reading, scanning, and speed reading in Japanese.

Whenever I read something that is hard to put down, I read faster, so find something that really interests you. If you find a book which turns out to be boring, find another. Book recommendations from Amazon.co.jp or Dokusho Meter book recommendations  are good for finding similar books to those you already like.

What makes reading frequently a little easier is to have text books on your smartphone, to read anywhere. At the time, I bought a Blackberry (without a phone plan) for sole use as a text reader/EPWING viewer, but now I use an android phone with similar apps. Here are the popular text reader and apps I know of:

Text Readers:

iOS: iBunkoS, Skybook
Android: Vertical Text Viewer
Blackberry: Mobipocket
Other smart phones: Mobipocket

EPWING viewers:

iOS: EBPocket Free or Pro
Android: Droidwing, EBPocket Free, EBPocket Pro
Blackberry: EBReader
Other smartphones: EBPocket

Note that I have not tested any of these except the Blackberry and Android ones, but the rest are pretty popular, and they are frequently recommended by Japanese learners.

Once you have a text reader and dictionary app, try to spend most free moments when you have nothing to do (i.e waiting in line, taking a train, etc) reading. I only bought a smartphone after taking the N2, but it would have made the act of reading frequently much easier then.

Listening

Listening is the part of the test that people can't really "study" as much for. Each audio track is only played once, followed by a brief silence for people to write down their answers before the next track begins.The result is that, unlike all of the other sections, there is not much time to think. You either know it or you don't.

One thing that can help though is to listen to as much natural Japanese as you can. Most of the audio tracks either sound like conversations, or something you would likely hear on the news. I made a habit of playing podcasts with more than one person talking, and TV news streams. If you can follow along with both these kinds of media, then passing the listening section is a matter of how much vocabulary you know. The N2 audio tracks themselves are very textbook-like, and slower than most media.

Try to vary the types of media you listen to as well. I am a big fan of anime, and watched a lot of it in between studying for the test, but I didn't consider it "studying for the test".

Anime is usually slower (either that, or much, much faster) than unscripted Japanese, and usually not formal enough to compare to something like the news. I didn't consider any scripted media besides the news to be "studying for the test", though others may think differently. That doesn't mean you can't watch it for Japanese immersion (or just plain fun) though.

One thing to pay attention to during the listening test is the sound of people laughing. Some of the possible answers usually contrast so much with the question, that they are pretty funny.  Stressed test takers will laugh at anything even remotely funny, so hearing the sound of laughter can help limit off choices if you are getting stuck.

General advice:

Do mock tests and past tests so you know what the question formats are like. Native media is good, but you need to know the test as well. It's fine to start off not having the tests timed, to see how you would do under ideal conditions, but be sure to do some in similar conditions to the test. This includes having time limits, as well as sitting at a desk.

It helps to have some JLPT quiz apps handy if you have a smartphone.I passed N2 without them, but they would have been a great help, and were invaluable when I went on to N1 study.

In the end, all the test is doing is saying is "This test is a little easier than most works intended for native Japanese people, do you understand it?" or rather "Can you still understand it after you have been in a hot room with a bunch of nervous test takers, answering questions for three hours?" To pass it, you will need to understand around 80% of most (non-technical) media, and that is the real reward.

This is the second article in a short series of posts for JLPT week. Next time I'll write about how I prepared for and passed N1, the hardest JLPT level.

If you have any questions about JLPT testing, or perhaps some stories of your own experience with JLPT, please check out my JLPT Q&A thread to continue the discussion!