Best Way To Study?

Ever dream · Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 3:03 am Post subject: Best Way To Study?

I Hopefully plan on taking JLPT 4 exam not this december but next december,
So, with over a year to study, what is the best way?

I thought of making flash cards as I learn vocab, but that would leave me with over 800 cards, so any other suggestions are welcome ^_^

Also, I find grammar to be where I stumble most, is there a nice little way to help me remember grammatical points? I Currently have the book 'Oxford Japanese Grammar And Verbs' Which has some good grammar points in, but has no exercises for rememberence. Also, does it contain all the grammar points for JLPT 4?

And, one last question, is there an minimum age on the test?

Sorry i have asked so many questions!

Droppo · Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 12:25 pm Post subject:

I'm pretty sure there is no age limit.

Everybody has methods that work best for them. The best thing to do is to try a little bit of everything and see what works for you. Smile

I got some great ideas from other people that have really helped me over time.

I work best on a strict schedule; much more so than most people. Here is how I prepare for each part of the test:

Kanji

I started out with flashcards, which worked really well, but I wanted to be able to write and cards didn't really help me with that. So, now I have a series of lined notebooks for each level of the JLPT.

On each page on the top corner, I write the kanji really big to make it easy to find when I flip through the book. Across the top of the page, I write each reading for the kanji. Halfway down the page I write a series of vocabulary words and their English translation. I use the first top half of the page to practice writing the kanji in rows again and again (I write any new kanji 20 times when I learn it, then revisit it whenever I feel shaky and write it 10 or so times again).

This has worked really, really well for me. If you can keep it organized and in some sort of order from the beginning (I didn't think of this method until I was halfway through level 3, so it was pretty messy for a while) you can easily look up which kanji you've already practiced, just in case you forget.

Up until I went through all the joyo kanji, I learned three new characters per day. Now I review five at random per day.

Vocabulary

Learning vocabulary sort of goes hand-in-hand with studying everything else. If you read and study a lot, you'll get all the review you need without really studying vocabulary by itself. For level 4, flashcards are a really good idea, I think. Smile

I would probably make a few cards each day of new words I had learned and review them frequently until I was familiar with most of the vocabulary. When you get to levels 2 or 1 though, several thousand flashcards are probably going to be a bit much. Very Happy

I save 5 new words in my Wordtank to memorize each day. I usually forget half of them pretty quickly though... Sad

That's one of the reasons I have to study so often. Confused

Grammar

There are a lot of good books out there for level 4 grammar. "Japanese for Busy People" is very good, and best of all, there's a kana version! There are very few introductory grammar books actually written in Japanese, so this one is a rare treat for someone studying level 4. There are also books written specifically for JLPT grammar, like the "Kanzen Master" and "Jitsuryoku Up!" series (I've never read their level 4 material though, so I can't really say how good they are).

The absolute best way to remember grammar is to read as much as you can until it sounds so natural you don't have to think of what it means in English. I like to memorize a sentence or two using the particular grammar point I'm trying to learn so that whenever I run across it elsewhere, I can recite that sentence in my head and put the meaning together. After a while it just starts to stick. I don't know of anyone else who does that, so it might only work for me...

I've never read "Oxford Japanese Grammar and Verbs". Sad

Sorry.

Reading

This is sort of a melting pot for every part of the test except listening, so the only way to prepare for this is hardcore memorization and a lot of reading ahead of time. Really, the best thing you can do to prepare for the test- no matter what study habits work best for you- is to read a lot. Try to read anything you can get your hands on that's in Japanese.

And review what you've read as many times as you can stand. This can get really, really boring sometimes. Seriously. It's like they hand pick the dullest essays in Japan for these tests. Level 2 is the worst for that, so brace yourself for it when you get there.

Listening

I honestly don't do much for this one. I rely on high scores on the other parts to carry me through. It's bad, I know, but I hate actually speaking with other people in Japanese, I don't like many Japanese movies, and I have no desire to actually go to Japan. It's just not important to me. When I do work on this one, I just use the CDs that come with the mock tests and see how I do. You'll want to get advice from someone more qualified on this one. Smile

Ever dream · Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 6:15 pm Post subject:

Thank you

I particually like your Kanji idea, I definatly will try it out, By the way, do you know of a site which has all the level 4 kanji on with on an kun readings and an english definition?
I know is a kanji list here, but it doesn't list any of their meanings ect.

And just because you may be interested, I know of a site which (accuratly) Takes a japanese website with Kanji on and places furigana above the Kanji,
http://www.hiragana.jp/

Droppo · Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:22 pm Post subject:

http://kanjisite.com/ has the kanji, readings and English meanings. I think it's a little out of date when it comes to what kanji it lists for what level, but here the list is up-to-date, so no matter. Smile

spurrymoses · Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:32 pm Post subject:

Ever dream · Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 12:31 am Post subject:

^ Oh, I hadn't noticed that, thanks muchly Smile

synewave · Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 10:32 pm Post subject:

Hi Ever dream

We all have our "best" methods of going about things. As far as kanji is concerned, I went from being able to read 500 or so and write maybe 200 to being able to write over 2000 in 6 months using James Heisig's 'Remembering the Kanji' - there is an amazing website www.kanji.koohii.com devoted to the Heisig way.

The first step is meaning and writing. It does NOT mean you will be able to read the kanji you can write. BUT once you know the gist of the characters and how to write them you can move on to the readings. Heisig's maxim "divide and conquer!"

Depends what your aims are as to whether it would be worth doing or not. However as far as I am concerned, it is the single most important thing I've done with regard to learning Japanese.

It might be worth your while listening to some Japanesepod101.com podcasts. Language-wise I think what they do is pretty good.

Why not use electronic flashcards? The applications take care of what you have to review and when. All you have to do is enter your data.

http://repose.cx/anki/index.html
http://mnemosyne-proj.sourceforge.net/

Good luck!

Ever dream · Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 3:34 am Post subject:

Ever dream · Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 3:09 am Post subject:

Also, in case anyone was wondering, I've found out that 'Oxford Japanese grammar and verbs' Does has all (or at least a lot / most) the grammar points needed. It should certainly be good for level 3 also, but as for levels 2 and 1, I am not sure.

Sorry to spam, but I thought someone may like to know ^_^