With the JLPT just two weeks away, the air in my school has been abuzz with JLPT talk. Our teachers have been prepping us with extra classes outside of our school sessions; students have been asking each other about their exam centres and studies; and others have been expressing worry about its possible cancellation.
There are also some who regret the JLPT level that they have chosen, as they have come to discover that the level they’re aiming for requires much more study than they had thought.
All of this anxiety is only further escalated by Covid-19 concerns, which certainly isn’t helping any. Because for those who have taken the JLPT, they know that focus is just as important as having a good grasp on Japanese.
The reason being? JLPT isn’t only an exam that tests you on your Japanese skills (with the exception of spoken Japanese), it’s an exam that tests you on how you work under pressure. If you can’t take the pressure, it will cost you some valuable points. Thus, the objective of this little post.
When we prepare for the JLPT, the majority of us focus on studying, doing practice tests and bringing the things we need to the exam centre (pencils, erasers, etc). That is all well and good, but for this post, I’d like to bring to light some less-talked-about tips that will help us on the day itself.
Here they are:
Manage your time
Not nearly enough people focus on time management. Many believe that just because they can read Japanese, they will do just fine during the exam.
No, not exactly. While yes, it is good if they can read Japanese (obviously!) but reading is also a skill. It is a skill that only gets better each time you read. The more you read, the faster you get–and this is important because…? The JLPT has a ton of reading passages to get through, and these are notorious for not being completed on time. Many exam-takers stumble over this, anxiety setting in when they realise that they’ve spent way too long on the first few passages that they now have no time to read the rest. This is all the more stress-inducing when you consider that many passages only have 1-2 questions attached to them. And that not all passages come in the same length; there are short, medium and long passages. Can you imagine?
That is a lot of reading to do. In a language that is not your native language.
Thus, get better at time management. Learn to read faster, and even better, time yourself while doing practice tests. Some people actually find that they are faster at answering questions if they do the reading comprehension section first, and then the grammar and vocabulary sections. Others find that is true for them the other way around.
Find the way that works best for you. Remember not to waste any time.
Bring a watch
I don’t know about your exam centres, but when I took the JLPT here in Japan, they covered up the clocks with paper for some reason. On top of that, they didn’t even announce when time was running out during the exam. Which is something that most exam proctors do, right? Right. It’s normal for them to announce the amount of time left, but apparently not for the JLPT.
I remember when I was so absorbed in the exam that I didn’t even realise the amount of time that was left. At no point during the exam did the proctor speak, it was only at the end that she said, “Okay, time’s up. Put your pencils down.”
That was it. Dang. It was a lucky thing that I had just finished.
This is why it is important for you to bring your own watch to the exam centre. No, not a digital watch, but an analogue watch. That is the only type of watch that they allow in the exam hall.
Don’t panic
This is perhaps the most important point of all. Stay calm. Do not panic.
I get it. We all get it. The JLPT was designed in a way that applies pressure on you, to test how you’d deal while under stress. Because trust me, even if you’re fairly confident in your Japanese abilities, you may still come up short if you don’t know how to manage your time. Or you could be just like me; you could just be a bad exam-taker. I know I freak out and get stressed out come exam day–which is honestly, the last thing anyone should do on the day of the JLPT. Stuff that I know, the details would slip from my mind in my panic. I would read a passage and trip up over a single kanji that I do not know, then forget everything else. Even worse, I come across just one word I’m unfamiliar with during the listening exam, and I fail to comprehend the rest of the audio questions because my mind is too fixated on trying to make sense of that one word.
Does this sound like you?
If that is the case, try to prepare yourself for the real thing as much as possible. Take practice tests and time yourself. Work on your weaknesses and do a lot of revision. As you get more used to the language, the less likely it becomes that you’d choke during the real exam.
Do so much that the level of Japanese you’re at is almost like second nature to you.
Good luck.
