I just took the JLPT N3, and I’m really dissatisfied with how I did. Actually I didn’t feel too confident going in, and I did better than I thought I would. But if my goal is reaching fluency, then this isn’t it. Like I go through the textbook with my teacher on iTalki, then we do a couple of exercises, but a week later I can’t remember those grammar points.
I tried watching more anime, and hearing some of the grammar did help, but I feel like I need a way to retain it that isn’t just hoping to hear it on my favorite shows.
I’m thinking of maybe (after taking a rest since I’m seriously exhausted from today’s test haha) trying to write my own sentences with each grammar point, then asking her to check. But if you guys have better tips I’d really appreciate it!
For now, I’m looking forward to taking a break and focusing on conversation practice with my teacher.
I also need to vent just a bit: I’m kind of a perfectionist and I’m used to going into tests super prepared. This time, I didn’t get to review as much as I needed to because work seriously piled up over the past few months. From now on, I’m only taking the JLPT in July because at least then I won’t have to balance the influx of holiday-related work AND reviewing for the test.
3 comments
I don’t know what you’ve been doing for practice, but the more you work on both production and input, the better you may do. I’d also start writing more so you can see your mistakes easier.
I also just finished N3 today.
After finishing most of Tae Kim’s guide, I used to only look up grammar as I came across them in stuff I read. Two weeks ago, to prepare for N3, I started going through Shin Kanzen Master 文法. I realised a lot of the things I had looked up before had more specific rules governing their use than I had known. At each topic, I struggled to understand stuff and recall the “rules”. In the end, running out of time, I dropped the topical teaching bits midway through, and as a stopgap measure, just did all the assessments to learn from my mistakes.
In the end, I realise I solved a lot of the questions off of intuition built up over many months of just reading, without comprehensively knowing the full set of rules. Yup, my understanding was patchy and there were errors (some which I understood after analysis, and others which I still don’t up til now), but I didn’t have time to be picky.
And today, the test’s grammar section turned out quite a bit easier than Shin Kanzen Master. And I didn’t recall any rules as I solved them. I mostly eliminated obviously wrong answers, then plugged the remaining options into the sentence and read them out in turn, to check which one sounded more “right”.
I do still think it’s great to study the rules – lots of things were falling into place as I went through the topics, many lightbulb moments – but I also think just encountering lots of exemplars is important (vaguely recall Joan Bybee’s exemplar theory from undergrad days). Which will take time. But I really do think language works this way.
I also (mostly pretend to) teach English (badly) for a living on and off, and I often tell my students too: there’s no way you can internalise grammar rules, or remember collocations by rote… you could look up a corpus regularly (or other sources of natural example sentences), or you could just read lots of stuff you enjoy, in a wide range of domains. But just studying grammar guides or usage guides isn’t going to really improve your English grades in the long term. (Those books are called *reference* books for a reason!)
So, TLDR: I think for internalising grammar (for reading, not production)… reading extensively is great.
(But it’s slow I guess. I foresee arguments about optimisation!)
Reading and watching japanese media and deliberately making your own sentence using grammar points in conversations!