I passed kanken level 2

tldr: I passed kanken levels 8 through 2 in just over one year. Level 4 and above is easily passable by anyone with a decent level of Japanese and more people should think about taking it. [Online result](https://imgur.com/a/fJLWdm7).

Around the end of 2021 I decided I wanted to pass kanji kentei level 2 and started studying for it. I did rtk a few years ago and really enjoyed learning to write kanji, but I only reviewed individual kanji and not writing words, so I wasn’t able to actually write Japanese. I got annoyed by this and stopped studying writing completely. I watched all of Bret Meyers videos on YouTube and saw how he passed level 1 and it inspired me to try and pass level 2. I didn’t know what level to start at and he started at level 8 so I just did the same. I had already passed N1 and was working as the only foreigner in a Japanese company. I wasn’t starting from zero.

I bought the Step books and went through each book doing one section a day and reviewing everything I got wrong. Then I used a book of previous tests before taking the test. Each level took around a month and a half. Starting at level 3 yojijukugo are on the test. I created an anki deck and every time I came across a yojikugo in the book I was using I added it to the deck and practiced writing it. I originally had the Japanese definition on the front and the word and English definition on the back. It was honestly painful because many of them have similar meanings and trying to go from meaning to yojijukugo can be really hard.

For example:

孤軍奮闘：助けがない状況でよく戦うこと。

孤立無援：たった一人で助けがない状態のこと 。

I started putting the yojijukugo on the front and the meaning in both languages on the back and this worked really well. For level 2 I went through the past test book and put every yojijukugo into a python script that sorted them by most common and created anki cards for them. Then I added any new ones I encountered studying. I got 100% on yojijukugo on both level 3 and 2.5; I haven’t got my score yet for level 2 but I knew every one on the test. Unless I wrote a kanji wrong, it should be 100% as well.

I’m taking a break from kanji for the next few months, but I did buy a book of 20 past tests for level 1.5. There are an additional 839 kanji and I plan to study 5 a day from June and finish around November/December and take the February 2024 test. I don’t think I will go past this level because it is a huge commitment that would most likely take 3-4 years at least. I think kanken is a great test at higher levels because you have to have a lot of vocab knowledge and really understand the kanji. The test seems to have only a few really hard or rare words/kanji. The rarest thing I saw on the test was 造詣 in the last writing section.

**What I used:**

* I used [the Step books](https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/gp/product/4890964010/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4) and the [the same companies past text book](https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/%E5%85%AC%E7%9B%8A%E8%B2%A1%E5%9B%A3%E6%B3%95%E4%BA%BA-%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E6%BC%A2%E5%AD%97%E8%83%BD%E5%8A%9B%E6%A4%9C%E5%AE%9A%E5%8D%94%E4%BC%9A/dp/4890964886/ref=sr_1_17?qid=1679351470&s=books&sr=1-17&text=%E5%85%AC%E7%9B%8A%E8%B2%A1%E5%9B%A3%E6%B3%95%E4%BA%BA+%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E6%BC%A2%E5%AD%97%E8%83%BD%E5%8A%9B%E6%A4%9C%E5%AE%9A%E5%8D%94%E4%BC%9A) they were great. For level 3 I tried using a different book, unfortunately, I cannot remember the name because I threw out the book after each level. I thought the Step book was a lot better than the other one, so I didn’t continue with the series, but there are other kanken books so be open to trying to them out.
* I also used my 3DS and played kanken training 2 a lot. I used the original DS game from 2006 for a little but ended up buying the 3DS version. It’s a great game to practice with, but it does have a few problems. The algorithm to recognize what you wrote can be really annoying. It can have a hard time with う and ら and your kanji can often become an obscure kanji you’ve never seen before but is almost identical to the one you wanted to write. One example is the right side of this kanji 壌 it becomes 壤 (the Chinese version) a lot. I also bought the Switch game that came out recently but it was pretty bad and sold it. The 3DS one is a lot better.

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**Hardest Section:**

* For my the hardest sections were 類義語と対義語, 異字同訓 and 誤字訂正. I got better at 類義語と対義語through practice and it is easy now, but I’m still awful 誤字訂正.

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**Easiest Section:**

* The reading section in the beginning is by far the east section on the test. You only have to write the reading of the kanji. After that radical and 漢字構成 and 送り仮名 can also be pretty easy as well.

**Taking the Test:**

* The paper test is offered 3 times a year in February, June and October. I was planning to take the February test this year but I had plans on the date so I never tried taking the paper test. You can take a test on the computer at a test center whenever you, and this is how I took the test each time. The computer test only goes up to level 2.