One thing I wish I had realised earlier is that school and exams are not really that great a measure of your ability in a subject. In the end, tests and exams are an imperfect way to test people. You can be amazing at a subject or area but do poorly in an exam. Conversely, you can just so happen to know one tiny area of a subject really well and that ends up being a large chunk of an exam. In the former you look like an idiot, and the latter you look like a genius but it doesn’t really say much about what your actual ability is.
I like to use the analogy of a game: the exam or test is like a competition in which you can score points. Points are only awarded for certain actions and not awarded for other actions. So it is important to consider the most effective way to get the most points possible and the best way to avoid making mistakes so you lose as little points as possible (if the exam is such a test that allows minus points).
So the important thing is to be prepared and ready. As the old saying goes, if you fail to prepare, prepare to fail. So let’s look at some specific JLPT questions that can cause some issues for those unfamiliar with the format.
You can take practice JLPT tests on the official website to get a feel of the different types of questions. We’re going to look at two types of questions, one I called the star questions, and the other I don’t have a name for…
Star Questions
These questions really throw people. I’ll show you the example from the JLPT website.
The explanation (in green/yellow) is below the actual question (and you will only get the explanation above the first question in the actual exam). In effect, you are given a sentence with 4 blanks. The star will always be in the same position, the 3rd spot. Your task is to choose what will go in the star position, numbered 1 through 4 in blue.
As always, these questions follow the JLPT philosophy which is, pick the the most appropriate answer. There are some hints to look out for when considering what words go where. One thing is that grammatical rules still have to be followed, so look for obvious particle pairing with verbs, nouns etc.
In this example, you have a の at the beginning which probably means you have a noun coming after it. As this is a N1 question, this doesn’t help much as all the 4 choices can go here. But you may recognise the pairing of やすみのたびに as a possible phrase whereas 休みの片付けようと and 休みの思いながらも don’t really make sense.
The next thing to look at is that we have a と particle at the end of one of the choices and then 思いながらも as one of the other choices. These are very common pairings, especially when you consider you have the plain form volitional before it.
Now that we have the two pairings of 休みのたびに + 片付けようと思いながらも, you just have to consider where 今日こそ will go. I used to like to draw lines placing the words in the empty spots to help visualise these types of problems. In the end, 今日こそ will go between the two pairings and so the correct answer is 1 片付けよう
Picking the appropriate word
I never really liked this section of the exam, it was definitely one of my weak points. The idea is that you are presented with a word and then 4 sentences. Each sentence is using the word but one of the sentences will be the best usage of this word. This section of the exam tests whether you know your definitions and synonyms really well.
労わる is a hard word, and notice that the kanji is not used. This is by design, as if you don’t specifically know the word いたわる but have the kanji, you can have a guess at the word’s meaning just by the kanji. So the JLPT wants to test your vocabulary separately from your kanji ability.
I wasn’t particularly sure on what this word meant myself, but I thought it had the meaning of to exchange something or to hand something over (I was actually thinking of the word 至る). The dictionary definition of いたわる is as follows:
Reading through all 4 sentences, I felt that 2 and 3 were weird. I was left choosing between 1 and 4. Four’s sentence in particular made me think that いたわる must mean protect or maintain and so I chose it. In the end I was wrong, but like I said I hate this part of the exam. I think studying for these types of questions is very difficult as it means you have to do in-depth study of words, rather than just going down a JLPT list and learning as many words as possible.
Use these tips to better your JLPT exam technique and get that N1!
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