I sat the JLPT on July the 2nd, and I have taken some rest during the whole month of July (meaning, still doing some Japanese regularly but not studying grammar or anything related to the JLPT). And now I realise that there are only four months left before the next test in December 😱
When self-studying, taking the JLPT gives you a straight road to follow when most textbooks leave you in the wild pretty soon
I tried the N2 level in July, but I don’t think that I will pass it and anyway, prepare for N1 in 4 months would be 無理・むり. So, I’ll try N2 once more, but this time I MUST have it! 😤
To pass the test in July, I studied with the So-matome series. I love this series, I recommend it to anyone who is studying Japanese, not only test takers. It was as fun as a textbook can be, with exactly the proper amount of new information in each chapter. I will maybe do a review of this series, but I must say that there was one disadvantage: the series is too easy compared to the JLPT, at least for the N2 series that I used.
So, for the exam of December, I will prepare with the Shin Kanzen Master series! Opening the books is enough to understand that you have left behind you the comfortable and comforting world of the So-matome series to a somewhat more austere material. You will find no funny drawings that help you memorise your words, kanji and grammar, no English translations, and almost no blank space at all!
So let’s study this austere book and get a perfect score in December!
The following is how I plan to work with the Shin Kanzen Master series for the next four months. (I love doing study plans 😊😋)
Material to study
I went rapidly through all 5 books to determine how many lessons I have to study.
- Vocabulary: 37 lessons. (Each lesson is composed of a list of words and exercises)
- Grammar: 26 lessons which contain several grammar points and exercises + 7 lessons that seem to put together already learned grammar + 15 other lessons that appear to focus on how to use the learned grammar in long sentences correctly. A total of 48 lessons.
- Kanji: There is first a list of 1046 kanji sorted by “sessions”. Then, there are 53 sessions which are composed of exercises using the kanji associated with the session in question.
- Reading: 15 lessons, each very long + a series of reading training exercises that appear in the JLPT.
- Listening: 18 lessons mainly composed of listening activities, each focused on improving a particular skill.
Time left
4 months = 120 days
Study plan
Why make a study plan
Making a study plan doesn’t mean stick to it at any cost (well, in fact, you should ), but it helps to study on a daily basis and keep the goal in sight, especially when you are studying for a test. It’s easy to open your book only when you have the time and realise too late that you won’t be able to complete your book before the test.
That’s especially true with the JLPT where you do have a certain amount of words, kanji and grammar to know. If you skip one day, it is easy to skip two and to end up doing nothing for a week without even realising it. But if you write down your study plan on a calendar, it will be easy to see if you are keeping the pace or not. I use my agenda and write what I need to study every day and what I did study.
I sometimes feel bad when I must admit, face to face with my agenda, that I am far behind my study plan, but I also know that I just need to study two lessons per day instead of one, and to do this for one week, to catch up on the days I skipped. Without study plan, I would probably restart my study where I left it and realise one week before the test that I have only gone through the half of each book.
My study plan for N2 in 4 months
I will start on Monday 31st, to have a full week.
Vocabulary: 3 lessons/week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I don’t think that I can do the exercises the same day that I learnt the vocabulary, I can’t see how this can be effective because you will obviously have to check the new words to complete the exercises. That’s why I will leave a gap of two weeks between the moment when I learn the words of a lesson and the day I do the exercises. Concretely, I will start learning the words of lesson 1 on Monday 31st but I will do the exercises of lesson 1 on Monday 14th, and so on. In other words, from Monday 14th, I will study two lessons per day: the lesson of the day where I just learn the new words, and the exercises of the lesson I learnt two weeks ago.
Grammar: 2 lessons/week, on Tuesday and Thursday. For the grammar, I will do the exercises the same day I learn the grammar because the activities help to understand the grammar point and how or when to use it.
Kanji: learn 10 kanji/day. Here again, I will keep the exercises for later and start them two weeks after. I will make 4 sessions per week, 2 on Tuesday and 2 on Thursday. (I don’t feel like studying vocabulary and kanji on the same day). Concretely, I will start the first two kanji sessions on Tuesday 15th.
Reading/Listening: one lesson every weekend.
End of August
- Vocabulary: 14 lessons studied (words), but only 8 lessons completed (words and exercises)
- Grammar: 10 lessons completed
- Kanji: 320 kanji learned, 12 exercises done.
- Reading/Listening: 4 lessons each
End of September
- Vocabulary: 27 lessons studied, 21 lessons completed
- Grammar: 18 lessons completed
- Kanji: 620 kanji learned, 20 exercises
- Reading/Listening: 9 lessons each
End of October
- Vocabulary: All 37 lessons studied, 34 lessons completed
- Grammar: 27 lessons completed
- Kanji: 930 kanji learned, 38 sessions
- Reading/Listening: 13 lessons each
End of November, and end of the 4 months preparation
- Vocabulary: All lessons studied and completed!! I will also have most of the month to revise the N2 words and make special study session with Anki.
- Grammar: only 36 lessons completed… 😬😨 I know I can’t count correctly… 😩 Well, as I will have finished the vocabulary book by the beginning of the month, I will have to use my free Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to complete the Grammar book, too.
- Kanji: all 1046 kanji learned! The 53 sessions completed!
- Reading: all 15 lessons completed
- Listening: only 17 lessons completed, so I will have to make two lessons on the last week-end.
At the end of November, as I will have finished most of the lessons, I will have time to do the mock tests that are at the end of each book.
Conclusion
By making this study plan, I realise that 4 months are very short to go through all the 5 books of the series. I think that I can do it because I already studied for N2, so most of the material will be revisions and not new material to digest. If you are studying for N2 for the first time, I think that 4 months are a little short. But study plans are flexible!
I will try to hold on to this 4 months plan and get a perfect score at the next JLPT.
About
I’m learning Japanese, Korean and Chinese to read mystery novels and play video games in these languages.
Learning languages has always been one of my favourite hobbies, but I’m not a social person, I don’t like to meet new people and make friends, this is just not me. I keep hearing that languages are meant for communication, that we have to actively use them, talk to people, etc. and for a long time, I thought I was weird to learn languages just for me, just to enjoy media, culture and entertainment in a foreign language, with absolutely zero interest in communicating with natives.
Now I don’t really care what people think, and this blog helped me a lot to stop doubting myself and just do what I enjoy doing.
Reblogged this on Support The Bear and commented:
This may come in handy!
I am going to begin studying for the JLPT N2 at the end of this month and this blog post is going to be so helpful! I need a plan. I also broke down the lessons by week and monthly summary but it just seemed like I didn’t have a good method down. I will be using some of your plan to revise my own! Thanks for sharing.
I am glad it can be helpful! Thanks for your comment and good luck with the JLPT!
It’s really helpful for me.Unfortunately I have only 2 months last. But I will try to pass N2.Thank you and pray for me.
Good luck!! 😊
Hello there – am curious as to how it went? I wrote in July 2019 and am sure I didn’t pass (I simply did not answer enough questions in time), but I really like the tip about the study plan, and I can so relate to putting studying off without one 🙄
Thanks for the great post!
Hello! This study plan has allowed me to pass N2 with good results. I did pass in July with 38/60 in listening and 34/60 in voc/gram. Studying with this new study plan and the Shin Kanzen séries allowed me to upgrade my scores by ten points in December . I got 49 in listening and 48 in voc/gram. It’s not a huge progress considering the work I have put in, but well, my results were better, so… I hope you’ll pass! The results will come soon I think. I wish you the best for your JLPT goals!
Hi, I came across this blog while trying to find a right JLPT N2 study schedule!
coming across this really helped me get my own schedule going.
I am currently using this schedule you created but began a month or so earlier to have an extra month to review and in case other life events interfere with study.
This schedule has been very difficult to fulfill in the beginning, especially since I was never someone who was good at diligently studying for exams! However it has been a lot easier now once I got used to the habit of waking at a proper time to begin studying. This schedule also has been very effective especially during the whole Covid-19 crisis… and how the world has temporarily stopped.
I also have fallen behind several times but was able to gradually catch back up and do some minor adjustments throughout the week to help me stay roughly on schedule.
Thank you for sharing such a helpful system! without it I most likely would not have seen this as possible!
Thank you very much for your comment, I am glad to hear that my schedule was useful!
The preparation for N2 was tough, but I have made huge progress thanks to it. N2 has really been a turning point (even more than N1) and that year of preparation has allowed me to read novels in Japanese for pleasure, without looking up words.
Good luck for the test and your Japanese studies in general!
sir , Can you you give the book list you have used for jlpt?? it might be helpful for me.
Apart from the So-matome and the Shin Kanzen series, I mainly used Korean textbooks, so I’m not sure whether this will be useful for you. Just in case, I used the series 콕콕 찍어주마 and found it excellent and very useful. I also used another series called 한권으로 끝내기 which was also very good.
Thanks for your response. This study plan is very helpful for me. I am little bit curious how to complete 10 kanji in one day. You had learned only kanji with pronunciation or you had learned vocab with kanji. For me , I need two or three days to remember 10 kanji properly.
It was so long ago, I don’t remember exactly how I learned the kanji, but I think that it was kanji + vocab. To be honest, I am not very good with vocabulary, so I more or less accepted the fact that I would not get a good score at the “language learning” section, and I tried to compensate by getting a good score at the “reading” section. So if I only learn kanji + pronunciation, this only helps me for the “Language Knowledge” part of the JLPT, whereas if I learn kanji + vocab, it helps for the “language knowledge” AND the “reading” and “listening” parts as well, so I’d say that it is a better investment.
I also feel like no matter how many kanji and words I memorise, I will always find the “language knowledge” part difficult. I’ve learned tons of vocab, but the final test still contains many words that I don’t know! On the contrary, I found that all that vocab learnt together with the kanji has always proven useful for the other parts, especially the “reading” part.
So overall, I would recommend to learn kanji with vocab, not just because it makes remembering the kanji easier, but also because it helps with all the sections of the JLPT.
Ten kanji per two or three days is a really good pace! You can create your own study plan based on that 🙂
Good luck!