Should I do the N3? Any point?

[letianchen]

Hello I am wondering if there is any benefit of talking the JLPT N3 in december. I'm very confident I can pass but I know there is no way I can do the N2. The thing is I am a highschool student going into my last year ( starting next month) , and I plan on talking some japanese courses in university. Would it be useful in the sense that it will make things easier for me to place in a specific level of japanese? Since the next JLPT after this year is next december I can't take 2 until then.

If anyone took Japanese at a Canadian or U.S school mabye they can help me out. Other than for university purposes I don't see a need, but I might be missing something.

P.S, how advanced do japanese courses go in general in Canada and U.S? For example I myself am fluent in french because I went to a pure french school when I was very young, but my friends who have taken classes for 11 years, can barely understand anything and have very limited speaking and grammar, I can kind of understand why after being forced to take these courses at english schools I feel like my french has gotten even worst as opposed to better.

If the japanese courses are similar speed to such, that would be depressing.

 

[nekojita]

Check with the universities you're planning to apply to, both in terms of the content of courses (what books they use, for example), and how easy it is to skip lower level classes. Normally, you would have the option to try and test into a higher level - whether that's with an internal test or whether they take the JLPT or similar into account depends. Either way, you want to skip the very beginner classes as they will be full of time-wasters and probably be quite slow.

It still might be worth it to you to take N3 (depending on how easy it is for you to get to the test site, etc). For example, it will at least give you some experience with taking JLPT under test conditions, so that you don't go into N2 blind. You might find it useful as feedback on where your weak points are.

 

[letianchen]

Thanks for your advice, I'll probably take N3 anyways just for fun.

 

[letianchen]

Hello everyone and this fall I am going to university and am in a bit of a dilemma. I plan on taking third year japanese at my university in my first year( the most advanced course) I looked at the course outline and the material and all of it was my level and I felt if I was going to learn anything it would be in that class, and not anything lower. However the course said that by the end of the course students will bea ble to write 800 kanji with ease. The problem is for the past couple months I havent written any Japanese at all, and right now although I can probably read 1000 kanji or so, I can probably only write 100. What should I do? Just work on writing on my own spare time and take the class that the material seems good to me, or take an easier class because I cant write as many kanji?

P.S im taking the N2 at the end of the year and im pretty confident im gonna pass it lol

 

[Mike Cash]

Wouldn't the course instructor be in a better position to answer your question than us?

 

[letianchen]

I have done just that, thanks.