Idea to emulate maybe?

[Belton]

Not so much a feature request as a here's something to get inspiration from.

I saw this at the BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/listening/

and thought it was a great idea worth adapting maybe? I like the limited chances to play the game! . Only there in French, German, Spanish and Italian. but I love the listening strategy advice. (I tried the French haha!)

[Liz21]

Belton-san!
This is a great idea!! I need this kind of practice! I hope JPOD will be able to do somethiing like this some day, although they already have a lot of great features.

I tried the French, too.

[Alan]

What about the listening comprehension tests in the Learning centre for JLPT, which while not quite as fancy looking, do something similar. I tried one of the level 4 ones & did quite well, but I did listen to the recording a couple of times which is probably cheating.

[Belton]

definatly cheating if you're practising for JLPT to listen more than once.
They stick the CD in, it plays with very little time for answers and when it stops the test is over. Lose concentration for a moment and you're done for. Spend to long pondering your answer and you miss the following question. It's the hardest part of JLPT and also the hardest to practice for. or is that find material to practice with?

What I liked about the BBC thing was the structured advice. And the multimedia aspect, it was quite visual which I like.
If it was in japanese I suppose I would have posted it in Reviews.

Just thinking out loud again I guess.

[Alan]

Point taken about the advice. I only had a superficial look at it.

Yes, I thought listening more than once would be cheating However my main weakness is in reading the questions quickly enough (poor kanji skills). If I read and understand the questions first, then the listening comprehension isn't a problem (I do a lot of listening). However if I listen first and then read the questions, I've forgotten the conversation by the time I've figured out the question. I don't think I'll be quite ready in time for this year's JLPT4; another years study first should do it.

[Belton]

Well you're getting near to the cutoff for applications maybe.

Have you tried an actual JLPT past paper? (They cost about £10 in Japan Centre) The questions in the Learning Centre are much more difficult than the actual test. In the test the question is part of the recording. I think coming after the little conversation.

Section 1 you have little pictures to help. basically you have two states to figure out. So a woman buys a short coat with big buttons, you have to figure that out and pick the right picture. The pictures have two short coats two long coats each with small and large buttons. or it's a sequence of events you need to pick up on. take a bath before or after a meal. and so on.

Section 2 has no pictures. And you are given 4 statements about the conversation. you have to choose true or false for each one and only one is true. This one is trickier.

Statistically listening is the part that gets the lowest marks with the people in Japan doing 10% better than people outside Japan but still noticeably lower than the other papers. I made up for a shortfall by strengths in kanji and grammar papers.

But if you are ok with jPods podcast material and grammar points to date, and especially if you are ok with Intermediate lessons I think you can pass JLPT4. it only takes 60%. If you've completed JFBP book 1 you have 90% of the grammar and probably all the vocab, the kanji are fairly straightforward (only 104, numbers natural objects, directions, time, people) if you've been learning kanji on your own I think you'll know them. All the written questions on JLPT4 are in kana with spaces not kanji. (except the kanji questions which are only 12% of total marks if that)

from your posts I'd guess you could do it, there's still 3 months.

Go for it! ganbatte ne.

[Alan]

The application deadline's close, so I've been testing myself (I have the 2004 & 2005 papers). My conclusion is that I'd ace the grammar, vocab is mostly there - could be better, listening is Ok, but my kanji sucks. If the kanji is only 12%, then I'd probably pass, but since the exam has no intrinsic worth, I've decided to leave it to 2007. Ok, it's a wimp out, but realistically I should be in better shape for the test at this point.

[Airth]

If the kanji is only 12%, then I'd probably pass, but since the exam has no intrinsic worth, I've decided to leave it to 2007.

Alan, Alan, Alan... come on, don't wimp out! You just said you'd probably pass, so why hesitate? You've got plenty of time to nail the kanji; remember you don't have to be able to write them at all. At the very least it might give more focus to your study, plus you have a great chance of passing it setting you up for Level 3 in 2007. What do you say?

[Belton]

If you can score 60% overall at the moment on a dry run against the clock, in 3 months time you'd have no problem. And I think anything over 50% overall and you'd have a fair chance. The kanji really aren't that big a part of the test nor are the kanji used that difficult.
The Learning Centre tests again seem much more difficult that the actual test IMHO.

Go for it. It might be better to stretch yourself now rather than walk it next year. Certainly more warm fuzzy feelings of achievement.

I recommended a very good book that does a really good job of preparing you in a thread here.
http://www.japanesepod101.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=445