Japanese Kanji Aptitude Test 日本漢字能力検定試験

[andrewjschaub6371]

I spent this past December taking N5 of the JLPT. I want to sign up for N4 this July, so I decided in the mean time I would take the Kanji Kentei in Feb and Jun when it's offered. It seems relatively inexpensive, I think I paid $15, and I signed up for 9級 for this Feb. Has anyone taken it before? I just picked up some practice books for my local japanese bookstore here in Misawa, Aomori.

[Javizy]

I haven't taken it, but I was wondering what the format was like. Have you done any practice tests or anything? I'm assuming you need to know how to write/read all the characters for that level, but I wonder how tricky they make the questions. It sounds like it would be just as much of a vocabulary test, since you need to know antonyms and ateji and be able to distinguish between homonyms. What level are you thinking of taking? There's a wiki page, but it might be outdated because there's more than 1945 jouyou characters now http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji_kentei

[andrewjschaub6371]

These are the best books for it,

http://www.amazon.co.jp/s/ref=ntt_athr_ ... 4%E4%BC%9A

The above link, the books have roughly 20 practice tests. I take them like the real thing, I set my clock to coincide with the time limit on test day and I try to breeze through them. It's something to look into. There is a Nintendo DS game made for it as well to help study for the test,
http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%83%AD%E3%82 ... 390&sr=8-2

They sell for 800 - 1200yen at the local bookstores. They test stroke order. They also test correct strokes. Which is a little difficult for me, because I have taken 5 semesters of Japanese but the teacher wasn't too strict on the appearance of the strokes. I went out and bought a kanji brush and have had the translator i work with correct my strokes. It's a little frustrating to know that I know the correct stroke order and the readings, but that they will be very strict and say it's still wrong.

10 kyu = grade 1 kanji
...
5 kyu = grade 6 kanji

I figure it's a test I can take to sharpen up my readings and kanji inbetween the JLPTs. Just another little focus for my studies that I need since I tend to procrastinate.

I take the test 6 Feb of this year, so after I complete it I'll let you know what it's like. I'm only taking 9-kyuu because even though I probably know ~400 kanji, i don't know them inside and out. I wouldn't be able to recognize all of the readings, and there are several readings for the practice tests which are designed to be purposely tricky. My girlfriend says that they give the kanji kentei at school, and that most japanese students score in the 90s because they have to take Kanji quizzes every single day, so she said come test day there really are no surprises for them on the test.

[andrewjschaub6371]

For those of you who are curious about taking a free mock exam you can goto the official page for the Kanken,

http://www.kanken.or.jp/

[daraconn3460]

I think if you can read that page and find the free mock test, you don't really need to take a kanji test!

[Belton]

Here's a direct link to the sample tests
http://www.kanken.or.jp/mondai/index.html#q9

Remember this is a test for Japanese children and adults. As such it's a real world test of the ability to read and write Japanese. The fee is relatively cheap and you can usually take more than one level at a time (certainly in London at any rate). I'd recommend it to anyone if you can find a test centre.

I've taken 9kyu. It's ok. Mostly it's about vocabulary. Not only vocabulary for the tested kanji but vocabulary and grammar for the sentences they're in. This increases exponentially as you go up the levels. A second language learner could in theory "know" the kyouiku or jyouyou and still not have sufficient vocabulary and grammar to pass the higher levels. You have to work fairly quickly.
You need to write not just choose from multi-choice.
You get a fairly detailed breakdown of your scores and advice on how to improve and a very nice certificate to hang on the wall.
http://www.shiawase.co.uk/2009/12/19/ka ... sult-2009/

At the lower levels at least you are meant to use a pencil. If there is a choice, I'd still say use a pencil.
Using a small brush is very hard to do properly. (IMO)

[andrewjschaub6371]

Yeh I just completed JLPT n5 in December, and until I got my test results I decided to cram for 9-kyuu which was held this past Jan.

It definitely paid off, my vocabulary increasd 2-3x fold. I took he test, it was with a bunch of kids and I was the only foreigner but it was fun. I'll take 8-kyuu in June. I also find it a lot easier tacking the core 6000 on smart.fm since they have the 6000 broken down into kanji kentei steps of 200 each. I think for 8-kyuu they've got like ~750 vocab words in the core 6000 which use the 9-kyuu kanji.

On another note, I got my results back for JLPT N5 and I passed. My plan is that while I'm studying for the JLPT N4 I can study for 8-kyuu. Also by getting a head start on kanji,I can say I'm more comfortable with kanji and vocabulary, giving me more time to focus on my weaknesses, LISTENING and READING. If things go well and I still on track, then I'd like to complete and pass 7-kyuu and JLPT N3 by the end of this year. An impossible goal, but one worth striving for is to be able to pass JLPT N2 by next July, and 6-kyuu by next Jan & 5-kyuu by next June. Of course if I fail a level on the Kentei (which realistically I will, I'll still be learning). Plus since I'm stuck in Japan for 4 years thanks to the US Gov't I may as well learn the language while i'm here.

Also it appears that when I inform Japanese people in Japan that I've taken the nihongo-nouryoku-shiken (JLPT) i get strange looks, but when I told them I was taking the Kanji Kentei (kanken) i got remarks like "sugoi!", "Ganbatte!", "jouzu!"... So like a dog, I tend to respond better to positive comments like that. Now if they would only give me treats in the fashion of sushi and sake...

If anyone out there is considering taking it I would recommend it. Also I've got some books to recommend that I used on my blog in addition to the Nintendo DS game I used.

http://andrew-jlpt.blogspot.com/