What will probably happen is that lists will be compiled from the memories of people that have sat the exam and the various textbooks that will appear. In fact N3 is a good place to start to crowdsource an old-style syllabus. Everyone sitting it could submit what they remember to a central site. If kanji x is on the paper it is a confirmed N3 level kanji and so on.

It’s even less likely that you will get immediate results.
They are going to normalise the results from now on to give a more consistent grade from year to year. I don’t think it was ever feasable to give instant results but it should be faster given that all that needs to be done is bulk scanning of the answer sheets. I think this is done in Japan rather than the exam centres though, it’d be faster if it weren’t centralised. How expensive can those scanners be? Even so the kanken manages to do it more quickly and they give a better response and have to mark by hand as I don’t think they entrust it to OCR.

Sometime in the future maybe they will have a computer based test which should be fairly instant, by which time we will al probably have passed Grade 1 !!

I’m curious how they expect anything beyond mass hysteria if they don’t publish vocabulary lists, or expectaions on grammar etc….

—-Does this mean that they will be able to give you your results as you leave the test site…. Or will we still have to wait for 3 months………………

Matt

“European/hippy route, are doomed. Their economy depends a lot of high tech and stuff, and if they just drop to european education levels of laziness and of encouraging socialization over individual hard work, they are doomed. Well, the Chinese will be pleased.”

Seriously, you’re comparing European “socialism” with China, an actual Communist country?

I think JLPT have actually made it harder at the same time as making it more relevant to actual practical everyday usage. It is not enough to just learn lists by rote, you need to bring other language skills into play.

Academic results don’t equate with practical ability however. English abilities (or lack thereof) are the stuff of legend in Japan. My Japanese nephew for instance can do quite complex grammar problems (that I need to think twice about) and has learnt vocabulary by rote. BUT he can’t speak English or understand spoken English much, because they are not required of him for his exam. So you can’t really say he is being taught English effectively for the 5 years or so he has to take it. He is being prepped to get a high score in an exam. In the same way that I took Latin, French and Irish at school (the old fashioned way, written translations, rote learning, occasional beatings) but can remember very little now. I was thought Japanese in a communicative way and gained much more rounded abilities as a result.

JLPT is merely a test.
It’s setting a required standard of ability, I think it’s an improvement to have it more practical than than a memory test that can be gamed, a hurdle to be jumped to get a piece of paper. It still requires hard work by individuals.
And nor do I think it represents Japanese educational practices. I doubt changing it will impact on their economy.

Besides there’s little you or I can (or should) do about Japan’s educational systems. All we can do is look to our own learning and the education of our own children, probably best achieved by instilling a curiosity and joy in learning. And for my children I’d choose dancing and love of fellow humans over jukus, karoshi, hikikomori, and ijime anyday.

Well, I’ll still try and take JLPT 1 next year, but still. Japan, with the best academic results in the world together with Singapore and Korea precisely because they value hard work over socializing (socialism?) in education, should take the European/hippy route, are doomed. Their economy depends a lot of high tech and stuff, and if they just drop to european education levels of laziness and of encouraging socialization over individual hard work, they are doomed. Well, the Chinese will be pleased

I agree though, that their efforts to modernize the test and put more emphasis on real-life communication skills is a great idea. It’s frustrating that too often people fail the listening section and still get a certificate. For the record, I put a lot of effort into listening and think I did reasonably well there. I also like the fact they’re insisting people meet the minimum score in each section.

As for me though, I am pretty nervous now. I think I will still prepare for the JLPT2 as if nothing’s changed (it’s still just one language afterall) and just make sure I am solid in each section. Since I have in-laws, friends and wife who speak Japanese, I have enough reason to keep trying, regardless of the test circumstances.

Good luck! We’ll all need it. :)