12/7/08
Nakatani Apartment, Nagoya

Ugh test. I'm so bad at standardized testing, especially super-ultra-standardized Japanese testing. I studied and studied, but it didn't occur to me to study any math. On the first portion of the test, I miscalculated/lost track of time, and all of a sudden pencils went down before I could go back and fill in the ones I didn't know (multiple choice). So, on the first test, I know I got exactly 65%, because that's the amount of questions I knew for sure and marked.

The second test, the listening test, went ok for the most part. There was this kid behind me who was practically snoring awake, and it got bad enough that I missed a question because of it. I have no idea where I landed on the third test (grammar), though I kept track of time pretty well. I think I did well, but particles are the sort of thing that are easy to get wrong at the top of your lungs. I'll find out sometime next February.

There were thousands of people taking the test, I think every foreigner in Aichi was at that university today. The poor little train station was packed, but on the bright side it made it really easy to figure out where I was supposed to go for the test. Moo.

I spent the rest of the day organizing and packing for my trip tomorrow (and we went out to dinner, nom). I'm going north to the Hokuriku area for a week, staying at various tutors' houses and going to a ton of Labo Parties.

3 comments:

mamagotcha said...

Okay, I'm a horrible mom, but why exactly are you taking this test?

In any case, you're on the other side now, booyah!

Jeff said...

Supposedly it looks good on resumes of people who are interested in jobs involving Japanese translation or in attending a Japanese university. Since he tackled level 4 (the easiest), if there really is value in the resume-polish then he has three more levels of testing he can tackle.

See Wikipedia, which unfortunately offers no clue that mathematics is covered. (Perhaps he can edit the entry....)

Anonymous said...

Jees Louise!

(You know, JEES. Japan Educational Exchanges and Services, the organization that administers the test. Um. *hides*)