2010 JLPT countdown - 12 days.

For the past few weeks, my weekly Japanese lessons have focused on the listening portion of the JLPT. We started with old 2008 and 2009 JLPT questions, and most recently practice questions from the 日本語能力試験N2予想問題集 (Japanese Language Proficiency Text Practice Questions for Level N2) text, published by 国書日本語学校.

For the most part, listening comprehension (聴解) for the N2 level is quite easy for me, however there's a new format of questions that even had my teachers reaching for the answer guide.

The new format starts with two sets of answers for one dialog, there will be two questions. On the que, the dialog starts; it's quite long with lots of details. After the dialog ends, the first question is asked, then the second. This is the difficult part, because before the dialog you don't know what questions are going to be asked.

My suggestions for this type of question are: 1) go over the answers before the dialog is read, if you have time 2) take what notes you can but it's more important to listen to the dialog. If you get stuck taking notes, and lose track of what information is happening to who, you'll have a hard time answering the question. A good memory is really helpful :-)

How are you all coming along in your preparations? If you have any of your own suggestions, please pass them along in the comments.