Japanese SAT II

Test Preparation
1

<p>I've been studying Japanese for a few years in high school (rising senior) and on the side. I also have a summer to prepare a bit for the test if I decide to take it ... I just got back from a brief trip to Japan, where I found I could understand a lot but am still pretty far from fluent.</p>

<p>I know it's not a very frequently taken test (the SAT II), but if any of you have dared it - how hard is it? How many kanji should one have mastered? I know 250-300 and plan to focus on kanji over the summer ... but I did read, a while back, on this forum that someone had decent confidence in his or her ability to do well on the test, and was rewarded with a very low score =&lt;/p>

<p>I looked over the sample material on collegeboard.com, and it seemed pretty tame to me. I just don't want to spend money on a test to bomb it when I need to take Japanese or choose something over it.</p>

2

<p>i took it last year and got 800. But i don't think i can help you that much because i've lived in japan for 7 years so the test was piece of cake for me. i used barron's book just before the test, and i think it had a decent review section. you might want to look into it. the first listening section is pretty easy but they don't speak that slow. but a thing you can do is (might be considered cheating) that you can pulse every time you are suppose to answer a question. that is assuming you have enough time later on. the second section is mainly picking out right conjunction, preposition, stuff like that. you get to choose from three type of kana, so if you are not that good with kanji, just use romaji. i think the last section of reading might cause you little toruble if you don't know that many kanji. get one of those japanese kanji practice book, and memorize them. other than that i'm sorry i can't really help you. i think reading a raw (in japanese) manga might help you on this one. i collect detective conan, and i know their lines are not easy read.</p>

3

<p>Thanks, that actually helps a bit.</p>

<p>I'll look into getting a study book (I haven't done so yet), and if it's too far beyond my level I shan't attempt it!</p>

4

<p>SAT II Spanish is extremely easy....</p>

5

<p>no hablo espanol =<</p>

6

<p>Slight bump ~</p>

<p>OK, I was wondering, again: how accurate of the full difficulty of the test are the problems given on collegeboard? (<a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/lc_two/japanlist/prac/pracStart.html?japanlist%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/lc_two/japanlist/prac/pracStart.html?japanlist&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p>

<p>I tried all the available ones and got them all right, but there were still quite a few kanji I didn't know.</p>

<p>Ehhh.</p>

7

<p>They were pretty accurate, though I found the test a little harder. I took a little over 2 years of Japanese when I took it, and got a 440 (8th percentile). But that was mostly because I hated the course (even though I love the language), so I half-assed the course. You might do well with knowing 300 kanji, but I still wouldn't reccomend it if you haven't lived in Japan before.</p>