Comments

Japanese Power Level Test — 40 Comments

  1. Wow, it happened. Thanks!

    Will you accept 苹果 for 3?

    Why is reading fill-in-the-blank and writing kana substitution instead of the other way around?

    Did surprisingly badly due to mishearing も as を (7) and 何時 as 何日 (10). Time to watch TV.

    • Yes I finally got around to figuring out how I wanted to set this up. Hope you enjoyed it!

      苹果 would work, though that’s choosing the way more complicated word!

      Reading is fill in the blank because you have to use your reading comprehension ability to figure out what belongs.

      Writing is kana substitution because it is testing your ability to know the kanji and write. I know I could reverse this part (have the kana and make you write the kanji), but not everyone studies how to hand-write kanji, and it would skew the whole test with unnecessary difficulty. That’s why being able to write kanji acts as a bonus for the other 2 sections.

      • I rather agree with Hi’iaka here, that the reading and writing parts should probably be switched. The writing portion requires the ability to read the kanji more than the reading portion does, and the reading portion requires more of your own production/output since you have to produce the missing parts. I do understand what you were getting at with writing out the whole sentence in kana, but in order to do that you first need to be able to read all of the kanji well, including readings. With the reading portion, even if you don’t know a kanji’s reading but understand the meaning (from RTK, for example) you can still fill in the blank without reading it all perfectly.

    • I also misheard も but gave myself 5/6 of a point on that one, since there are 6 words and I got the rest right. I’m not sure if that’s exactly correct, but I’m sure Adam can clarify.

      • That’s fine. In trying to keep the test as simple as possible, I didn’t want to include % of words understood = % of point. But yes, you can adjust the 1 point of the sentence based on how much you understood of it.

    • It’s more practice to write out by hand, but PC is fine. Except you lose the ability to give yourself a kanji bonus.

  2. That was really enjoyable. I’ve been looking at other tests online check to see where I am exactly, but I always run into the problem of not knowing certain vocab words that I’ve just happened to not run across yet. Looking forward to the next one!

    • Thanks! I may tweak some things as I move forward, but I want to make these as enjoyable and reliable as possible.

  3. Ah, this is super cool. I made it, but just barely.

    If I could offer one suggestion, an example question/answer before each category would be helpful. It’s pretty straight forward, but I totally botched the first Speaking question because I didn’t realize it was a call/response type deal.

    Though, that could just be me being careless.

    • I think this would be a good idea. I did not know exactly what to do for each question, so I got some “wrong” because I did not understand the format. Though I really knew the answer.

    • I just edited the format (now “directions”) to make it clearer what is expected. I want to keep the test and future posts as simple as possible (more pre-test explanation = less people reading that explanation).

      Hopefully this helps!

  4. This was a lot of fun! I would be very interested in seeing this continue to the Advanced level.

  5. I got a 7.5, not bad for only 500 cards in the beginner deck! I misunderstood number 10 where it was asking for the question and I got 4 and 8 wrong. 8 I couldn’t remember what to say and 4 I didn’t used は instead of の. Fun though! I knew all three kanji but forgot where one went so not gonna count that.

  6. got full marks but I struggled to write the right kanji even for easy ass words haha like お願いします and 高い. I still got them right, but it took me way longer than I felt it should’ve, based on the difficulty of the words. I guess that’s why I can’t speak, my production is still a little shoddy. Then again, I was surprised I was even able to considering the only practice I get is through RTK (haven’t started kana conqueror yet, probably should). I guess writing is one of those skills I want to leave until after level 40, j-j is enough trouble for now. I think writing and speaking are the two things I reallly need to get a move on, but I’m planning to spread my focus a bit more once I hit that magical 5000 word count, and resultantly (and hopefully), level 40.

    almost got the last one wrong until I realized right after answering that the last audio was a response. And that you put the blank before the audio file for that one to signify that. I guess that less of a knowledge gap and more getting used to the test format, so I gave myself that mark.

    I might have a break until round 2! I like having full marks for now haha! I guess that makes me a perfect level 7.5 :P

    • That’s why the ability to write kanji is only a bonus score. Regardless of your level, even if you are native Japanese, these days it is becoming hard to hand write out kanji.

      Congrats on the perfect score. よく頑張っていますね!

  7. Hey, I almost got eveything right, I would have if my new computer wasn’t the problem. I thought you mispelled pen but both ペ and べ look almost exactly the same to me just the ten ten are at slightly different angles instead of one having a ten ten and the other having a circle. Any advice for this problem?

    • Are you using Chrome? That seems to be a Japanese text font issue in Chrome.

      Two solutions:

      1. Try a different browser
      2. Zoom in on Chrome. 110% and above shows it as the circle, not the differently slanted quote marks.

      • You can also change the default font in chrome, and that should take care of it for you.

      • Thank you! it takes 120% on Chrome, and that was my problem!
        Thanks 名前など無い猫, I will try to change my default font so I won’t have to go 120%.
        Thanks!

  8. Bah so close!! I got 4 questions correct. My biggest problem ironically was recalling HOW to write the kana. I read them sooo easily, and I knew the answers to the blanks, but when it came to producing them in my mind to write down, I just couldn’t do it. I guess I’m level 4 then?

  9. This was fun. (I like taking tests.) Still have problems with listening. But even if it’s still a beginner rank, I’m proud of my 5.25

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