The Japanese Language Proficiency Tests (JLPT) are divided into five levels with N5 being for beginners and N1 for upper advanced students. Each level takes a great deal of preparation, and this is even truer for the N2 and N1 exams (intermediate and upper advanced). In order to pass the N2 exam you are expected to be able to understand most everyday Japanese and be able to comprehend a variety of topics through reading or listening. An important feature when taking the JLPT exam is to be able to answer questions about grammar as well as grammar used in reading and listening tasks.
The Kanzen Master series is designed to help learners improve their abilities; as such this particular textbook is aimed at grammar skills. As the book is written in Japanese it is a book perhaps most suited for students who can study the grammar points with a teacher, but are able to complete the numerous test questions alone. The “contents” pages show how the textbook is divided into four parts and it also has a practice exam; each part is further divided by grammar meaning with similar types of grammar structures grouped together.
"The activities in each chapter consist of many activities and subsections; this information shouldn’t be taken lightly and it requires a lot of effort and time."
The first three sections are the most important part of the book; each section presents a grammar point with several examples followed by two pages of test questions. The answer booklet at the back of the textbook shows the correct answers, however it is up to the student to find out why they have answered a question wrong. For this reason it is best to check your answers with a teacher (if possible) as it is not enough just to know which answer is correct, it is imperative to know why an answer is correct or incorrect. The fourth part addresses specific kinds of grammar questions that can be found in the exam. For example, there is always a word order question in the JLPT exam with four words missing and a star in the place of one of the blanks. The student must pick out the correct word to fill in the blank.
There is also another subsection which focuses on test questions where the student must work on a short fill-in-the-blank reading text which can be seen on the test. The activities in each chapter consist of many activities and subsections; this information shouldn’t be taken lightly and it requires a lot of effort and time. There is also a practice test at the back of the book that students should take before they start working on the book. By working on this test, the student can evaluate themselves and see how long it takes to complete the proficiency test. Students can also use this practice test to measure their progress once they have finished working with the book.
While the majority of this book can be studied without a teacher, the actual grammar that is presented needs to be understood perfectly and that is why having a teacher to at least check your comprehension is quite important. The textbook will also help with Kanji and vocabulary review, and it will also help with listening comprehension skills.
The JLPT exam only gives students a limited amount of time to finish answering the questions and it is really important to be able to understand and answer everything on the test quickly. There is no point in just concentrating on Kanji skills or listening skills when one of the main criteria for passing this exam is to be able to understand Japanese at this high level. Increasing vocabulary knowledge may help a student be able to speak more or at least have some idea of the subject of a text or conversation, but without proper grammar study the actual meaning of a text or conversation will be missed. Having said this, Kanzen Master Grammar is an ideal book to help students accomplish these goals. I would highly recommend this course book to students who are currently enrolled in a Japanese language course and want to prepare themselves for the JLPT exam.
