Ookay, as of writing this, it’s now officially less than one week until the 2008 JLPT exam.

For those of you who haven’t heard of it, the Japanese Language Proficiency Exam (ie JLPT) is an international exam held world-wide every year that non-native speakers of Japanese can undertake in the hopes of gaining a professional qualification on how l33t one’s Japanese ability is. The levels range from Level 4 through 1 where 4 is the easiest, and 1 is exceptionally difficult, even for most Japanese people.

This year, I figured on choosing level 2 which is usually gauged by having to know approximately 1000 Chinese symbols and approximately 4000 words. It’s a significant leap from level 3 which is something like 300 Chinese symbols and 1000 words only.

As of right now, it’s pretty much sunk in on how totally screwed I am for this exam hahahah. XP

As much as I hate to admit it, after going through as much material as I can, my Japanese is no where near that level. In the practice exams I’ve taken so far, every right answer was basically dumb luck haha.

So… I’m taking a step back and considering my position now.

I’ve pretty much resolved myself to that even if I do pass this exam, it would probably be by luck, not my Japanese ability. And if that’s the case, then that’s something that I truly do not want.

For a time, I was also wondering if maybe I should have done level 3 instead. Level 3 is significantly easier, so much so that I got 100% on one of the practice exams I tried. So with that in mind, level 2 is the only way to go. There’s no point in aiming for anything if you’re not aiming up. So with that in mind, I do not regret not choosing level 3. ;P

So, I’m remembering back to the promise I made to myself when I sent the application form away. It doesn’t matter if I pass this exam or not. If by doing this it improves my Japanese ability, even by a little, then it is totally worth it.

On that note, this isn’t a decree of giving up. It’s a decree on how I plan to try my best still and if necessary, go down with all guns blazing.

There’s still a week to go and I’m going to give it my all to the best that I can muster hehe.

And anyway, there’s always next year!