Class placement tests! Kill me now.

Today I survived the class placement tests for Ryukoku University 2014. I should at least get a t-shirt. Or a medal. Or some kind of honorific title. A knighthood? Something like that...

Just so you know what hellish endeavors I encountered, and so that next years students have a feint idea as to what's going on - I'll do a quick, rough write up about what came up. I've probably pushed most of it to the back of my memory, where it will never resurface again, though.

So to start, we had a listening exam - we were handed a double sided sheet of paper with questions on which we had to fill out as the tape was played for us. The first one was about a phone number, so that was quite easy. I kind of only half-heard one of the digits though, so I may have got one of them wrong! They only play each track once - so if you miss it, you miss it. Next was just a sentence somebody said that you HAD to write in Hiragana. It was something about an oneechan. It ended shimashita. But I didn't catch the middle part because I was too busy writing the first part. :(

After that there were some conversations between people, and then a list of phrases under the question, and you had to choose which of the phrases was correct for what the people said. I think that was about it for the listening, I probably missed something, but I don't know.

The listening was only one side of the sheet. On the other side, there was a sort of kanji type exercise test, if I remember correctly. It was mostly just writing out the kanji for provided hiragana, and hiragana for provided kanji. I'm sure there were other types of question but it was all kanji knowledge. I knew a fair amount of the kanji, but I also didn't know a fair amount of the kanji :(

Next up came the essay question! That was horrible. We got provided with the topic "日本語と私" (Japanese and I), and had to write a long piece on it. My piece wasn't very long, and didn't really use any exciting grammar points or crazy vocab. It was all pretty basic. I didn't feel very prepared for it, even though it's a pretty simple question, and I came out feeling like I could probably have done better. Maybe. Japanese is difficult,

We then had a break for lunch in the crazy Japanese canteen, which was fun/scary/interesting, and then we had a library tour, which made me realise I will probably never use the library because my Japanese isn't good enough.

Then we were shepherded back for our Interviews, which were essentially oral exams. Different teachers took different interviews, and I have a feeling that they did this based on your marks last year (since they have that information) and how well they think your ability is, though I don't know if this is true, or just a thought I had. In my interview there were three of us, but I have friends who were just in couples and some people did them on their own. Different people were asked different things, but mostly around the same sort of subject. We were asked questions like when did you arrive in Japan? What was the weather like in your home country? What would you like to do whilst you're in Japan? What sort of things do you want to study on the JCLP program? In terms of Japan, what interests you? What are your hobbies? Etc. We were also asked relevant follow up questions - ie I said that I liked to cosplay and I was asked what I cosplayed and if I make the cosplays myself. Other people said they liked food and they were asked what their favourite food is. So if you don't think you can expand on an answer you want to give, it's probably better to give a different answer.

I think the oral test/interview went better than the written exam. I'm not so worried about it as they don't have any bearings on marks, but only decide which class you will be placed in for the first semester. At the beginning of the next semester, I will undergo the same hell to decide which class I will be in again, I think. Though I did read something about generally if you pass the exams at the end of the semester, you will move up a level the following semester. I really want to study hard and advance my Japanese as much as possible whilst I am here! I also found out that you need 60% to pass here - which is scary because you only need 40% at UEA, and sometimes I barely achieve that!

Also, a lot of my friends found out that they were getting the JASSO scholarship, which I am not getting. That kinda sucks as you get a good 80,000 yen a month, or something, which would be really nice for me, but no. I'm going to have to try and find a part time job or something, I'm sure.

This was our first day going onto the University Campus, and we were given loads of information and little books, and our campus card, which I love! The campus looks fab, and new and wonderful. I really like it so far, but we will see what the course is like, before I pass judgement :)

Tomorrow is more induction type stuff, so if anything important arises, I will update you all! I hope you found this helpful! If you have any questions about my first day on campus, or the class placement tests, post a little comment below and ask me! If you are interested in coming to Ryukoku, or studying abroad in Kyoto or anywhere in Japan, you should give my blog a little follow, because it's nice to know what you are and aren't interested in!

Watch this space for more crazy adventures!