
i watch every Japanese language program that is available on my cable, tons of Anime, and on the whole i think i can understand the spoken language halfway decent (at least when i know what topic is being discussed). but the listening part of the JLPT test had me totally going "WTF?". for some reason the listening part of the test was *way* harder than watching a generic soap-opera or listening to a random podcast. i can't put my finger on "why?", but the listening was much more difficult than i expected... maybe speed of the speaking, or the vocabulary used, or the accent, or ... who knows?... but the listening part ****** me over bad.
the rest of the test was about as i expected. i know i have big holes in vocabulary, some of the questions i just didn't have a clue.... but the kanji part was much easier, and then the grammar wasn't that bad, but sometimes i just decided that the other answer options just didn't sound right when placed in the question. and the reading material was *almost* as easy as English. the reading comprehension part was as straightforward and comprehensible to the same extent that the listening part of the test wasn't comprehensible.
about all i can really discern is that when the kanji density in the questions increased i found the questions easier to answer. those vocabulary questions that were hiragana heavy were difficult. and the listening section was just *out of this world*.
there's probably a chance that the grammar and reading parts may be enough to pull up my score, but i really doubt i passed. (unless i somehow *understood* the listening part without being conscious of understanding).

edit: oh yeah, ...
in LA, there were 2 rooms for L1, 2 for L2, 3 for L3. and 5 for L4.
~120 L1 people
~114 L2 people
~136 L3 people
~160 L4 people
tests were held in our *mostly* language/humanities building, some levels got the bigger auditorium like rooms, and some levels were split to fit into the normal classroom sized rooms. there were only about 55 people in my room, and a half a dozen or so of them didn't show up. there were a few *older* people, a bunch of college/high school aged people and a suprising number of <13yr old kids in my L3 room.... and 4 "left-handed" people..
