In this discussion post, I would like to hopefully explain how my journey went with VCE Japanese last year that lead me to a study score of 47 (raw) for Japanese. I would be revealing the percentages I got for my sacs (this is pretty embarrassing for me considering I didn't do too well in my sacs even tho Japanese is technically my first language) and would like to talk about what exactly happened for my oral and written exam that probably boosted my whole study score.

If there's any questions, please comment below and I'll try to get in touch as soon as possible.
(But please be aware that I am a current year 12 student so I'm struggling to keep up with things)

I personally remember stressing out for my first oral SAC for vce Japanese since I was so nervous to have a one to one conversation with my teacher which got recorded by a small recorder that was placed between the teacher and me. I knew that it was just a conversation, but it still stressed me out so much that I was planning to not show up for the sac. Most of my friends were pretty confident and there was just me trying to calm myself down rather than trying to remember what to say in the conversation sac like what my other friends were doing. One of my friends actually didn't do the oral sac, assuming she was too anxious about it. I wanted to do the same too.

When I actually did my first oral sac (pretty sure the topic was on social media), I scuttled with words and I was constantly saying "umm" in Japanese. I knew this was going to make me lose marks but I honestly couldn't think of something to reply on the spot. So after my sac (we had to do a one on one conversation in a tiny room next door to our classroom), I returned to my class and returned to my desk where my friends were sitting. They were all asking me "How did u go?" and "Did u do well?" which stressed me out even more since I was pretty confident that I did not do well at all on this sac. So I eventually started crying because I thought that if my sac grades were bad, I would not receive a good study score (I was aiming for a 40 and above). I'm assuming only my friends and my other assistant teacher knew I was crying since I tried to stay quiet as possible so my other classmates wouldn't notice me crying.
(ps. my friendship group was considered the 'nerdy' and 'smart' group for Japanese and they had high standards from us, even the teachers)-probably another reason for me to cry since it was pressured.

Anyways, later on my teachers told me that sac results don't really matter since if u do well in the exams, the sac results actually change and scale up. (Exactly what happened to my results)

I ended up getting a 17/20 for my first oral sac which actually isn't that bad but when I saw my friends getting 19/20 and 18/20, I felt so depressed. But tbh I felt like I should've studied for the oral sac so its basically my fault 🫤

    6 months later

    Lemonade_222 Hey Lemonade_222! Congrats for your awesome study score! 😃 I'm currently studying Japanese Unit 1/2 and I was wondering what were you averaging during the year and what you got on the exam as I am aiming for a similar study score. Also if you don't mind, do you have any tips for the listening component? Thanks so much!

        NicoNico
        Hey, thank you!
        The thing is I didn't take unit 1 Japanese because I was taking it as first language (just out of curiosity) and I started unit 2 a bit later than everyone else. I'm not quite sure what scores I was averaging in unit 2 but I remember my teacher was extremely strict on marking so I think I averaged around a 60-70% in all of my sacs.
        However, in unit 3/4 I got a different teacher (which means marking is different once again) and turns out I wasn't extremely bad in Japanese after all and averaged around high 80's to low 90's (tbh was not the best sac scores compared to my other friends who got straight 100's or like between 90-100). Anyways, I ended up acing the exam which I'm guessing scaled up all my sac scores so the final grade was A+, A+ and A+ (so I got an A+ on the exam) which gave me study score of a 47.
        Warning: Even if you get an A+, A+ and an A+ for the exam, there's no guarantee that you would get over a 40 because last year, one of my classmates got all A+'s but still got a study score of 39 (which was still close)

        And for the listening component, I'm not quite sure again (cuz once again, I'm fully Japanese) which means it would be different to other people who are actually taking it as a second language. For me, I personally took down all the notes in Japanese so I wouldn't make any mistakes when putting the answers on the actual exam paper.

            Lemonade_222 Hi thank you so much for the detailed response! I really like learning Japanese but it's really hard for me to crack the score that I want. But I'll try my best in improving my skills. Also, would you mind sharing what happened to your oral and the written exam as per your first post in this thread? I'm sorry for all the questions but I don't really get the chance to talk to someone who has an amazing study score in Japanese. Thank you again!

                Unrelated, but do you have any websites that you suggest that could help with learning Japanese? I have given Duolingo a shot however it doesn't feel like I'm learning anything from it.

                  NicoNico
                  So for my oral exam, I had 2 assessors assessing me, one Japanese assessor and one non Japanese assessor. Since I'm fluent in Japanese, the non Japanese assessor did not quite understand what I was talking about so the Japanese assessor basically only asked questions for me. I was really nervous but trust me, once you finish, you'll feel so relieved that it's over and done with. Just remember to be careful with your manners throughout the whole oral exam so you can give a good impression for the assessors. eg. opening and closing the door behind you quietly, say thank you in Japanese after the oral, keep smiling etc

                  For the written exam, time went by pretty quickly and since I was pretty nervous for it as well, I did forget some parts but I remember the reading time was extremely important. In the reading time, I advise people to definitely read the questions to get an understanding of what you need to listen up for in the listening component so you can get ready to take notes straight away. Also, during the reading time, I suggest going to the back page and pick which prompt you would choose to write about to spare some time during the writing time.

                  I think that's really it for what happened during my exams and hopefully it helps!

                      hi! I just want to ask what the structure is for the listening components? after reading time does it start immediately with the recordings? how long do you get between the first and second recording? and once the second recording is played, how long do you have before the next questions recording starts?
                      thank you 🙂

                        louisoph
                        hi, after reading time, the listening recording start immediately so you have to be prepared to go back to the first page to start taking notes.
                        Between the first and second recording, I'm pretty sure there was time (about 2 minutes) to finalise notes and there would be an announcement saying that the next recording would be played.
                        For the next questions recording to start, there would be around 5 min I think to finalise notes as well (yea time goes rlly fast).

                          monolith
                          Hey, I never learnt Japanese using websites so I'm actually not quite sure how to respond. But I'm learning German for fun on Duolingo rn and I feel like it helps a little!

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