Kanji for British GCSE examination in Japanese

Kanji in the second section of the book is ordered by general topic. As many of the common components are covered in section 1, where new ones arise these are incorporated into the notes for the kanji in question rather than appearing as a separate kanji to learn. Remember to look out for tick marks showing every instance that the kanji appears within the GCSE vocabulary list, conversely you may ignore the readings which have no words ticked as GCSE.

Outline of the the exam

GCSE Japanese 1752 has four equally weighted components (listening, speaking, reading and writing), while Japanese 1753 has three (listening, reading and writing) worth 33% each.

You need to be literate in Hiragana, Katakana and 250 kanji and know at least 1000 words which are broadly related to school life and life for young people.  Most of the kanji I’ve seen tested in past papers has been the ‘simpler’ ones in section 1.  Dictionaries are not allowed. Your  skills are examined over these four papers:

1 -  Listening and Responding (45 minutes)
You should hear about 50 questions read fairly slowly twice over.

2 - This is the oral part.

3 -  Reading and Responding (55 minutes)
Includes  questions to test if students can read kana and kanji words, also reading comprehension and vocabulary.

4 - Writing
Usually four questions, which include: taking notes, comprehension and writing a short essay (about 160 letters).

Emergency Passport _* Japanese Script is the only textbook dedicated to the GCSE Japanese syllabus so by acquiring it, you take an important first step.   
Get hiragana and katakana under your belt in the first two months, and use it as much as you can, even if its to write your shopping list.   
Then learn the grammar and vocabulary in context; we show all the current GCSE kanji vocabulary marked with a tick in the book.
Look out for a sister book to this which should appear at some stage, for the kana words and grammar. In the meantime use the widely available GCSE word lists, and beginners grammar books such as ‘Minna no Nihongo’. There is a good range of GCSE targeted online activities at:
www.klbschool.org.uk/interactive/japanese
and at  www.southwoldslanguagecollege.co.uk
 

Some tips from the current exam report:

Attention was drawn to the need for assessors to closely follow the sequence outlined in the handbook and allowing candidates sufficient time to respond fully, it states:

“Candidates need to know how to ask for repetition or slower Japanese delivery from the teacher-examiners”.

Make sure the format of the paper is familiar to you. Don’t lose marks trying to write numerals or numbers in Japanese when not required (e.g. times and telephone numbers).   On the other hand, where it is needed, don’t forget to specify the date.

Plan what you are going to write. Learn some useful adjectives to describe things and understand how to use them in the past tense. Pay attention to particles, particularly ‘ni’ に and ‘de’ で.
 

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