Japanese Study - One week to San-kyuu test

This Sunday I will take the san-kyuu test. It is the third level of the Japanese Language Proficiency test. Over teh last few weeks I've been stressing that I will fail this exam. I've been really busy at work and working on building my fitness for Saitama, so much so that when Ive had the time to study, I've been too tired to do enough study to pass. I'm short of around a third of the kanji characters I need to know. Without a dictionary, my vocabulary is poor. Without notes, my grammar isn't much better. So, will I pass? Probably not.

But sinking into a hole, convinced I'll fail, isn't going to solve anything. Besides, passing this test wasn't the main objective when I applied to take the san-kyuu test. In the summer I realised that my Japanese study had dropped to almost nothing. I would open books, look and think "what's the point? I can get by with what I already know". (I don't think the high temperatures helped either). Then word spread about the the JLPT test. "Maybe", I thought, "if I had a goal, something to work towards, then I could have motivation to start studying again". So I applied for the test with the primary reason to give myself motivation to study again.

So has it worked? Well, I'm still not studying as much as I'd like to, but I'm studying longer and more regularly than I was in Summer. So, in that sense, I've already passed on my own terms. I don't think I will pass, and to be honest, any notion of passing san-kyuu came as a result of applying in September and thinking i had a lifetime before the test on 4th December. I should have forseen my trip to England in September and the daily 9 hours at school all take up a significant amount of time.

I'll study this week, maybe even step it up to cramming, and take the test. If I pass fantastic. If I fail, no worries. I've already got what I wanted (a study routine) so as long as I can keep that up, I'll be a winner.