Assessment.
So I’m having the old assessment “conundrum”, which I think everyone gets at some stage, and which goes something like this:
“I’m studying X, and there’s this test for X. Would I learn more, and/or be happier, ignoring the test, not trying to adapt to the test specifications?”
So you encounter the artificial shape of the test, and one keeps coming back to the idea that tests don’t so much test one’s capacity to do X, but to do a particular test of X. Which brings me to another question – is it worth forcing myself up a hill for a “qualification” or a “milestone”, when the shape of the test is so different to the reality of X? Am I learning X for the value of knowing X, or for the value of having a piece of paper that says I can do X?
Anyway, JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) entries close in September, so I’ll have to decide before then.
