Exams are about 2-3 weeks away. For the most part, I'm actually doing ok with my classes. There's just one that i'm not doing so well in, and it's not my listening class for a change. Actually, it's my JLPT N2 class. However, I've found that I'm not the only one who's not doing so great at that class. I suspect it can be traced back to the teacher himself. It's not that he's a total asshole or anything like that. In fact, it's quite the opposite - he's soft spoken and seems to be an ok guy (which would be great outside of class). The problem is, despite being a nice guy, he's just not a good teacher.
My weekly class with this teacher is pretty much summed in one word: tests. That is pretty much all we do in that class. He gives us handouts from an N2 text book (which I happened to buy already, but whatever....), tells us to study them, and then sit a short test next week. He does a similar thing with N3 content, except he doesn't give any notes for that - just the weekly tests that can be found in the text books, and we are expected to study on the grammar points on our own. It actually reminds me of my Japanese classes back in my home country's university, which I guess is the reason why I dislike this class and this teacher.
If he simply did away with weekly tests and focused more on going through the n2 grammar thoroughly instead, it would make things a lot more pleasant. As it is, it's just annoying. Frankly, I'd be better not taking the class, and just studying the n2 content on my own - unfortunately, conditions of being an international student mean I can't just skip that class altogether without being deported.
That's all from me for now. Sorry about the delay between posts.
