JLPT Star (★) Question: Connect the Pairs, Not the Sentence!

The fill-in-the-blank star (★) question in the JLPT grammar section is a nightmare for many students, especially at the N1/N2 level. It looks intimidating and is very time-consuming. 😩

Many people make the mistake of reading the four options and trying to assemble a complete sentence in their heads. This approach is confusing and error-prone!

Instead, use the 'Domino Connection' Strategy.

🤔 What is the 'Domino Connection' Strategy?

Instead of building the whole wall at once, find the bricks that are already stuck together first! In other words, look for 'pairs' or 'chunks' of words that grammatically must go together.

These 'pairs' can be:

• Noun + Particle: 会議 + に (kaigi + ni)
• Fixed Grammar Patterns: わけ + にはいかない (wake + ni wa ikanai)
• Verb te-form + Auxiliary Verb: 言ってみる (itte miru)
• Adverb + The Verb/Adjective it modifies: とても + きれい (totemo + kirei)
• Set Phrases (Idioms): 話 + にならない (hanashi + ni naranai)

A Practical Example

Let's try this sentence:

今日は＿＿　＿＿　★＿＿　＿＿　気がしない。 (Kyou wa ____ ____ ★____ ____ ki ga shinai.)

1. 何も (nani mo)
2. する (suru)
3. 仕事が (shigoto ga)
4. 手につかなくて (te ni tsukanakute)

Applying the 'Domino Connection':

1. Glancing at the options, the phrase 仕事が手につかない (shigoto ga te ni tsukanai - to be unable to concentrate on work) is a very common idiom. So we have our first pair: [3. 仕事が] + [4. 手につかなくて].
2. Next, we see 何も (nani mo), which is usually followed by a negative verb form. The end of the sentence is 〜気がしない (...ki ga shinai). So, we have another pair: [1. 何も] + [2. する] which connects to 気がしない.
3. Now, we just need to connect these two 'dominoes'. The reason (仕事が手につかなくて) usually comes before the result (何もする気がしない).

The complete sentence is: 今日は [仕事が] [手につかなくて]、[何も] [する] 気がしない。 (Kyou wa [shigoto ga] [te ni tsukanakute], [nani mo] [suru] ki ga shinai.)

The position with the star ★ is the third spot, which corresponds to answer 1. 何も.

By finding these connecting pairs, you don't have to test all the permutations, which saves a lot of time and greatly increases your accuracy. Good luck with your studies! 💪