That sounds rough. But yeah, I'm not studying for JLPT either and I don't even intend to take the test this year to be honest. That being said, I've been doing is using it as a rough guideline to measure my overall progress. I guess you could say I'm trying to get a lot of coverage in advance, just so I have less things to worry about once I start breaking away from this technical/systematic approach.
I've read in the N2-N1 thread that N2 is closer to 10k words than 6k nowdays though, so I don't think I can get that much coverage in a single year by Sep 15. Maybe by the end of the year? I really don't know though, since I'm not sure how useful Core 10k would be in the end. People say N1 isn't about cramming 18k words per se; rather, learning about 10k words should be a solid foundation and then it's mostly a matter of reading until you become super fluently. So I'm not sure how much cramming even more random Core vocabulary until you reach 10k helps you reach N2 level of comprehension. As long as I'm able to start enjoying the things I like without much trouble though, I guess it'll be all fine and dandy.
I've read in the N2-N1 thread that N2 is closer to 10k words than 6k nowdays though, so I don't think I can get that much coverage in a single year by Sep 15. Maybe by the end of the year? I really don't know though, since I'm not sure how useful Core 10k would be in the end. People say N1 isn't about cramming 18k words per se; rather, learning about 10k words should be a solid foundation and then it's mostly a matter of reading until you become super fluently. So I'm not sure how much cramming even more random Core vocabulary until you reach 10k helps you reach N2 level of comprehension. As long as I'm able to start enjoying the things I like without much trouble though, I guess it'll be all fine and dandy.