I'm wondering how other people's experience is with these three volumes. I own all three and they seemed so complete I didn't think I'd have a problem ever finding help on a grammar structure ever again. But I do have problems. It seems 1/3 or so roughly of all the grammar structures I try to look up aren't found in it. Stuff like in my JLPT N2 book 新完全マスター　文法, some structures in chapter 6 it lists include:

に限らず (intermediate book)
のみならず (is in the Advanced book)
ばかりか (intermediate book)
はもとより (can't find)
上に (intermediate book)

I guess it's not too bad at 4/5 being in the books but I honestly was expecting 5/5 for grammar structures that are tested in the JLPT. This is pretty common for terms.. I can find a lot but not all of the structures I try to find in the books. This is regarding grammar that's tested on the JLPT. It gets me wondering if I'm just not looking it up right. Anyone have better luck finding stuff in these books? Am I just too used to etexts that are searchable that I can't use a glossary correctly?

I have the Beginning and Intermediate books and I remember the exact same frustration when I was studying for the old 2-kyuu. I did find that sometimes it was because of my own error, though -- one thing to be careful of is to make sure you include the starting particle, for example te shoganai instead of just shoganai.

The other thing I would suggest, especially since you're studying for N2 or higher, is to get grammar book aimed at Japanese. I have one which is great (sadly I can't remember the title and can't find it on Amazon JP). If that's too big a jump, then this book (which I also have) is pretty good, and has English explanations of the grammar point (but helpfully, no translations of the example sentences):

どんなときどう使う日本語表現文型辞典

Amazon JP has a "look inside" feature on this book so you can see for yourself.

It won't have everything but at least for N2 it should have most. These books also have the advantage of having a ton of structures in a single volume, so if you like studying in a cafe or library you don't have to haul all three volumes of the yellow/grey/red books!

You could try JGram for stuff you can't find: はもとより.

I'm currently working through the Do*JG, unsuspending the corresponding sentences in Anki as I go.

Unfortunately the deck hasn't got page numbers, otherwise it could serve as a very convenient index for the books.

I tried a search for もとより and it didn't come up.

anotherjohn Wrote:Unfortunately the deck hasn't got page numbers, otherwise it could serve as a very convenient index for the books.

This one does:
https://mega.co.nz/#!oJJmTSRQ!l_vSANvvL7...dWbcTX46xU