Hello everyone,

I see a lot of people out there studying for N3, N2, etc., but I'm still trying to figure out N1. I passed 2級 last year with a pretty high score, so I decided to take N1 in the new format this December.

I found parts of the July test on Chinese websites but I have yet to find a full, d/l-able PDF of the questions/answers and an MP3 for listening. Has anyone else found a scan/MP3 of the tests and answers from our Chinese brethren?

I am worried that I am going to be wasting my time studying the obscure grammar that is in my "old-fashioned" １級 guides.

I have heard that for reading comprehension, reading the 社説 part of the newspaper will likely be useful. Maybe I even heard that here. Has anyone here taken the new N1? I did a cursory glance at other threads and didn't see much.

I'm planning on taking the N1 in December too, in Japan because that's where I'll be. I passed the JLPT2 in December 2008 with a decent score, and I've been studying on and off since then, but I'm pretty confident in my abilities. Still I might be overconfident and I'm slightly concerned that I'll end up with the test in front of me and not know any of the kanji and vocab (my weaker areas).

I'd definitely like to hear from other people who are taking the N1 about their preparation, course of study, etc.

I'm taking it this year too after getting the 2kyuu in december last year. I Was going to take it in July but I forgot to send my form away. So far I have done zero studying for n1

[Katsuo]

coverup Wrote:I found parts of the July test on Chinese websites but I have yet to find a full, d/l-able PDF of the questions/answers and an MP3 for listening. Has anyone else found a scan/MP3 of the tests and answers from our Chinese brethren?

Most of it is linked to in this post.

working with a teacher twice a week, just finished kanzen master but of course lots and lots of review is needed to cement it in and catch the minute details.... vocabulary is your ultimate enemy in this test IMO. Everyone makes a big thing out of the grammar but even the older stuff is useful, and the majority of it stuff you WILL encounter if you use Japanese on a regular basis.

So yea, vocab. My methods... Already have a self-compiled deck of 2000+ I used for level 2, now adding words from kanzen master's "kanji" book, at the rate of 10 new words studied a day I should have over 1000 more by the time the test rolls around in december.... until then lots and lots of reading practice and practice tests. Unlike level 2, you can't just widdle by this one, you really gotta want it, I think.

Did RTK1 completely, so most individual kunyomi words I understand but don't know the readings.... so many kunyomi to memorize X_X

BTW, I passed level 2 in december, took the new one in July and am shooting for level 1 this december for a benchmark. Gonna shoot for that real pass next summer.

Good luck to everyone!!

I have finally finished Kanzen Master grammar 1Q and an 8,000+ anki JLPT comprehensive vocab deck.

I am going through the Kanzen Master Grammar and Kanji books and adding all grammar patterns (+ example sentences) and all words to an anki deck. I use my iphone to study on the go so whenever I have five or ten minutes I go through cards (this breaks up the studying nicely).

I'm starting to read all the shasetsu on the major Japanese dailies regularly to speed up my reading comprehension, and I also add all unknown words to a google doc while I read. At the end of the day, I add about 20 or so words per day to my anki deck.

Otherwise I do podcasts and torrented j-dramas for listening. I'm in the US so I don't get any day to day listening/speaking exercise.

@akimoto - I am also using the Kanzen Master book for kanji, but it sucks because they don't have example sentences for the 音読み. Anyone know a good resource other than Kanji In Context that does? The UNICOM books don't seem to be all that great for 1kyuu, even though I used the kanji/vocab one for 2kyuu.

＠bennyb - try Kanzen master, great for kun-yomi

I haven't started reading 社説 much, gotta get on that.

coverup Wrote:@akimoto - I am also using the Kanzen Master book for kanji, but it sucks because they don't have example sentences for the 音読み. Anyone know a good resource other than Kanji In Context that does? The UNICOM books don't seem to be all that great for 1kyuu, even though I used the kanji/vocab one for 2kyuu.

＠bennyb - try Kanzen master, great for kun-yomi

I haven't started reading 社説 much, gotta get on that.

I am using that book now, and yea, it's got lots of good examples for kun-yomi, not really many/any for onyomi vocab. SO same question is seconded!! (perhaps it deserves it's own thread?)

I'm studying １級 grammar with ２級 grammar for the JLPT2 using どんな時; can I be gansta too? This is book great because it shows the subtle difference between grammar points. （like にかかわる）

For those who don't know you can take an official practice test online.
http://www.jflalc.org/?act=tpt&id=25
Contains the same format as the real test.

For those who have went through 2級 is it a realistic goal to finish どんな時 in September then 完全マスター文法 the next month? (With some online teacher help from JOI.)

I'm nervous to take the JLPT for the first time. What helps you say focused long term?
皆さん、頑張ってください！

Fellow N1 gangsta here
I passed Level 1 in 2006, and have been living in Japan since then but haven't been studying Japanese in any kind of structured fashion, so this will be good practice for me. Currently going through some new N1 textbooks and doing a lot of listening (TV, podcasts, anything I can get my hands on).

Any gangstas taking it in Philly? I'm reading through past tests and focusing primarily on vocabulary, though I'm taking a break for a few days and working on listening instead. Only 3 months and a couple days to go!

Here's a list of free 社説:

http://www.asahi.com/paper/editorial.html

http://www.nikkei.com/news/editorial/

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/editorial/

http://mainichi.jp/select/opinion/editorial/

If you read one or two of these a day, mine the sentences you don't know, you should be in good shape by the time of the test.

@Evangelo - thanks, I saw those in another thread but lost it; this gave me a chance to bookmark them.

This is going to sound stupid, but after a couple of days reading these I am really finding it refreshing to read Japanese being used to express opinions political, social, and otherwise in a country where such topics are often avoided in peer conversation, or don't need to be avoided simply because of a lack of any opinion to begin with (not necessarily a bad thing). +1 for 社説 and 説得力

Decided to take the N1 this year to stick on my resume/ make it easier to get the MEXT scholarship.

I'm doing pretty much no targeted practice for it; just doing the same old AJATT stuff. I was going to pick up all the words I don't know from the N1 vocab list, but decided not to because I learn a wider scope of vocabulary from books.

I listened to a previous year's listening-comp section, didn't think it was very difficult at all.

@thecite - the AJATT thing is cool and all but probably won't work for passing tests (although it works very well for the more important things!) There is a lot on the test that you just won't likely be exposed to unless you do targeted study, plain and simple.

Yeah. I don't know how N1 is going to be different from previous years' 一級, but I read a fair bit of contemporary literature, and I probably would have picked up the vocab to pass ikkyuu by adding more current events reading to the mix, but I never would have passed the grammar without dedicated studying. That's just the way the test is set up. How many times have you seen ~がてら in the wild?

Fillanzea Wrote:Yeah. I don't know how N1 is going to be different from previous years' 一級, but I read a fair bit of contemporary literature, and I probably would have picked up the vocab to pass ikkyuu by adding more current events reading to the mix, but I never would have passed the grammar without dedicated studying. That's just the way the test is set up. How many times have you seen ~がてら in the wild?

その通り。(exactly) However, the one grammar point I learned right after that in kanzen master, かたがた (meaning to do two jobs or devote yourself full time to two things at once) has popped up at my school between staff members, and is a useful expression. So just because it's relatively rare or idiomatic doesn't mean there's no value in learning it, it simply means you won't see it as much. (anyone who has taught truly advanced english students idioms and such will know exactly what I mean) In that way the books which are aimed to help you pass are quite good tools.

ALSO. I recently bought two of the new N1 study books from the 日本語総まとめ series, for kanji and vocabulary respectively (google it). can't give a comprehensive review however they look quite thorough and easy to understand. Now if only I had any chance to learn these 1000s of bits of new vocab by December... =/ Just gonna cram 10 or 15 new words a day into my already overloaded anki deck and hope for the best.

coverup Wrote:@thecite - the AJATT thing is cool and all but probably won't work for passing tests (although it works very well for the more important things!) There is a lot on the test that you just won't likely be exposed to unless you do targeted study, plain and simple.

You're probably right. I guess I'll just go through 10 of the old tests or so and get the hang of it; I can't really be bothered going through all of the grammar books.
I'm not even sure whether the test will help me out with the scholarship, so really I'm just taking it for the hell of it.

(BTW, I picked up 〜がてら from Tae Kim.)

Would general newspaper vocab lists like this be useful to study? I'm a little wary of reading articles right now because I know so few advanced-level words, and I don't want to learn lots of vocab about certain subjects and none about other subjects.

I have a feeling I will take JLPT level 1 this winter, but if not then next year.
I took the practice tests,vocab/understanding isn't the problem. It's just figuring out stuff. What does the question want exactly. If I work on that/focus on the grammar I should be able to get it this year.

I think registration closes soon, might wanna register soon in case all the seats fill up in the location you wanna take it. I think you and I have been studying for around the same amount of time; I started in July 2009. Go for it, the worst that happens is you're out $50 and get a brutally honest opinion about your ability to take standardized tests in Japanese.

xeno_panda Wrote:I think registration closes soon, might wanna register soon in case all the seats fill up in the location you wanna take it. I think you and I have been studying for around the same amount of time; I started in July 2009. Go for it, the worst that happens is you're out $50 and get a brutally honest opinion about your ability to take standardized tests in Japanese.

Where I live, I have to sign up from September to 0ctober something. If I miss that, then i must take it next year.
Yea for me I officially started learning real japanese around the end of august 09'(near there). I did RTK1+3 before that for 3months. Now I'm officially past the year mark, and it's been a week or so I think. I'm confident I can get it,well from the practice tests. Someone here said that practicing/studying for the test is half the battle, the rest relies on your understanding/reading skills.

If I do fail, I can just use it to improve my skills further. You learn best from failure, and I have failed a lot, still do. It's all a part of learning another language.

xeno_panda Wrote:Would general newspaper vocab lists like this be useful to study? I'm a little wary of reading articles right now because I know so few advanced-level words, and I don't want to learn lots of vocab about certain subjects and none about other subjects.

I don't know if it's useful for the JLPT, but that's a damn good vocab list.

I'm thinking of taking the N1 in December as well.

I studied for the ２級 (in December 2008) by reading manga all year, then reading through a book of practice questions starting about three weeks before the test. I got 87.5% so that seemed to work pretty well!

I thought I would need to level up my studying this time around, so this time I studied all of RTK1 (finished last week!) and am increasing my vocabulary by reading... Star Wars novels

Don't overlook the easy stuff for pure language acquisition power! Of course you need to study your ～がてらs and read your 社説s, but these are the delicious cherry on top of the cake, rather than the fruity, wholesome filling underneath.

...I'm feeling hungry now...

Well, I think I'm going to step up to the plate and start studying for 1級. I was always on the edge between studying for 1 or 2, but the more I study 2級 things, the more I think I'm more suited for 1級 at this point in time.

I bought myself all the 2級 kanzen masters a few months ago, and now have a few more books in my hands as well. Like bennyb, I'm going through 総まとめ, excpet I have 日本語総まとめ問題集 新基準対応 1級文字・語彙編 because it was cheap from a friend

As for grammar, I've heard nothing but good things about どんな時どう使う, BUT, which one are people talking about? Me? I got my hands on どんな時どう使う 日本語表現文型500—日本語能力試験1・2級対応 (アルクの日本語テキスト), but I'm not sure if sometimes people are talking about どんな時どう使う 日本語表現文型辞典, which is really more of a grammar dictionary, and I already have DJ*G. The former is nice because it's something I can work through, and I can refer to DJ*G if I need to. But the latter...I haven't looked at.

To be honest, though...every time I open up a new text/workbook, I always get flustered with "how should I study this?" or "what and how should I enter into anki?" and etc... Even though it end up doing it the same way, I always get the "omg wat do i DO?" jitters.