Hi everyone!
I've been studying Japanese for around two years, and I've never really been interested in the JLPT tests. However, I just entered uni and found out that having the N1 would give me some great benefits regarding scholarships etc.

I'm looking for some books and resources for the JLPT N1 test. I already own the old Kansen Master JLPT １級 文法, but I fear it's outdated. I really need a good and complete book regarding the N1 grammar. Any recommendations?

My strongest point is probably kanji readings, but I'm not really used to reading news articles and stuff like that. What reading material would you guys recommend to get used to the feel of the N1 reading section?

My listening is pretty good and I understand pretty much everything when I talk to my Japanese friends and watch TV. However, I still struggle with the news and formal talks about politics, statistics etc.
Should I buy a N1 聴解 book, or just listen to a lot of news? The reason why I suck at it is basically because I find the news really, really boring. So any suggestions here would be hot!

I remember reading about people going trough JLPT 1級 vocab-lists, so I'm thinking about doing the same. Are the JLPT vocab lists still up to date? I can't seem to find links to grammar and vocab lists for the new N1 test. I just find old ones for the 一級.
I want to be really sure I'm getting all the grammar and vocab before the test!

Thank you guys so much for your time!
I'm not new to Japanese, but I'm pretty new to the whole JLPT thing, so please bear with me!

Zorlee..

For reading news articles, you should read japanese news articles.

I'd recommend fnn-news.com.
On the main page, look at the right navigation bar and click
on anything that has a camcorder icon.

Their news videos have exact word-for-word subtitles.
The news clips are usually 30 seconds to 1 minute long.
So they're easy to digest.

Here's a couple of examples:

http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/a...05839.html

Story about a Japan Women's soccer team member
http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/a...05837.html

Another similar site is:
http://news.tbs.co.jp/

They have (roughly) word-for-word subtitles for their videos as well.

I don't really think there's much obscure, N1-specific grammar in N1. You'd be better off just reading books and newspapers and watching tv than anything else.

Getting a change to look about FNN News, it seems very impressive. The videos are about 1 minute in length and have transcripts at the bottom. Just with subtitles in movies there are some minor differences between what is written and is spoken. TBS is also very impressive. This is a resource that I thing is useful, and it has been added to my bookmarks.

I found FNN and TBS both to be a little fast. As, it is only one news article and it very short It seems possible to review the article several times in about 5 minutes.

NHK has an audio service at http://www.nhk.or.jp/r-news/

The advantage is that you can select the speed (slow, normal, fast), but the news broadcast at 10, 15 or 50 minutes.

More resources for practising Japanese

Grammar
I used this textbook, it explains the grammar point, gives it a rating as to how often you might come across it and lots of example sentences.

Reading
I felt like the reading was more like the sort of stuff you find under コラム than actual news articles. Try and read a variety of topics.

Listening
I don't remember there being many news reports in the listening section, maybe just one or two questions? There's a lot of short conversations, and office/school/university-based conversations as well.

You could always get a practice test book and try that to see what your weaker areas are. That might be the most helpful way to work what needs doing

Hey, the FNN News is a great tip. There's also a RSS feed to keep track more easily, just add this to your reader.

@Omoishinji

If you open the TBS video URLs in Windows Media Player you can see the video in the speed you prefer (I'd say between 50% and 150% it's still understandable).

Another advantage you can loop the videos for each individual topic (e.g. http://news.tbs.co.jp/asx/news4806887_12.asx) or on of their news broadcasts (e.g. http://news.tbs.co.jp/news_mainprogram/asx/1_11.asx)

Unfortunately for FNN I can't do it.

I'm going to start studying (adding sentences to anki) specifically for N1 one week after taking the N2. I already have some resources:

- donna toki dou tsukau (grammar)
- Nihongo somatome N1 grammar (will buy the vocab and reading too)
- Unicom 1kyuu grammar (because it has audio and it helped a lot)
- http://www.tanos.co.uk/jlpt/jlpt1/vocab/ (for vocab)
- news sites and random articles for reading and vocab (and the sou matome book to get used to the JLPT format)
- Drama, news, podcasts and other media for listening.

At a pace of 25 a day, I think it's doable till december 2012.

Thank you guys so much for your help!
I just ordered 総まとめ文法N1 and 語彙N1 + the 合格できるN1 book =)
I just took a lot of old JLPT 一級 tests, and my weakest side was definitely the reading section. I'll have to work really hard on my reading...