N1 preparation

4 comments

1. take practice exams and determine what you’re weak in and work on that, whatever it is

   for reading, read the questions and their answers first and skim for what you need

   don’t forget a backup pencil and an analog watch

2. For me personally it was definitely the kanji section, specifically the part where they give you 4 or 5 characters that look *almost exactly* the same and you pick which one goes with the reading. I’m terrible at that sort of thing because I tend to memorize characters by what they mostly look like. Which works just fine for actual reading or writing (typing) but definitely bites me in the ass in situations like the jlpt or when I have to hand-write something.

   And then when it comes to grammar, there are certain elements/rules/whatever that you pretty much never encounter out “in the wild” so to speak, but that you need to study specifically to pass N1. So just make sure you know those. Get a N1-specific grammar book.

3. Classical Japanese is hard to learn (unless the curriculum is not changed) but for me, I started to use classical Japanese in conversations with my friends which they thought were unnatural but I told them I did it to learn classical Japanese for the test.

   Whatever you need to remember haha. My biggest mistake was that even though I passed, I wish I had a study buddy or something because it does not feel like the usual joy of studying Japanese but more like, yeah it is for a test.

4. Learning what the radical stands for and how they are connected helped me learn how to distinguish kanji from each other.
   —

   Also, if you learn the different radicals of a kanji you understand pronunciation and meaning depending on what radicals are part of that kanji.

   Take
   👇
   義　儀　議

   ​

   If the radical 義 is in a kanji it is always pronounced gi if I am not mistaken.
   Also if 義 is a part of the kanji there is a certain kind of meaning and nuance in what it means (code, debate, manner, etc) and you can eliminate options.