Specifically reading newspaper articles, NHK news, editorials, and other “high level” materials. Manga is fine, but you gotta eat your veggies before you can have dessert.
I read the newspaper daily in the year leading up to the N1. Also everyone who did a study abroad year in Japan found the listening comprehension easy. So that leaves just studying grammar and kanji which I did with some focus for a month or two beforehand.
Not bothering to take the exam until year 6 of learning probably was the major factor in passing N1 on the first try, lol
Thinking that N1 was the only one worth it and aiming for it as a sort of milestone for “completing” the hard part of learning Japanese. It keeps going way beyond that of course.
From what I’ve seen, JLPT provides students at a school or other institution a guideline for what they need to study in each period and in what order, with N2 and N1 being the endgame having real value for job-seeking.
If you’re self-learning, there’s no order and you might miss some elementary things at first, but overall you have the capacity to blast through the first few exams worth of knowledge much quicker than with a structured plan. At the same time, since you’re not following a long-term structured plan, you don’t see JLPT as a path to follow but simply consider N1 itself as an end goal and forget about the rest.
Studying for JLPT is cheating
I passed N2 about eight months after moving to Japan. At that point, I hadn’t consumed any native material other than Chainsaw Man – just a lot of unfocussed but consistent study.
I passed N1 about a year and a half after that, although six months of that was an N2-cram-induced burnout. In that time I read thirteen novels, did about 3,000 mining cards on Anki, spoke to old men at pubs, and occasionally read the NHK website. I didn’t do any “actual studying” between N2 and N1 except for a cursory read of the Shinkanzen N1 grammar book.
The key really is just a *lot* of input.
Study shin kanzen everyday, read novels everyday, watch drama everyday
managed to one shot one kill N3, N2 and hoping to one shot one kill N1 in December !
four years of study 5 days a week in university + 3 years immersion learning + wanikani + cramming sample exams in the weeks before
I didn’t do anything super special. I like Japanese literature, so I just read a lot of books. Eventually my wife nudged me to take the JLPT (after like eight years), so I did.
* I took the JLPT N1 and failed by a few points * I took the JLPT N2 and got a perfect score * I did a couple JLPT N1 mock tests, made notes about what sort of information the questions asked for, and then past the N1 with an OK score
The pointers I’d give:
* The test structure is pretty specific. I felt less like it was testing my Japanese ability and more like it was testing my ability to quickly memorize information in Japanese and/or skim tests. The first time I took the N1 there was a multi-minute dialogue between colleagues, and I understood 100% of it… but then the question was something stupid like *what kind of shoes are in Takashi’s bag*? I’m exaggerating a bit, but I’m still a bit annoyed about it. * I read primarily novels and litfic type stuff. The JLPT reading tests are more like the opinion column of a newspaper — there are articles and essays on various topics. I was a fast enough reader and had developed a big enough vocabulary that I was OK, but I was a bit surprised how “different” an experience it was reading an essay vs reading a short story. If you don’t normally read non-fiction, practice a bit beforehand. * There’s a pretty notable gap between levels. Like I said, I got a perfect N2 score, and “perfect N2” was still “not enough to squeak by N1”. Passing one JLPT level really means that you’ve reached the starting point to begin preparing for the next level. You kind of need to keep your ego in test, respect the test, and make sure that you have the skills to do what it asks you to do — regardless of how functional/fluent you may or may not be in “real life” Japanese.
I didn’t take N2 until maybe 6-7 years after I started studying Japanese, and N1 was another 7 or so years after that. I took Japanese in college but was basically unaware of JLPT until after I’d left.
For N2 I was in the country studying Japanese (actually my worst performance lmao). In between n2 and N1 I lived in Japan for 4 more years, and after leaving I still use Japanese in my daily life at a casual level.
When it came to studying for N1, I’m generally very comfortable with reading and listening (and speaking), so I could devote any study time to just grammar and vocab, which I am very bad at still.
I was going to go for N3 as my first JLPT but it was sold out so I went for N2 and passed in one go. For test prep I did about 2 months of studying Shin Kanzen Master like 4 hours a day a 3/4 days a week and about 4 practice tests in the lead up. I started reading novels aimed at teenagers a few months before as well. I ran out of time to finish the grammar in SKM so I just read overviews of the rest using an app called ‘bunpo’.
My best habits
* weekly language exchange * weekly leasons with online tutor (probably up to N3 level) * reading NHK easy articles every day * listening to podcasts as much as I could every day, like 1-3 hrs (Let’s talk in Japanese and YuYu Nihingo at that time – both intensive and extensive) * reading a few pages of a novel before sleep * playing high school visual novels on psvita – these are gold as they have text and voice, and you can repeat the dialogue if needed * watching high school TV shows with japanese subs – language reactor is good for intensive study * Using a phone dictionary for lookups (Midori on iOs)and saving words to lists for each resource (Book name, TV show name etc) * using handwritten kanji input and kana keyboard for lookups
I avoided anki as I found it tedious to use, and I think you get more holistic practice from readings and lookups, anyway. My reading and grammar is super solid now so it must have worked.
My biggest advice is find a big LEVEL APPROPRIATE resource and stick to it like glue. I must have listened to every single episode of Let’s talk in Japanese before I moved on. I read so so much NHK easy, but I could do it because I knew if I could get through it I would get to read more fun stuff later. And once I got to easy visual novels, it really snowballed as I was excited to play/study every day. It’s good to have some high level content that is just whatever you love to try and do when you want to chill or reward yourself, but let the meat and potatoes be the big level appropriate resources.
Sat N1 once, no other levels. Did not study for it. Got 174/180. In the roughly two years prior to the exam I read 40-50 light novels. Extensive reading is the way.
I passed N2 first try easily and N1 second try. Failed N1 by like three points in the first one and passed by about five in the second.
Obviously using Japanese a lot is important. speaking is fine for N2, but reading is critical for N1.
i didn’t study Japanese at all between the fail and the pass. the thing that put me over the edge was learning Chinese. There are a lot of common Chinese characters that are rare and high-level in Japanese, so it was really useful for N1. This wasn’t an intentional strategy, but i knew a lot of Taiwanese who had N1 despite being shit when speaking Japanese and decided to just go for it after getting to reasonable fluency in Chinese.
i don’t think there’s much point in taking JLPT under N2. N2 is decent, and N1 is pretty good. lower levels are just for the xp.
14 comments
Reading a lot.
Specifically reading newspaper articles, NHK news, editorials, and other “high level” materials. Manga is fine, but you gotta eat your veggies before you can have dessert.
I read the newspaper daily in the year leading up to the N1. Also everyone who did a study abroad year in Japan found the listening comprehension easy. So that leaves just studying grammar and kanji which I did with some focus for a month or two beforehand.
Not bothering to take the exam until year 6 of learning probably was the major factor in passing N1 on the first try, lol
Thinking that N1 was the only one worth it and aiming for it as a sort of milestone for “completing” the hard part of learning Japanese. It keeps going way beyond that of course.
From what I’ve seen, JLPT provides students at a school or other institution a guideline for what they need to study in each period and in what order, with N2 and N1 being the endgame having real value for job-seeking.
If you’re self-learning, there’s no order and you might miss some elementary things at first, but overall you have the capacity to blast through the first few exams worth of knowledge much quicker than with a structured plan. At the same time, since you’re not following a long-term structured plan, you don’t see JLPT as a path to follow but simply consider N1 itself as an end goal and forget about the rest.
Studying for JLPT is cheating
I passed N2 about eight months after moving to Japan. At that point, I hadn’t consumed any native material other than Chainsaw Man – just a lot of unfocussed but consistent study.
I passed N1 about a year and a half after that, although six months of that was an N2-cram-induced burnout. In that time I read thirteen novels, did about 3,000 mining cards on Anki, spoke to old men at pubs, and occasionally read the NHK website. I didn’t do any “actual studying” between N2 and N1 except for a cursory read of the Shinkanzen N1 grammar book.
The key really is just a *lot* of input.
Study shin kanzen everyday, read novels everyday, watch drama everyday
managed to one shot one kill N3, N2 and hoping to one shot one kill N1 in December !
four years of study 5 days a week in university + 3 years immersion learning + wanikani + cramming sample exams in the weeks before
I didn’t do anything super special. I like Japanese literature, so I just read a lot of books. Eventually my wife nudged me to take the JLPT (after like eight years), so I did.
* I took the JLPT N1 and failed by a few points
* I took the JLPT N2 and got a perfect score
* I did a couple JLPT N1 mock tests, made notes about what sort of information the questions asked for, and then past the N1 with an OK score
The pointers I’d give:
* The test structure is pretty specific. I felt less like it was testing my Japanese ability and more like it was testing my ability to quickly memorize information in Japanese and/or skim tests. The first time I took the N1 there was a multi-minute dialogue between colleagues, and I understood 100% of it… but then the question was something stupid like *what kind of shoes are in Takashi’s bag*? I’m exaggerating a bit, but I’m still a bit annoyed about it.
* I read primarily novels and litfic type stuff. The JLPT reading tests are more like the opinion column of a newspaper — there are articles and essays on various topics. I was a fast enough reader and had developed a big enough vocabulary that I was OK, but I was a bit surprised how “different” an experience it was reading an essay vs reading a short story. If you don’t normally read non-fiction, practice a bit beforehand.
* There’s a pretty notable gap between levels. Like I said, I got a perfect N2 score, and “perfect N2” was still “not enough to squeak by N1”. Passing one JLPT level really means that you’ve reached the starting point to begin preparing for the next level. You kind of need to keep your ego in test, respect the test, and make sure that you have the skills to do what it asks you to do — regardless of how functional/fluent you may or may not be in “real life” Japanese.
I didn’t take N2 until maybe 6-7 years after I started studying Japanese, and N1 was another 7 or so years after that. I took Japanese in college but was basically unaware of JLPT until after I’d left.
For N2 I was in the country studying Japanese (actually my worst performance lmao). In between n2 and N1 I lived in Japan for 4 more years, and after leaving I still use Japanese in my daily life at a casual level.
When it came to studying for N1, I’m generally very comfortable with reading and listening (and speaking), so I could devote any study time to just grammar and vocab, which I am very bad at still.
I was going to go for N3 as my first JLPT but it was sold out so I went for N2 and passed in one go. For test prep I did about 2 months of studying Shin Kanzen Master like 4 hours a day a 3/4 days a week and about 4 practice tests in the lead up. I started reading novels aimed at teenagers a few months before as well. I ran out of time to finish the grammar in SKM so I just read overviews of the rest using an app called ‘bunpo’.
My best habits
* weekly language exchange
* weekly leasons with online tutor (probably up to N3 level)
* reading NHK easy articles every day
* listening to podcasts as much as I could every day, like 1-3 hrs (Let’s talk in Japanese and YuYu Nihingo at that time – both intensive and extensive)
* reading a few pages of a novel before sleep
* playing high school visual novels on psvita – these are gold as they have text and voice, and you can repeat the dialogue if needed
* watching high school TV shows with japanese subs – language reactor is good for intensive study
* Using a phone dictionary for lookups (Midori on iOs)and saving words to lists for each resource (Book name, TV show name etc)
* using handwritten kanji input and kana keyboard for lookups
I avoided anki as I found it tedious to use, and I think you get more holistic practice from readings and lookups, anyway. My reading and grammar is super solid now so it must have worked.
My biggest advice is find a big LEVEL APPROPRIATE resource and stick to it like glue. I must have listened to every single episode of Let’s talk in Japanese before I moved on. I read so so much NHK easy, but I could do it because I knew if I could get through it I would get to read more fun stuff later. And once I got to easy visual novels, it really snowballed as I was excited to play/study every day. It’s good to have some high level content that is just whatever you love to try and do when you want to chill or reward yourself, but let the meat and potatoes be the big level appropriate resources.
Sat N1 once, no other levels. Did not study for it. Got 174/180. In the roughly two years prior to the exam I read 40-50 light novels. Extensive reading is the way.
I passed N2 first try easily and N1 second try. Failed N1 by like three points in the first one and passed by about five in the second.
Obviously using Japanese a lot is important. speaking is fine for N2, but reading is critical for N1.
i didn’t study Japanese at all between the fail and the pass. the thing that put me over the edge was learning Chinese. There are a lot of common Chinese characters that are rare and high-level in Japanese, so it was really useful for N1. This wasn’t an intentional strategy, but i knew a lot of Taiwanese who had N1 despite being shit when speaking Japanese and decided to just go for it after getting to reasonable fluency in Chinese.
i don’t think there’s much point in taking JLPT under N2. N2 is decent, and N1 is pretty good. lower levels are just for the xp.