Am preparing to take N1 some time next year. I’d say right now I know about 1800 kanji. It tends to be a strong point but I’m struggling to cram any more into my head. Obviously the more kanji you know the better but for those of you who have passed N1 what was your strategy for kanji? Did you ensure you knew all of the joyo? Assume that’s not necessary to pass. Want to make sure I’m as well prepared as possible.
6 comments
Just read more, especially read non-fiction. Essays and op-eds are ideal as that is what the JLPT readings are usually taken from. Histories and biographies are very good.
Being able to read smoothly simply takes practice, and if you can read smoothly then the JLPT will be easy.
You can of course read other things as well, it won’t hurt. I read a lot of web novels and light novels because that’s what I enjoy, but it’s just not as focused for study. If you do read novels, try to also read the author’s notes as those tend to use the same conventions as essays. Manga will not likely be sufficient, dialogue and formal writing have a pretty big gap between them in the kinds of vocabulary and sentence structures commonly used.
I did also use Anki for vocabulary and do writing practice, as that helped with memorizing new items, but any kind of drills should be a fraction of your time spent reading.
Oh, and you need like 90% of the joyo but not all of them, there’s some unusual kanji in there just because being able to read the Japanese Constitution is one of the goals of the educational kanji list. Most of the joyo though you’ll encounter regularly anyway and you can’t help but know them if you’re reading.
Literally read, native texts. I never say and read non fiction or essays (don’t think you need to focus on that) but I read a lot of novels before and during my n1 study time and it helped in all aspects. Other than that work through the textbooks and do all the questions and look for past papers and do all those questions- question books too- do all those
Buy one of the prep books; they’re full of strategies like using radicals to guess the readings of characters you don’t know, in addition to straight-up vocab lists to study.
If you complete Kanji In Context you will be well prepared for the N1
I have a couple of books with the previous (old) exams. For me, the issue is simply reading speed. Whatever material you have, practice for speed.
歴史に関係する漫画を読めば新しい漢字とそれについての説明が多く出てきてすごく勉強になると思う！