I think it's finally time to get down and start "seriously" studying for the N1, which I plan to take for the first time in July 2025.
What I'm already doing/plan on doing:
- Reading books (mostly light novels) + essays. I feel like the latter are mostly easy to understand, except for new kanji. Literature is where a lot of new vocab comes out, but it's also more motivating.
- If I see a word pop up frequently and for some reason I still can't remember the kanji/reading/meaning, add to a flashcard deck
- I plan to also download a pre-made Anki deck for vocab/kanji. Honestly, my visual memory is terrible and kanji are a pain, but I can't think of a better way to practice than just go through them until I am forced to remember.
…Honestly, that's pretty much it. For grammar I'm at a complete loss, except for googling bits and pieces I don't understand when I come across them. I tried using the Shinkanzen Master when I took the N2 and it felt like the book was just introducing new grammar that I couldn't understand without using other resources, so I ended up using it mostly as a list. This is probably my second biggest worry, after kanji.
I'm not terribly worried about the listening part, mostly because I live in Japan, so talking to people is definitely something I get a lot of practice with. It's also consistently been my highest scoring section. I was thinking of watching more news, but that seems more in the N2 area.
People who successfully passed N1, what did you do besides reading a bunch of books? Is there something I'm missing?
by Confused_Firefly