JLPT N1 Plan Of Attack!

NOTE - my u and - key are both broken, sometimes it won't type, sometimes it types 2, sorry for any strangeness

July last year I posted right after taking the N2, I haven't posted about Japanese since then! oops!

How are things going?

I successfully passed the N2 last year!
My score was:

I also gave the N1 a shot in December. Because the gap between the July and December JLPT is only 5 months, I wasn't able to get a lot of prep done. I wasn't able to get tickets for Melbourne because they sold out within 24 hours (And I forgot on the day! GAH.) So I flew to the other side of the country to Perth for the first time.

[Because flying in Australia is so expensive, it would be cheaper to fly to Japan and take the JLPT there rather than here. However, they recently changed the rules of the test to not allow people on tourism visas to take the exam in Japan]

As for the exam, I didn't pass but got a lot closer than expected! My score for N1 was:

Somehow I got exactly half the questions right.
I just need 10 more points to pass, so I'm going to give it another shot this July...

As for my flashcards, adding new words has slowed down, because it takes longer to find words I don't already know when reading / listening to Japanese. I haven't added many since Jul, however I have read 1 full Light Novel and finished Pokemon Sun since then, so those are the source of a lot of the newer words.

Plan of attack

The JLPT is in July, roughly 2 months after I post this! I want to address my weaknesses and blindspots uncovered last time I attempted the exam;

• Descriptions of nature and wildlife
• Articles about local politics & tourism
• Listening to low quality audio
• Those 4 star grammar questions

My goal for preparing this time is to intake a lot of Japanese media. N1 requires too much vocabulary for me to use textbooks however, I have started the 新完全マスター読解 (Shin Kanzen Master Reading Comprehension) & 新完全マスター文法 (Shin Kanzen Master Grammar) to help with the grammar & reading comprehension sections of the exam.
The grammar questions with the stars are a real weakpoint, so I hope this helps me tackle them!

Immersion study

Immersion language study is just using any media in the target language as a resource for study, rather than using education focused texts. The goal is a more casual understanding of the language, and is very useful for higher levels of study, and keeping up motivation. Typically immersion is done with Anki, the flashcard app, where you can add any words to your flashcards list and solidify them as language knowledge.\

In regards to immersion study, I have already read One Piece Novel Law and I'm planning on reading a bit more before the test. I want to try Black Box, as people reccomend reading full literature rather than just light novels in preparation for the N1. The book prize 「芥川龍之介賞 」 was reccomended for finding good books, and I found black box here! Also, I bought 「AI the Somnium files」 on a friend's reccomendation, I have enjoyed that style of game in the past, no idea how it will go in another language! The characters look funny, so atleast I'll be motivated :3

I have been playing Monster Hunter Stories, but it doesn't have many new words / grammar concepts so I'm not including it here. I've been wanting to read "Shinya 0 ji no shisho minarai" for a bit, the cover looks very intriguing. Square Enix also recently released a sequal to Paranormasight, so I'm going to try playing through that in all Japanese, as it's very word heavy.

I will try my best to post an update here when I finish the exam in July, as of writing this is in 55 days! Wish me luck :P