The weights (content) that you train on are determined by the barbells (books) that you use, and N1 barbells are not lightweight. Naturally-assimilated Japanese abilities will not cut it here: your brain needs to go to the gym to build muscle memory through memorisation drilling exercises. This is not Japanese in a real life context. It is a high-stress artificial environment requiring deep focus, where there is no time to waste when considering questions: you have to instinctively know answers immediately, or take your best guess and move on. keep a mental track of the results of multiple weaving threads of conversations (which feel like they are deliberately engineered to trick you) before finding out which one is related to the question.speed-read excerpts from novels and articles and be able to interpret and answer nuanced questions about them.remember a lot of grammar patterns, kanji, and vocabulary that are used infrequently in everyday Japanese.Therein lies the need for the mindset change: JLPT N1 does not test your Japanese abilities so much as it tests your ability to pass JLPT N1. Neither scenario resulted in significantly different scores, though, so it would seem that the net value of any dedicated study I did, and any general improvements in the language gained during the year, was zero. There were years where I attempted to study for the JLPT, and others where I would promptly forget I applied to take it, turn up on the day, and test my luck. My hope is that you will find at least something of reference as you formulate your own study plan. The following contains my personal opinions and experiences with the N1 exam specifically: nothing is meant to be prescriptive (since everyone learns differently), and the approaches may not be relevant for all levels of the JLPT. So, I cut my losses, attempted the old Level 2 exam, passed it, and appeased myself with the relief that I would finally be free of these infernal tests.įor whatever reason, I started to get antsy about leaving my JLPT attempt in a failed state for so long: it beat me, and that sucked, and I sucked, and I was obviously not over it.īut before making another attempt, though, I had to figure out what went wrong, why I had continued to fail all those other times, re-strategise my study plans, and actually execute them: properly, this time. I felt like my abilities were improving, so every 不合格 ( ふごうかく ) (Failure) notification stung a little harder than the last, but, well…maybe I would pass it the following year.Īs the time came for me to move out of Japan, I wanted to pass the JLPT just once to get a certificate. In my life, I have failed the highest level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) 7 times.įive of my attempts on the old Level 1 exam (before it became N1) were when I was living and working in Japan, using Japanese full-time.
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