Summary: This weekend I braved the pouring rain that was coming on and off all day to go take the N1 at Kyoto University. For those of you who don't know Japan has basically 5 seasons, the 4 normal seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter), but it also has one extra season – the rainy season, which usually comes around the middle of June and ends somewhere in July. This seasons is then followed by a suffocatingly hot and humid summer. As you can tell, I'm not a big fan of this season's weather. But that's okay, because I spent most of the day indoors taking the test, which was actually a pretty good experience. Even though I probably didn't pass this time, I learned a lot about the test, and it got me mentally prepared for the final showdown in December. My Original image of the N1 Back when I first started studying Japanese and I first learned about the JLPT, I thought that the N1 level (then called 一級) was an impossible achievement. I had in head that it was meant for those that had gotten a masters in Japanese or at the very least mastered in Japanese in college. Needless to say, I didn't do either of those. As a matter of fact, I only took a year of Japanese at a university before I left to come to Japan. And those classes really didn't teach me much. It wasn't that the teachers were bad, they were quite good. Well, actually, one of them was a total jerk, but for the most part 80% of them were amazing. It's just that, for whatever reason, I didn't absorb the language that much before I came to Japan. So, my idea of the N1 was that it was going to take a lot of studying for me to pass if I was ever going to pass it. I mean, I spent a year in classes, and I could still just barely introduce myself and read hiragana and katakana. How could I ever expect to pass the monolithic N1 with its 10,000 words, 2,000 kanji and some 500 or so grammar points? And if you look at the study hours necessary to pass the N1, you will get a similar impression about the test because it looks like the jump from N2 to N1 is the same as a true beginner to N2. But I feel like that just isn't true, at least in my case. Who knows, I might end of spending another 2 years trying to pass, so I don't want to be too bold, but in general, I don't think it takes that many hours to make the jump. In Reality Because in reality, the test is not that hard to study for. The first thing I learned was that kanji doesn't play as important as a role as it did in the lower levels. It still plays a role mind you, but just not as big of one. I was only about 33% or so through the N1 kanji in iKanji when I took the test, and I didn't feel like I was handicapped in anyway. The N1 does require a lot of studying I think, but it is easier to study for. It is actually a lot of fun to study for and not as much hard work grinding through vocabulary like the other levels of the test can be. That might sound a little strange so let me explain. For the grammar, it mostly follows some familiar patterns but more nuances are added to a few things here and there. For the most part though the concepts are fairly similar to N2 and N3 grammar, but they are just used in slightly more complicated ways. So the grammar, in my opinion, was somewhat easy to learn. The other reason it is a lot easier to study for is that you can use native materials now without many problems. Anyone that has passed the N2, can pretty easily work their way through any novel or piece of literature that is available. And I think that is one of the best ways to absorb and learn the vocabulary that is needed at this level. The last reason the N1 is easier to study for is that since I've taken most of the tests leading up to the N1, it was a lot easier to actually take the test. I know the tactics to use, and what kind of questions are going to come up and what to look out for. I could easily finish the test on time and double check my answers. Now,
