Exactly. Grammar is easier to make Anki cards because because you can make a card out of whatever you’re not getting where as Bunpro you’re at the mercy of their program.
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grammar, actually in the end just treat it like a vocab.
will make your life easier.
Learn them fast through Anki then practice with questions and read more.
never fails me
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about 300 questions to finish the Tettei book.
This book is so godlike material.
ps: i think I miscounted the number of quetions previously, but doesn’t matter.
I thoroughly enjoy the learning journey when using this book, soo good.
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woahla I’m still here.
I finished the Tettei book yesterday or so. It has been an amazing book with great materials.
I think what I’m doing next will be more for grammar then reading alongside.
For reading, I will be using the following
- Dokkai 55+ (warming up)
- Speed master (familiar with time management, important skill when taking test and practicing skim reading)
- Shinkanzen (I’ve done once, and will do it again.)
- Dokkai Kouryaku. (many ppl recommended, seems a very good book with recent taste)
Oh and I do some passive listening using Yuyu podcast. Check it out it’s very intermediate learner friendly.
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More than halfway through the Dokkai 55+ book. My correct answer percentage is like 70%. I dont use any time management at the moment and just enjoy reading.
I will still do some vocab and grammar as I find it to be quite useful for reading.
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Every day I still have to spend 30 ~ 60 mins to do Anki beside all the drills for vocab reading etc…
things are not easy, but I will commit to my goal, which is to pass this upcoming JLPT in July.
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good job, keep going!! I want to take it in December and the workload is super intimidating, but if we just keep chipping away at it we’ll surely make it! …well, at least I feel you will!
Btw I’ve started listening to the Yuyu podcast a bit because of your recommendation.
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yeah I found Yuyu podcast quite useful cause they also provide transcripts as well as the podcast author actually is aware that there are many Japanese learners who use his podcast for (passive) listening practice.
Plus I think the pronunciation is clear, the topics are kinda interesting and intermediate learner-friendly.
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I finished Dokkai 55+, overall rating was like 7.5 or 8 / 10.
The material is good, though some questions are not logical in some way I feel.
Grammar practice is more than halfway through, I think I just keep on drilling. I’ve already learned all (or most of) the N1 N2 grammar points though.
Up next will be reading on and on, until I finish all the textbooks I planned out.
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starting the Speed Master reading material.
lol, I got the very first question wrong!
I feel like I could have chosen the correct answer if I had been more careful when I read the text…
Maybe one of the reasons was that I was trying to skim through the text without really catching the keywords. This should be taken as a lesson…
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I finished the Speed Master book.
Overall was good 8.5/10.
The questions were logical, and it helped me with time management. Tbh I was short of time for the long passages… : ( will need to read more and more.
I will skip Shinkanzen N1 as I’ve done it once before, plus I kinda curious what Dokkai Kouryaku will offer. So let’s dive in !!
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19 days later, don’t worry i’m still up and fighting. (actually gorogoro a bit everyday but yeah I’m still heading to that JLPT goal).
I’ve done 1/3 of the dokkai Kouryaku, it is an amazing book (the same publisher from Shinkanzen series so expect the quality).
I was a bit slow these weeks so I think probably need to speed things up a bit. So many distractions lol
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I think I’m halfway through the Kouryaku book.
I think one of the important skills that I’ve learned from the book is that you should try to identify the surrounding context of the question asked.
For example, if it asks you about a sentence or a phrase, just try to look at the context surrounding it. Sometimes it will be the previous sentence or the next one. I got some questions right just by knowing these skills without having to read the whole paragraph or fully understand the text.
Anyway, my reading has improved, but not to the point I expected so I will keep going. Also, time management when you read a text is very important.
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Do you only use JLPT preparation texts to improve your reading comprehension, or do you also read outside of that?
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Hi, at the moment I only use practice books.
I would recommend reading LNs or anything that makes you interested.
Comprehensible (and interesting) input helps improve reading.
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I finished the Dokkai Kouryaku, overall rating is 9/10.
The questions and tactics are quite helpful. Though it may sound quite simple: the key point is just to find the information that supports your answer. If you cannot find it, then it is not a correct answer.
Just skim through the passage, read the opening, oversee the structure of the text, and read the conclusion.
I don’t find reading the title at the end quite helpful as recommended by the book as most of the time I don’t understand the title 
. And if I do, then it will just be a very generic one in which the opening sentences should give you the same information if not better.
The test is coming closer, only more than a month left. What I will be focusing on next will be to read slower, start to do the listening preparation and also attempt all the past JLPT tests (from 2010-ish onwards).
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Thank you for the answer. Do you feel reading other stuff would be a less efficient use of your preparation time? How do you feel about the test, are you confident?
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I think need to put in context.
As for test preparation I am kinda short of time. Thats why I chose to stick with textbookish materials. As they are kind of graded readings with test questions and format similar to the actual test (i.e. the texts are made with Kanjis, structures towards N1 level. They are divided into short, medium, long and info retrieval passage). Many texts are extracted from real books, novels.
To build up reading competency I do think reading outside these materials would help a lot. However it would require a consistent and longer time.
As for confidence, at the moment I think I can pass the test providing proper time management and I dont fail the listening section (scoring above 25).
Ps: tbh at this level nothing can stop the prep book authors to not extract all the archaic novels or newspapers, scientific materials into the book. Just add some notations for the hard kanjis, expressions😌
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Planned to take 17 tests in 40 days. (real 165 mins / test)
All of them are real real tests.
Either I’m burned out or I burn that JLPT test :jia you:
(jk, I will pace myself to achieve the goal. Must admit that this will not be very easy but I’ve done the same before. This time I’m much older, but packed with wisdom so probably I will pace myself and try to have good rest as well) I see you when I’m half way.
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ahh I feeel the urge to to report my progress before halfway lol
So, what happened was that I took 2 tests as planned. The estimated scores were not quite encouraging (i.e. I’m on the verge of failing or passing just by 5-7 points. This translates to 4-5 questions)
I was horribly bad at listening (scoring below 30), but I felt like after the first two tests I started to have some strategy to improve my score in a month.
My target for this section is only 30 lol (even this feels quite hard for me).
Vocab-Grammar was not as good as expected. I practised like one or two thousand questions before but I guess I need more exposure. I also use Anki all the way so my retention is still good.
The grammar section is the one I feel most confident about. My target is 40.
My reading score fell to the expected range, so I just target 40.
Overall target for these practice tests are set as below:
(to pass JLPT N1 your need to score above 100/180)
I. Vocab + Grammar: 40/60
II. Reading: 40/60
III. Listening: 30/60
The sad news is that I still haven’t reached the above target yet, but my hope is that I have these few days left to boost up, and I know the area I’m weak at to target.
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