JLPT N1 Journey Reflections: Grammar

Here’s this week’s favorite card! It felt a bit relevant to the topic at hand too!

Yup, another Re:Birthday Song card. With a grammar point I studied prior to taking the N1! Goodness I should have played more VNs before the JLPT!

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When I had about 14 or 15 months until my N1 test date, I realized just how far behind I was with grammar knowledge. Most of my time spent on learning in 2021 up until this point was sentence mining, JPDB, and trying to read things here and there. Notably I had not started reading novels again, but already found I was stuttering way too much in anything else I had tried to read. The thought of actively studying grammar disgusted me, but I also just wanted to get over the hurdle. I decided to dedicate a few months of "JLPT study" to only grammar, while continuing to do vocab SRS via JPDB and some light reading.

Phew! Seems like a lot, huh? I went through a phase years ago where I would just buy any and all JLPT related textbooks/workbooks that I could find. I know there must be other people who relate to the "hoarding materials" part of language learning, right?! Don't leave me hanging!

I did a bit of on and off grammar study throughout the years, but I first wanted to make sure I could handle all the N3 and N2 grammar before working towards N1 grammar. For N3, I used this website and took my own notes, finding better example sentences with massif. Massif was great for finding my own example sentences because I could also read the context leading up to and after the sentence in question...and potentially find a new web novel to read!

For N2, I used this pile of books.

The books are 日本語パワードリル N2 文法, 日本語総まとめ N2 文法, and 耳から覚える日本語能力試験文法トレーニングN2.

I went through the last two first, and then the drill book. I did this so I knew I had at least gone through all the N2 grammar points first before doing any drills with them. I took notes on my computer, found more example sentences, and did all the workbook exercises contained within all the books. I had previous experience years ago with the 新完全マスター N2 Grammar book, and even though I never finished it, reviewing things I had already seen before made the N2 grammar part of my Grammar Arc a lot quicker.

I also had the N1 versions of all of the above!

So I had 日本語パワードリル N1 文法, 日本語総まとめ N1 文法, and 耳から覚える日本語能力試験 文法トレーニングN1.
My absolute favorite N1 grammar book that I had though is called 絶対合格! 日本語能力試験 徹底トレーニング N1 文法. It's the blue book at the top of my grammar mountain!

Grammar points were very concise, straight to the point. Another perk was that they were all in their own cute box.

Healthy amount of questions too! Forgive me, but I'm pro-writing in books.

I went through the entirety of this book first before moving on to the other three. I found some grammar points that some books considered "N2", as well as some that I didn't see in any of the other N1 grammar books. I was doing at least 30 grammar points a day during these months, so being exposed to a variety of questions and slightly different explanations was super helpful.

What I liked specifically about the N2 and N1 drill books was that I only needed to set aside a small amount of time per day to get some solid practice in. The books give a timeframe in which you should complete the questions in, so I'd time myself as well. I was still working through the other N1 grammar books I had after finishing the 絶対合格! one, so doing a daily N1 grammar drill section was a great way to practice what I had learned as a warm-up for each day.

I really loved the 耳から覚える grammar books for the way they did questions in each section. It still had multiple choice, like most grammar books, but also had questions where you'd have to listen and then write down what you heard. There were also questions about putting verbs in the right tense or remembering on your own the correct particle to use. So it felt a bit more active and exciting than simple multiple choice, despite the JLPT not testing in that way.

The 総まとめ series is popular amongst JLPT studiers! After using these two, I can see why. It's presented in a cute way and it's not nearly as dense as the 新完全マスター series. I did find that the questions being on the same page spread as the explanations was a bit annoying, so I'd have to find ways to cover it all up. While the lack of density can be nice, there were a few times I had to reference other books or the internet to get more clarity on the differences between one grammar point and another.

I have two more books that I use as a reference more than anything, but will occasionally flip through just to read for a bit.

They are “生きた”例文で学ぶ 日本語表現文型辞典 and 教師と学習者のための日本語文型辞典.

I keep the pink one, “生きた”例文で学ぶ, at the side of my bed, and the other one at my computer desk at all times. What I like about “生きた”例文で学ぶ is that for each grammar point, it will present a small dialogue that showcases the point.

A familiar grammar point, I should hope! I think my Anki card at the start of this post is a bit more thrilling and concise, but this book is neat too!
There's also a handful of example sentences and explanations about any nuances. Super helpful for whenever I just need to get some clarity on something! I still have some tabs placed in from previous adventures. The faces represent my own mental state at the time of searching the specific grammar point, so I will keep them there to always remind myself of how far I’ve come.

教師と学習者のための日本語文型辞典 is a bit more dry, but it has a ton of grammar/sentence patterns!

Whenever I was lost on anything, I'd usually check this book first just because of the volume. If I needed further clarity, I'd check some other books out. I sometimes enjoyed just browsing through here to see what is considered a piece of grammar/common sentence pattern. Especially patterns that are broken up a bit and contain particles, it’s a lot harder to look those up. Knowing they exist is half the battle!

I don't have it physically anymore, but I also used the 新完全マスター N1 grammar book as well!
This book series in general just feels a bit more stiff and dense, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But, I am glad I had tons of options to go through and reference instead of just relying on any one book/series.

I wish I had more in-depth reviews of these books to give to you all, but honestly I just took what I needed and got the heck out. I wanted explanations that had tons of example sentences, and lots of practice questions to get me more comfortable with the JLPT questions in general. I spent a lot of time finding my own example sentences through massif or searching my own immersion materials and also finding YouTube videos to go through each point.

This is how most of my notes in Evernote look from my Grammar Arc. Link to a YouTube video, notes on how it's used and the meaning, and example sentences. I eventually turned all of these notes into Anki cards and reviewed them. I still review them to this day! But their intervals are very long now.

Lastly, I would utilize the discord bot Kotoba bot. Many learning related discords would have this bot, so I could direct message it and practice with some grammar questions. It felt a lot like the drill books except I didn't have to pay for it or turn any pages.

The most important thing for me when studying all this grammar was never relying on just one source. I had my go-to websites, but there'd be many times I'd have to google "文法１と文法２の違い" and read explanations in more than one spot. I'd watch multiple videos in addition to reading my textbooks. I'd seek out my own example sentences, paying attention to whether or not the sentence was actually for that grammar point or a different one. In addition to all the studying, I was still immersing. It was mostly web novels and FFXIV during this time.

I did all of this by the end of 2021, and made 2022 be the year for solidifying everything. I became a huge reader and started to see even more grammar I had been studying in those books. Ah yes, even those grammar points that people think are never used. Don't buy into the myth! If you immerse enough, I promise you will find every last bit of grammar in something. Yes, even that one! I've started to find the notion that one will not encounter N1 grammar anywhere outside of these textbooks so ludicrous that I've now started to mine a card for each N1 or harder N2 grammar point I see. I'm up to 14 in less than 6 reading hours, and that was mostly just from one visual novel.

I'll make a post another time about the "all in one" resources I used that tested on multiple areas, but for now these were all my grammar-specific resources! If I hadn't already owned literally all of these by the time I decided to actually take the N1, I think I could have gotten away with free resources only. There are so many more YouTube videos and websites covering grammar in the '20s compared to what I remember in the late '00s and early to mid '10s. There are even grammar dictionaries for yomichan so you can look up grammar while you're reading or quickly make cards in Anki with AnkiConnect.

I appreciate that the textbooks gave me something physical to work through, but I promise they are not necessary if you're looking to start studying for the JLPT. If you google "JLPT N1 grammar questions", you'll be able to find a plethora of websites that will test you if you want to get used to the format!
Do not despair. What worked for me doesn't have to work for you! Heck, what worked for me once may not work for me again! Every last thing I did, I did because it felt right at the time. I was studying for myself and a realistic goal I was going to achieve, and not trying to fit into some pre-determined mold of what I thought a Japanese learner should be doing. I think that is why this time I was finally able to successfully study grammar.

Do you all have any favorite grammar resources? Doesn’t matter the level, I’m curious to see what people enjoy utilizing!