December 2012

[Pandych]

Is there anyone who is going to take N1 this December and is looking for study companions?

[zatoichi]

I'm hoping to take it. What did you have in mind?

[dimitri_can]

新聞、ドラマをもっと見てください。

７月の試験は難しかったです。

私はもうN１級に合格しましたから、私にとって、どうでもいい。

[Pandych]

I was just thinking it kinda helps studying together. It gives motivation, especially when you need to share how much you've learned. So maybe we could create a topic here or smth like that where we could support each other, share ideas and maybe report on how much we've done already. Well, may be this thread is good enough for this purpose.
If you have any good ideas (in addition to what Dmitri-san has suggested) I will be very happy to hear them! (Especially ideas on studying grammar...."sigh").

[zatoichi]

Well at the moment as well going through the 常用漢字 one by one I'm reading a lot of books on Japanese culture to give me more insight into various topics. I find this a good way to learn new words and understand the Japanese way of thinking.

I'm also listening to podcasts of Japanese news and watching Japanese dvds. After listening to the podcasts I go check Japanese news to see if I picked up the main points of the stories. With the dvds I do a similar thing, watching them first without subtitles and then with them to try and gauge what I may have misunderstood. All good for listening section.

As for grammar, I'm gonna be buying some books in a few weeks, probably the Kanzen Master stuff after reading what people have said on here. I expect I'll be stumped by some of the grammar parts so I'll probably be posting questions based on that in the future.

I also have 漢字トレーナ for the PSP which I use whenever I can, ie on the toilet, in bed at night, advert break on tv, etc. Words or kanji I get wrong get checked in my dictionary so I pick up quite a lot of new words that way.

[silvermaple]

I am planning on taking it I've posted my study methods, and I'm planning on updating it because I've changed it around somewhat.

If you're serious about having a study-buddy, I think that'd be great!

[cumberbatch]

Having a study buddy is great. You're accountable to your study partner and vice versa. I read somewhere that it helps if you sort of bet against each other. For example, you promised that you will study 20 Kanji per day. If you weren't able to do that, you have to pay your partner.
Something like that

[Ryuu]

I love that idea, perhaps not for money though. However it does provide an added incentive. Shame there's no-one near me to study with otherwise I'd definitely give something like that a try