N1 test plan: the 110-minute session and the 55-minute listening

The vocabulary and grammar items sit at the front of the booklet. They are worth the same per item as reading questions and take a fraction of the time, so do them first, quickly, and do not go back to them.

The reading section mixes short, mid-length and long passages with an integrated-comprehension task (two texts on one theme), a long opinion piece, and an information-retrieval task built on a notice or table. Do the information-retrieval task before the long opinion piece: it is short, the answer is findable, and it is the easiest points on the page.

• Minutes 0 to 12: kanji readings, orthography, word formation, context, paraphrase and usage. About 25 items. One pass, mark and move.
• Minutes 12 to 27: grammar. Sentence-form items, the reordering task (並べ替え), then text grammar. About 20 items. Reordering takes the longest; if a sentence will not resolve in 90 seconds, pick the most plausible order and flag it.
• Minutes 27 to 45: short and mid-length passages. Read the question stem before the passage so you know whether you are hunting a detail, a reason or the writer's stance.
• Minutes 45 to 55: information retrieval. Read the question first, then scan the notice or table for the constraint it names (a date, a fee, a condition).
• Minutes 55 to 75: the integrated task and the long passage. Note the claim of each text in one line before answering the comparison question.
• Minutes 75 to 100: the long opinion piece. The questions follow the text in order; the final one asks for the writer's overall position.
• Minutes 100 to 110: return to flagged items. Every answer sheet cell should be filled before time is called; there is no penalty for a wrong answer.

Three things change at N1, and each needs a different habit.

• Register. Grammar items test formal, literary and written forms (〜んばかり, 〜を禁じ得ない, 〜とあって, 〜ながらも) and their nuance, not their existence. When two options are both grammatical, the question is which one fits the tone of the sentence around it.
• Abstraction. Passages argue about ideas: social change, economics, language, science. The writer's stance is often stated indirectly (a concession followed by しかし or ただ), and the correct option paraphrases it rather than quoting it.
• Speed. There is no slow-speech concession. Conversations include interruptions, hedges and topic shifts, and the answer is often in what a speaker implies rather than what they say.

The listening section has five parts. The first two play a conversation and ask what someone will do next or what a specific point was; you may read the options in advance for the first part, so use the reading time. The third part asks for the gist with no printed options, so listen for the speaker's conclusion, not the details. The fourth is quick response: a short utterance and three spoken replies, many of them in a row, which rewards rhythm more than analysis. The fifth integrates longer or multiple sources.

Everything plays once. The single most useful habit is to stop thinking about the previous item the moment the next one starts. A wrong answer costs one point; a wrong answer plus a missed next item costs two.

• Before each part, read whatever is printed. For the first part it is the options; for the fifth it is the two questions.
• Note in Japanese, not English, and only nouns and numbers. Translating in your head is where the next sentence gets lost.
• In quick response, decide in the pause after the third option and mark immediately. Do not revisit.
• Expect casual and polite speech in the same conversation, and expect the polite speaker to be the one who disagrees.

Full-length practice under time is worth more than any further vocabulary at this stage. Sit the three N1 mock exams on this site on three separate days, each in one sitting with the real breaks, and review by section score rather than total: a section under 19 is a fail on its own.

Between mocks, work the N1 grammar comparisons for patterns you confused, and read one editorial-length Japanese text a day, timing yourself. If reading is your weak section, that daily text matters more than anything else you can do in the final weeks.