I got a little distracted with work for the last few months, and wasn't studying for the JLPT unfortunately. But, now that things have calmed down, I'm back in study mode. My goal - N1 in December. My good friend Dron wrote the N1 on July 4th. He said it was pretty hard - he thought he had studied quite well, but there were kanji on there he hadn't even seen before. Overall, he said the test seemed more difficult than when he wrote L1 last December.

So I burned out a little over the last couple months on studying Japanese, as you may have noticed from my lack of posting. I've been working particularly hard and not had a lot of time for study, and at times when I know I probably should be studying, I find myself not doing so.

How do you guys get over times like this? What methods do you use to push past that hump?

Finally they have released a study book the new JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) test. So far they have only released a book for level N1. I picked it up on the weekend.

Today, I read a post on Gaijinpot about using the nintendo DS game 'My Japanese Coach' for Japanese study. The post said this:

To supplement my JLPT study, I've started reading a Japanese book. I'm reading 世界の終わりとハードボイルドワンダーランド (Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World) by 村上春樹 (Haruki Murakami). I've read parts of some Japanese non-fiction books in the past, but this is my first time to read a fiction book in Japanese. I chose this one because I actually just finished reading it in English, and quite liked it.

So I'm curious about how other people study for the JLPT. I don't have the best study habits myself. Generally I study on the train on my way to and from work. I only have a 25 minute train ride, so this means I get a maximum of 50 minutes study time, but it's not the most efficient time by any means. This was enough for me to pass Level 2, but I don't think it's going to be enough for N1 when the time comes.

So what sorts of methods do you use? Where do you study? What do you find to be effective?