Plan backwards from the date
The exam has a fixed date, which makes backward planning both possible and much more useful than the usual forward approach of studying until you feel ready.
Working backwards forces the decision that matters: what will not be covered. A forward plan quietly assumes everything will be, which is what produces the panic in the final month.
- Fix the date and count the weeks.
- Reserve the final two weeks for revision and timed papers.
- Reserve one long session a week throughout for timed practice.
- Divide the remaining weeks across the material.
- Whatever does not fit is what you are cutting; decide it now, not in November.
Match the activity to the block
Fragmented time is not bad time; it is time suited to particular activities. The mistake is trying to do reading practice in the gaps and vocabulary in the long sessions, which wastes both.
Vocabulary and kanji review are designed for interruption. Reading and timed practice are not.
| Block | Best used for | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| 10-15 minutes | Vocabulary, kanji review | Reading passages |
| 30 minutes | Grammar exercises, listening | Full timed sections |
| 60 minutes | Reading practice | Vocabulary only |
| 90+ minutes | Timed section practice | Anything else |
| Commute | Listening, review | Anything needing writing |
The fourth row is the one to protect. Timed practice cannot be fragmented and is the thing most often skipped by working candidates.
Deciding what to leave out
Covering the entire syllabus is not available on a working schedule, and pretending otherwise produces a plan that fails silently. Choosing the omissions deliberately is what keeps the plan honest.
The things to cut are the ones furthest from what is examined and closest to what is interesting.
- Material above the level you are taking.
- Grammar points that appear rarely in past papers.
- Writing practice, which is not tested at all.
- Speaking practice, if the exam is your only goal for now.
- Anything you are doing because it is enjoyable rather than examined.
The one session to protect
One longer session a week, used for timed practice, is worth more than several extra short ones. It is also the first thing to be cancelled when work is busy, which is why it needs protecting explicitly.
Put it in the calendar as an appointment rather than as an intention, and treat the whole plan as failing if it is missed twice in a row.
- Schedule it, do not intend it.
- Use it for full timed sections, not general study.
- Weekend mornings work better than evenings for most people.
- If it is missed twice running, the plan needs changing rather than more willpower.
- Protect it in the final month above everything else.
Using the commute
For most working candidates the commute is the largest single block of available time, and it suits listening and review particularly well.
Listening practice is the natural fit, since it needs no hands and no surface, and listening is a section that is otherwise easy to neglect.
- Listening practice, which is otherwise easily neglected.
- Vocabulary review, if you can use a phone.
- Re-listening to material already worked through.
- Not reading practice, which needs concentration and a surface.
- Consistency here compounds; it is most of a working candidate's hours.
The final month
In the last month, stop learning new material and switch to timed papers and revision. New grammar learned in the final weeks rarely reaches the exam in a usable state, and the time is better spent making existing knowledge faster.
This is also when the pacing problem is most fixable, which is another argument for spending the month on timed sections rather than on content.
Accept that some things will not be covered. A candidate who is fast and confident on eighty per cent of the syllabus generally does better than one who has seen all of it slowly.
Consistency over months beats intensity in the final weeks, and it is also the only version compatible with a full-time job.