So I passed the N2 december 2025 and I'm going to take the N1 for the first time this december. To be honest I haven't been doing very well in terms of mock exams. I'm not expecting to pass on my first try, I would just like to use my performance this time around to gauge what would it take for me to actually pass. The issue is ever since I've started studying with the N1 in mind, I've realized that there is a significant difference between passing the N1 and actually being a proficient, fully independent speaker. I mean, the JLPT doesn't even have an equivalent for CEFR C2. It's just funny because as a kid I used to think having an N1 certificate = knowing everything there is to know about the japanese language. lol I would like to do basically everything I already do in my first language (brazilian portuguese) and english in japanese. Stuff like reading complex books, academic studies etc. I've been working to improve my reading skills and vocabulary by reading books on subjects I find interesting (like sociology, psychology etc. I would love recommendations btw!). Also I've found that reading fanfics in japanese is a very enjoyable way to actually get me to do any reading if I can't be bothered to read more serious stuff lol. As for output, I've been trying to make friends who are native speakers so I get more chances to actually speak and write in japanese. I've also been attending a local language school (3 hours a week) and I have a great teacher there, really can't complain about that. I've been doing what I can to immerse myself in the language (a twitter side account just for being on the japanese side of twitter, listening to japanese music, reading manga, watching japanese content creators, doing my Anki daily etc). To be honest I've been pretty frustrated so far. It feels like there's a world of difference between what I can actually do in japanese vs what I would like to do someday. I started studying japanese as a teen and I'm an young adult now. It doesn't help that I learned to speak english way younger so I know how it feels to learn a language while having the advantage of being in my critical language acquisition period. But I'm still pretty young, so I would like to just do my best to get over this plateau. What's more stuff that I can do to actually help me improve as an "advanced" speaker? Have you ever been in my shoes in terms of frustration with your studies? TLDR: I've realized that the JLPT means little to nothing (as someone who is not looking to study/work in Japan or for a japanese company), that I actually just suck at japanese and would like to fix that. What do I do now?