The Road to Eiken Pre-1: February 2025 – What I Did Right Before the Exam

Overview
Things I Tried in the Last Month (January & February 2025)
Reflections

Overview

Continuing from the previous posts?

Wait, the timeline is all over the place?
Well, this time, I just want to properly document what I did right before the exam. As expected, I was too tense in the final days to even think about blogging.

Things I Tried in the Last Month (January & February 2025)

To pressure myself, I made a "Days Until the Exam" countdown paper. But honestly, it didn't help much—I tend to stress out even without something like that.
Practiced writing almost every day. This was a technique I came up with myself, and I found it both fun and effective:
- First, I wrote an essay on my own.
- Then, I had ChatGPT correct the grammar.
- The next day, I rewrote my essay while referring to the corrected version by ChatGPT.

When I counted the essays I wrote for practice, the total was 48 (not just from the last-minute study, but in total). Since I enjoy writing with a mechanical pencil, this was actually a fun process.
Did shadowing practice almost every day while listening to Davi Vasc’s YouTube videos. This was obviously effective.
Completed all the Part 1 sections from the past exam papers I had and memorized every unfamiliar word. Not sure if this actually helped, but it gave me a sense of "I've done everything I could."
From a week before the exam, I did intensive reading of past exam passages. The goal was to carefully understand texts instead of skimming through them too casually.
Reviewed each of my vocabulary books once.

And while I was at it, I also prepared for the second-stage interview.

Honestly, I really struggle with the Q&A part of the interview. I'm the type who needs time to think carefully before answering questions, which is a terrible match for the Eiken interview format.
So, I got my friends to help me practice. For almost two weeks, we practiced together every night. It was a fun experience and a huge help.

Reflections

Compared to last year, when I was unsure about my study methods, I now feel like I've established my own way of preparing.
As I mentioned in my previous post, the time constraint during the writing test made things tough. However, thanks to my writing training, I managed to complete my essay in time. At that point, my hand just started writing on its own without much conscious effort.

And with that, my one-year journey toward passing the Eiken Pre-1 comes to an end.
I’m done. Good job, me.