what the heck???
i just started listening to JLPT N1 practice tests on youtube for no real reason, and all the questions so far are done in CASUAL SPEECH?

N2 level only had TWO questions with casual speech when i took it. and it was way easier to understand those casual ones than all the other questions they had. N2's questions and reading pieces were basically "problems at work" "businessmen's emails". N1 is actual stuff you actually know if you watch anime or read manga, apparently... ex. one question was "which flag are they talking about", the answer was "the one with a big circle, a triangle in the circle, and then surrounded by horizontal lines". i thought, well i don't know the word for horizontal or vertical so i won't get this one -- except i actually did know the word they used (instead of any more technical term) and i've known it for a few years now. in fact i think it was taught in like my very first textbook.

so far i've gotten all the N1 listening questions right. i mean, i'm glad, but at the same time i'm frustrated. all this work i'm doing in order to pass this exam and the reading section is probably a billion times harder than the listening? : / i'll be off to check out the reading practice questions after this...

at the same time, when i took the N2 the practice questions were easier than the real test so we'll see i guess.