JLPT Level 1 Textbooks

[JaySee]

I'll be taking the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 1 in December, and I was wondering if anybody knows some good textbooks that can help you prepare you for this test. I checked some Japanese sites, but they really have too many books on the subject... so I'm a bit lost. So, for people who already did or are going to do JLPT Level 1, what book did you use/are you using to prepare and is it any good? Any advice is welcome

[hungryhotei]

I had great success with the kanzen master grammar book.
The １級問題集　日本語迫ﾍ試験対策 by 凡人社 was also very good if I remember correctly.
And of course some past tests would be useful.

To be honest I don't think you need that many specialty books for 1Q, the most important thing is just to read lots of whatever it is you like to read, in my opinion.

[Yudan Taiteki]

Reading speed and proficiency is the most important thing on the test. If you don't have some level of both, no preparation book is going to help. Other than that, use any specially designed 1-kyuu books and you should be fine. For grammar I used "500 sentence patterns" or something like that.

[JaySee]

I guess most of the books out there are pretty similar anyway... so it doesn't really matter which one I choose (which is exactly what makes picking one so difficult) :p

I must say I havent really gotten into the L1 grammar bits yet, but I heard most of the points are constructions you'll only encounter in the written language. I am trying to read as much Japanese as I can... mostly novels... but the huge amount of reading I have to do for all of my classes is more or less getting in the way.

Anyway, thanks for the advice!