The Kanji Kentei is an exam available in Japan to test the examinee's knowledge of Chinese characters (kanji) as they appear in Japanese. The test comes in 12 levels, spanning from level 10 (the easiest) to level 1 (the hardest), with levels 2 and 1 have easier versions called pre-1 and pre-2.
It's said that the hardest level, level 1, is also functionally the hardest credential to achieve among the Japanese culture's rich array of similar exams (such as on geography, cultural heritage, etc.), lining up with the Nihongo Kentei as the top of the hardest Japanese-language-testing exams.
Evgeny Uskov, via his website Roshijin.jp, has been my ambassador in learning more about this exam through his YouTube channel and website expounding details of the exam in English. Thanks to Evgeny, it's become clear to me that I, too, wish to take up the gauntlet and achieve a pass (80% or more) on the hardest exam of its kind, namely level 1. At this time (15 August 2024), only 5 non-Sinosphere foreigners appear to have passed it, according to Evgeny's most recent information, so I aim to hopefully line up somewhere in the top 10 my the time I eventually finish! :)
Due to the illumination of people who came before me, the task of passing the exam has, in my opinion, been significantly lessened in ardour, because I am able to view comprehensive details about each part of the exam and its precise details ahead of time, as well as the fact that many resources have already been made widely available that weren't as accessible before.
In keeping with this trend, I would like to also share my own offering in the Kanken resource space, namely a massive dataset adequate for comprehensive study of the Kanken level 1 material, all in one centralized location. I'm still working on this in various aspects, but for now, an Anki deck and a general data sheet (in CSV/spreadsheet-friendly form) are in the works.
These will contain the contents of the Kanken Kanji Jiten, i.e. the (relatively) exhaustive authority on the Kanken level 1 (and below) exam, to whose contained kanji the exam will be constrained, in Japanese. Ultimately, the exam may feature some vocabulary outside the scope of the dictionary, but the large part of the exam should come from the contents of the dictionary. I will also, over the course of my personal studies, build up the English Wiktionary's coverage of the Kanken material, with the late-stage goal of transforming Wiktionary into an adequate resource for Kanken study, albeit allowing you to study the same material in English for more efficiency for us English-speakers. However, if the deck itself is to take a while to be produced, then the English version I prepare only after I've basically finished studying will take literal years. Please be patient if waiting for this one!
I also intend to provide the following extra resources for help in Kanken study:
As for my own course of study, I intend to work through the 42,000 vocabulary entries and 6300 kanji over a course of a bit less than 2 and half years, with the hope of getting a high coverage of the full exam material. This would equate to 50 cards a day, which, from my experience of prior study in Anki, would amount to several hours of study a day by a year in; however, thanks to the "FSRS" algorithm's recent development, which vastly improves scheduling in Anki, it may be possible to push back that inevitable inkstone-grinding labor a year or so, so that only towards the end will the study truly reach any laborious heights.
Additionally, once the deck and data have been prepared, I would like to offer a website to provide (a) practice exams, and (b) the ability to perform online practice ad-hoc in each of the exam categories, and have the computer tell you if you're right, etc. Since the Kanken exam always follows the same format, it's possible to make this generation very programmatically, and this will allow one to gauge one's own progress with a quite satisfactory degree of accuracy.
Perhaps if I'm feeling up to it, I might also consider offering a tracker to let you note which kanji you've learnt, and which words, etc. you now "know", or even expand the service to a live online SRS like Anki, but ultimately these functions would be largely unneeded given the reasonable efficiency of Anki itself. It can at most be a fun game if a leaderboard, etc. were to be implemented.