I'm sure a lot of you students out there are putting a lot of pressure on yourself to master this language.

In doing so, there are likely times when you feel like passing JLPT N1 sounds impossible. At least, I know it always felt that way for me.

Some good news, though:

1) I did eventually pass N1 (in July 2014), and I got a pretty solid score on it, too, which was exciting.

2) I have no recollection of today's grammar point:

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JLPT N1：こととて

I mean, I have read a lot of grammar books, so I must have seen this grammar point somewhere before. But I don't remember it. And I'm pretty sure I've neither seen nor heard it "out in the wild."

But who knows, maybe it was on my N1 test, and I got it wrong. ^^

At least we can all take comfort in knowing that we don't have to be perfect to get Japanese qualifications.

OK. So let's get started...

*Runs off to study こととて*

NOTE: This grammar is both (A) highly formal and (B) somewhat dated. So while you do need to be able to understand it for passing the N1, it's unlikely that you'll come across it much (if ever) in daily life. So yeah, no need to try using it.

時間をかけて丁寧に作ったこととて、素晴らしい仕上がりになった。
じかん　を　かけて　ていねい　に　つくった　こととて、　すばらしい　しあがり　に　なった。
It turned out wonderfully in the end on account of the fact that I spent a considerable amount of time carefully making it.
Literally: "time + を + spend / take + thoroughly + made + こととて, + wonderful / splendid + completion + に + became."

ゴールデンウィーク真っ最中のこととて、どこへ行っても混んでいる。
ゴールデンウィーク　まっさいちゅう　の　こととて、　どこ　へ　いっても　こんでいる。
It's crowded wherever you go on account of the fact that it's the middle of Golden Week.
Literally: "Golden Week + in the middle of + の + こととて, + where + へ + even if you go + is crowded."
Note: Golden Week is a period around early May where several national holidays line up, so the majority of Japan has no work... and yeah, everything is crowded and traveling suddenly becomes very expensive.

東洋の文化に無知なこととて、失礼があったらごめんなさい。
とうよう　の　ぶんか　に　むち　な　こととて、　しつれい　が　あったら　ごめんなさい。
I apologize if I do anything rude on account of the fact that I do not know much about Asian cultures.
Literally: "the Orient + の + culture + に + ignorant + こととて, + rudeness + が + if there was + I'm sorry."

いくら子どものしたこととて、大変失礼いたしました。
いくら　こども　の　した　こととて、　たいへん　しつれい　いたしました。
I'm terribly sorry for my child's rude behavior.
Literally: "how much + child + の + did + こととて, + terribly + rudeness + (humbly) did."
Note: For example, this might be a mother apologizing because her son got ice cream on a stranger's shirt or something.

Although I doubt you'll need to form sentences like these on your own, it might be worth noting that こととて always comes after a verb in plain form, a noun + の, or a na-adjective + な.

By the way, you might be a bit fed up with Japanese people telling you to learn outdated grammar points... but I think that with a high level of Japanese, you should be able to more or less decipher the meanings of these sentences without really understanding こととて. So maybe the thing you should focus on is understanding each of these sentences as a whole and not just the grammar point specifically.