Read this study guide → pass JLPT N5

Seeking external confirmation that you've successfully learned some Japanese? Good on you, mate 💪

I'm not sure what you want to know about the N5, exactly, so I prepared a bit of everything. This post is long.

Feel free to jump around:

What is the Japanese Language Proficiency Test? 

The Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) is a standardized test that evaluates and certifies the language ability of Japanese learners. (Duh, wouldn't make sense to assess the proficiency of natives, would it?) It's administered twice a year (July & December) by the Japan Foundation outside of Japan, and by Japan Educational Exchanges and Services (JEES) within Japan.

The test comprises five levels, and the N5 is the lowest of these levels.

How long does it take to pass the JLPT N5? 

This question is sort of difficult to answer.

This random Redditor passed the JLPT N5 in 4 months, studying for 3 hours a day, which works out to ~360 hours—right in line with the lower estimate from that language school.

If you pass the N5, what will you be able to do?

Let's tackle this in two directions.

Per the JLPT website, passing the N5 means that:

To get more clarity on what that means, exactly, they surveyed students who barely passed the N5 and asked them about the things they did and didn't feel comfortable doing. The full report is four pages long, but in brief:

What do you need to know in order to pass the N5?

There are no official vocabulary, kanji, or grammar lists that you "should" know for a particular JLPT level, so it's not possible to give a perfect answer and point you toward a nicely formatted List of Language Knowledge for JLPT Preparation. I wish I could. Sorry.

Having said that, some groups do keep track of the questions that appear in official mock tests and on each JLPT, and over time this has made it possible to guesstimate how "difficult" the JLPT considers particular words and structures. It's not perfect—something might be on an N5 test one year but an N4 the next, and vice versa—but it's good enough to guide your learning.

Again emphasizing that this is just a ballpark guess, you'll need to know:

[Test breakdown] JLPT N5 exam structure, practice tests, question types, and grading scheme

The JLPT N5 is broken into three sections:

The middle two tests (grammar/reading) are technically different tests, but they're contained within the same test booklet. You'll get a break between each of those three sections (so two total)—how long the break is seems to vary by location, but it'll be between 20 and 30 minutes.

(† Note: Wondering how 80/180 earns a pass? It's because the JLPT is graded on a sort of curve. Basically, you get more points if you get questions right that most people miss wrong, and vice versa. In other words, getting a good score on the JLPT is less about how many questions you get right, and more about *which* questions you get right.)

Anyway, that out of the way, let's dive into each section:

Vocabulary section (20 minutes)

The JLPT N5 will test your vocabulary in four different ways. Below I'll introduce each question type you'll encounter and give you a sample question so you can see what you're getting into.

1) Kanji reading

You'll be shown a sentence. One kanji word in this sentence will be underlined, and your job is to indicate the reading (on'yomi or kun'yomi) of this kanji.

Example of an easier problem:

Example of a trickier problem:

As you can see, the simpler questions simply check to see if you know roughly how a word sounds, whereas the trickier question makes sure you know exactly how it's spelled/pronounced.

2) Orthography

This is essentially the opposite of the kanji reading question. You'll see a sentence written completely in hiragana and katakana. One word will be underlined, and you must indicate the correct way to write the word using kanji (and sometimes katakana).

Here's an example of a simpler problem. All it asks you to do is recognize the rough shape of the kanji in question.

Here's an example of a trickier problem, in which you're presented with four similar-looking characters and must mind small details to pick the right one. I'm including a screenshot because one of the characters is fake and not actually possible to type with a normal keyboard.

3) Contextually-defined expressions

This section consists of straightforward "fill in the blank" style questions. You'll see a sentence with a missing word and must choose the best word to fill in the blank.

4) Paraphrases

This section is also pretty straightforward. You'll be presented with a sentence, then will be given 4 further sentences and asked to indicate which one means nearly the same thing as the original sentence.

These questions are actually pretty tricky on the N1 and N2, in which you get a bunch of different sentences that have overlapping nuance... but, for now, it's basically a test of your ability to spot synonyms.

Once you finish this section, you'll have a ~20 minute break before the grammar section begins.

Grammar section (~20 minutes)

This section of the test checks how well you understand how the parts of a Japanese sentence fit together. I personally think it's the easiest portion of the JLPT. Japanese grammar is complex, but this section of the test isn't.

As with the vocab section, I'll show a sample question or two in each subsection.

1) Sequential grammar 1 / "Selecting the correct grammar form"

This is another fill-in-the-blank test. You'll be shown a sentence with a blank and asked to indicate which grammar point best completes it. Sentences include heavy usage of furigana, ensuring that you never miss a question because you don't know how to read a kanji.

Many of these tests are related to particles:

But some of them quiz you on other things, like verb conjugation:

2) Sequential grammar 2 / "Sentence composition"

Not to scare you off, but this section is infamous for causing chaos. Take a glance at it, first, and see what you make of it:

Each of the question items (1–4) goes in one of the blanks. Your job is to un-jumble the sentence, then indicate which item goes in the 3rd blank (which has a star).

These aren't too bad when you get the hang of them, but they're tricky in the moment when you're stressed out. Make a point to drill several before taking the JLPT for real!

3) Text grammar

This is basically the same deal as Sequential Grammar 1—there's a blank in the middle of the sentence, and you need to indicate which Japanese word, particle, or whatever is the best option to fill in that blank.

The difference is that where you were previously dealing with sentences in isolation, now you're dealing with something like this:

Each blank is numbered, and that number corresponds to a question. For example, below, your task is to identify the word that goes in the blank labeled 22.

Reading comprehension section (~20 minutes)

That last grammar question was pretty long! This trend continues in the reading section, but rather than testing your ability to complete sentences in a natural fashion, you're instead tested more generally on how well you comprehend the text in question.

1) Comprehension (short passages)

There's actually quite a bit of variety here: you might be dealing with a simple paragraph, you might be looking at a memo, you might be referencing an image. However it works out, the process will be the same: see a brief text, answer a single question about it.

For example, you'll see a text like this:

Then you'll be asked to identify which room the text is describing:

2) Comprehension (medium passages)

This is basically the same thing as the previous section but with a longer paragraph. Since the text is longer, you'll be asked two or three questions about it, instead of just one.

So you'll read a text like this:

Then be asked a couple questions like this:

3) Information retrieval

Here, you'll look at some sort of graphic. It might be an ad, it might be a schedule, it might be a webpage—basically, it'll be some sort of display which has information on it.

So you'll see something like this on the right-hand page of your test booklet:

And then you'll see a question or two on the left-hand page of your test booklet:

And with that, you've earned yourself a break! You'll have 20–30 minutes to relax or go to the bathroom.

Listening comprehension section (~30 minutes)

We now shift gears completely: you've been using your eyes, and now you have to use your ears. You'll hear snippets of a variety of conversations—some casual, some formal—and have your comprehension tested in a few different ways.

It's worth mentioning that JLPT listening questions are less a test of your ability to generally follow the gist of a conversation and more a test of your ability to identify and remember key bits of information within a conversation. Some people find this troublesome, while others feel that listening is the easiest portion of the test.

1) Task-based comprehension

A narrator will introduce a situation to you—here, they say "A teacher is talking in class". You'll then be given a task—here, they say "Today, where (which portion) should the students study at home?"

From here:

Here's "the audio for this subsection of the test. Start the audio at 1:30 if you'd like to try the below question.

2) Comprehension of key points

A narrator will introduce a situation—here, they say "A man and a woman are talking." You'll then be asked to pick a specific bit out of the conversation—here, that is "yesterday, where did the man go?". The narrator will then state who is about to start talking and the question will begin.

From here, you'll:

Here's the audio for this subsection of the test. Start it at 0:40 if you'd like to try the below question.

This question type is similar to the previous one, but it's different in that (a) there's no visual reference and (b) instead of listening for multiple hints spread out through an entire dialogue, you're listening for one specific bit of information.

3) Verbal expressions

This question type is sort of like role playing. You'll see a picture of a situation with multiple people and there will be an arrow pointing at one person. You'll then hear several one-line sentences, and must indicate which of these sentences it's most reasonable that this person might have said.

What's challenging about this question type is that the questions aren't written down: your answer sheet contains nothing but bubbles labeled 1, 2, and 3. The image shows you the situation, but you can only get information by listening to the audio.

To break this down a bit further:

Here's the audio for this subsection of the test. Start it at 0:40 if you'd like to try the below question.

4) Quick responses

This is a unique question type. There are no images to reference, and your test booklet is completely empty—as shown below:

All of these questions are snippets of dialogue between two people. You'll:

Here's the audio for this subsection of the test. Start the audio from 0:34 to try this question out.

Answer key

A few goodies for you:

Above, I've directed you to questions from the official 2012 JLPT mock test. If you'd like to do one more test, here's a link to the full 2018 JLPT mock test.

How to pass the JLPT N5 in about 6 months

Part of the reason that it seems to take people so long to learn Japanese is that traditional approaches to learning languages just aren't very efficient.

Now, don't get me wrong.

I definitely don't mean to belittle the difficulty of learning—or teaching—a language.

It's hard.

Really hard.

... But, when you consider that, to pass the JLPT N5, you need to know:

I think it's fair to say that it's kinda ridiculous for that to take 360 hours of work.

It doesn't need to.

You'll start off by learning how to read and correctly pronounce the hiragana and katakana:

From there, you'll proceed to learn ~380 essential grammar patterns and ~1,800 vocabulary words:

What's special about these courses is that:

The entire learning process is guided—we determine what you should learn next and keep track of your performance to determine what you should review on a daily basis.

As such, to learn Japanese, all you have to do is log into Migaku once a day and click study.

You can try Migaku free for ten days—which, at a pace of 23 cards per day, is just enough time to learn the hiragana and katakana.

How to sign up for the JLPT N5

Unfortunately, we can't give you a perfect guide, here. The JLPT examinations are conducted by different institutions around the globe, and each one does things a bit differently.

Generally speaking:

And now:

If you'll take the JLPT in Japan...

Follow these instructions on the JLPT website.

If you'll take the JLPT abroad...

This is a bit more involved, unfortunately.

[Check list] Do's and Don'ts come test day

The JLPT has very strict rules for how the test is to be conducted.

The JLPT N5 has two breaks—one after the vocabulary section, and one after the grammar/reading comprehension section. Each break is about 20 minutes long. You'll be able to go to the bathroom, eat a snack, or use your phone during this time.

Additionally, here's a series of FAQs from the JLPT that you may find useful.

† Note: When you sign up for the JLPT, you'll be emailed a pamphlet of instructions/information like this.

... Wanna actually learn nihongo, like for real?

Standardized tests aside, I'm going to be real with you for a second:

You need to learn the basics from somewhere, and the JLPT is great in that it gives you a target to shoot for... but, at the end of the day, what really matters is how much time you spend engaging directly with Japanese—even as a beginner.

Anyway, that's my soap box.

Good luck on the JLPT 💪