Part 3: Passing the JLPT

This is the only guide you’ll ever need to read about the JLPT.

This is part 3 of 3. It covers test-taking strategies and your study plan in the 3 months leading up to taking the JLPT.

This guide is split into 3 parts, discussing the following topics:

1. What is the JLPT and why is the failure rate so high?

2. Your NativShark and native material JLPT study plan

3. Passing the JLPT (← You are here)

As usual, here’s a quick summary/reference of our study plan before we get into the details:

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Summary of your study plan and timeline:

NativShark Milestones 1-6 (First ~4 months): 30-40 minutes a day, extra time goes into new Units in NativShark as long as reviews are under control.

Do 5-6 new Units a week, with 1-2 days of review only (this pace is ideal for all parts of this study plan, so we’d recommend sticking with it).

Remember that the kana tool can be reviewed outside of your normal studies so feel free to do that especially as you’re getting used to them.

NativShark Milestones 6-10 (months 4~7): Maintain 30-40 minutes a day in NativShark, 5-6 new Units per week with 1-2 review-only days.

Integrate native materials into your study days, starting small and building up to an hour of native materials every day.

NativShark studies should always be done before native materials.

NativShark Milestone 10+ (~month 7+): Maintain 30-40 minutes a day in NativShark, 5-6 new Units per week with 1-2 review-only days.

Do about an hour of native materials each day. All extra study time should be spent using native materials.

Be sure to do enjoyable material as well so study time can naturally extend beyond this hour when the schedule permits.

More study time = higher chance of passing the JLPT when the time comes ^^

3 months before taking either test: Begin using test prep if you choose to do so.

Extend study time and try not to replace more than 20 minutes of your current study time with this (you can try to get through NativShark faster to save some time, but be sure to still stay on pace with doing new Units).

Milestone 26-32 (~2 years): You’re ready to take the JLPT N2. Since you have to sign up 3 months in advance, feel free to sign up if you are past Milestone 23.

Milestone 41-49 (~3 years): You’re ready to take the JLPT N1. Since you have to sign up 3 months in advance, feel free to sign up if you are past Milestone 38.

Good luck!!

Signing up for the JLPT

If you’ve been following the strategies laid out in the previous guides (doing a new Unit 5-6 days a week with a review-only day 1-2 days a week), then at around 2 years in, you should be around Milestones 26-32.

Passing the N2 at this point should be quite accomplishable, becoming easier and easier the more Milestones you have completed.

For the N1 on the same strategy for 3 years, you’ll be sitting comfy around Milestones 41-49.

Passing the N1 around here should also be perfectly accomplishable, with it of course getting easier as you keep progressing and studying.

With these Milestones in mind, we’ll want to schedule the JLPT appropriate to where we will be, not where we are now.

Generally speaking, you can get through the average Milestone in just under a month. Since we sign up for the JLPT about 3 months prior to the actual test, we’ll want to take where we will be into consideration.

Specifically, when signing up for the JLPT and having followed this guide, if you are at Milestone 23 or higher, then you should sign up for the N2.

If you are at Milestone 38 or higher while having followed this guide, you should sign up for the N1.

You can sign up at the official JLPT website:

Take the test in Japan

Take the test Overseas

Remember that signup periods are about 3 months before the test. Once we sign up, we’ll want to begin our test prep, if we choose to do any at all.

JLPT: T - 3 months

Since we’ve been through the steps laid out in Part 2 of this guide, we have a very solid foundation of Japanese functionality.

Now…

To test prep, or to not test prep? cough that is the question cough

If you’re a bit nervous about taking the JLPT, then you might want to add in some test prep materials so you can get used to the format of the test.

With that said, the N2 is perfectly passable without doing any specific test prep. You will increase your chances of passing while doing it, but we don’t consider it to be necessary.

For the N1, we do recommend test prepping, especially if you have never taken the JLPT in the past.

We’ll want to be familiar with the test format so the only thing we’re wrestling with is the language. On top of that, some of the language is pretty tough to find outside of either newspapers or the JLPT, which means it might take us more time to understand.

Since this is a standardized test, that might be time we don’t have. We want to make sure we effectively get through the test before we run out of time, so this is where that test prep will help us.

If you choose to not test prep for the N1, then you should be reading newspaper articles and watching associated videos every day during your native materials. It doesn’t hurt to add 20-30 minutes to your daily study time to achieve this, if the schedule allows it.

In the future, we’ll have some in-house materials to prep with, but until then, a series like Kanzen Master works well.

Kanzen master

Since we’ll still be studying our normal NativShark Units and native materials, we don’t need to go crazy with this.

There are 5 different books for N1 and another 5 for the N2.

So you know exactly what books we're referring to, we have links below to Amazon. All links are non-affiliate links. We have no affiliation with the Kanzen Master series, and make no money if you buy them.

Please support the authors of these books by buying a copy* if you choose to study with them.

*We’ve noticed some crazy prices for these on the internet, especially when bought as a set. These books range from about 1,200 to 1,700 Yen in Japan (in the US they’re commonly found for $18-24), so if you’re looking at a price like $300 for the set, an alarm should be going off in your head.

Listening section focus:

New Kanzen Master Listening Comprehension JLPT N1

Reading section focus:

New Kanzen Master Reading Comprehension JLPT N1

Language Knowledge section focus:

New Kanzen Master Vocabulary JLPT N1

New Kanzen Master Kanji JLPT N1

New Kanzen Master Grammar JLPT N1

There’s a ton of options and these books all train different skills.

You can choose to buy all 5, but if you’re not sure you want to buy that many test prep books, then it could be helpful to go to the JLPT official website and take the official sample questions for the N2 or N1.*

*Don’t worry if these samples are tough for you at this point. You have plenty of time to test prep and continue learning. You’ll be a lot stronger at Japanese 3 months from now, and you only need to get about half of the questions correct to pass in the first place ^^

From there, you can buy the 2 or 3 most relevant books that will train what you feel the least confident with.**

**Based on past test scores, test-takers struggle with the Language Knowledge and the Reading section the most. The Listening section on the JLPT is quite clearly spoken, so if you know your vocab, you can usually get through the Listening section without a problem. Being used to NativShark audio will also greatly help here. If you don’t want an overwhelming amount of books to study with, then we would recommend the Reading Comprehension (読解) book and the Kanji (漢字) or Vocab (語彙) book for most students. This will help with the parts of the exam most people struggle with the most while giving you the widest familiarity with the style of questions you’ll be seeing.

Given that we’re 90 days out from the test and these books all average about 165 pages each (not including mock tests), if we bought all 5 books and wanted to complete them before the test, we’re going to be doing about 10+ total pages a day (2 pages per book per day) every day.

If you end up just buying the two you want to train the most (odds are you’ll want the Reading Comprehension, Vocab, and/or Kanji books in that case), then you can do a more comfortable 2 or so pages per book per day to complete them.

Either way, extra things to study means more time spent studying.

We want to avoid reducing our current study time as much as possible, but if you’re pressed for time, a fix may be to trim off 10 minutes from NativShark and 10 minutes from native materials to make this time. (In other words, 20-30 minutes with NativShark, 50 minutes with native materials, and 20-30 minutes with these books).

If you buy all 5 books, you can either choose to accept the crunch of 10 pages a day, which will definitely become stressful, or only go up to about halfway in every book, which brings that back down to a more comfortable 1 page a day per book (5 pages total per day).

Reducing the pages per day means you won’t complete the entire book before the test, but this isn’t really a big deal. We will be learning things in these books, but we mainly want to get used to how the test works more than anything else.

Familiarity with the test format means we will be able to go through questions more efficiently, which reduces our risk of running out of time on the exam.

There are two approaches that will help you when going through these books, and you should use both interchangeably.

First approach: Take the time to look up what you don’t know and try to fully understand the problem.

Second approach: Treat it as a mock exam and try to trim down the number of answers to 2 so you can make a 50/50 guess when you’re not sure of the correct answer.

Both of the above will provide value to you, as we’ll be learning or practicing our skills to be fast with the test.

All of these books have an N2 equivalent as well, but they are less strongly recommended than for the N1.

Again, the N2 should be passable with minimal test prep. Going through the official sample questions on the JLPT site should be enough.

If you want to buy a single test prep book, then we would suggest the Reading Comprehension, Kanji, or Vocab books for the average test-taker.

Don't be afraid to follow your own judgment here. Odds are it's the area you studied the least, and you probably know your weak spots better than anyone else ^^

JLPT: T - 1 month

A month before taking the test, you’ll want to either go take the sample questions for the JLPT if you haven’t already or do the mock exam that can be found in the back of the Kanzen Master books you bought.

However we do it, we want to doublecheck the areas that we’re weakest in and focus on them in the month leading up to the JLPT.

If you have all 5 books and find that your reading comprehension is the weakest, try to focus on that book the most and make sure it’s completed before the test. Also spend more time practicing native materials that can get you long-form reading, such as reading the newspaper.

While doing that, try reading all of your reviews in NativShark before listening to the audio or revealing the answer as well.

If listening happens to be your weakest, spend extra time making sure you complete the Listening Comprehension book and be sure to do lots of native materials that can help improve your listening skills, such as listening to podcasts, watching TV shows/ anime, etc.

Be sure to spend a lot of time on your NativShark review cards with your eyes closed listening to the audio as well.

Odds are we’ll probably end up studying most days for nearly 2 hours each at this point.

If it gets to be a little much, don’t feel bad about dropping back and doing a review-only day in NativShark, or having to take an entire day off. Just make the appropriate adjustments to make sure you can still show up while doing what you can to get back on the train as soon as possible.

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Remember not to double up studies after a missed study day!

This is one of the easiest ways to overwhelm yourself and fall off of your studies.

JLPT: The day before

Relax and do a normal study day. No overstudying here.

You’re either going to know it or not know it. Cramming will only stress you out and increase your chances of second-guessing yourself.

So take it easy, drink some tea, and enjoy your day ^^

Try to make sure you get lots of rest the night before as well!

A well-rested brain will get you free points on the test.

I can’t tell you the amount of times I didn’t understand a piece of Japanese simply because I was tired. So don’t let that happen to you on the test. Take a deep breath and enjoy your day, first and foremost

Oh shark, it’s today!

Yup.

You’ll be fine, this is what you’ve spent all this time preparing for. Sneak in your NativShark reviews if you have the time, but don’t worry about much else at this point.

You got this.

Safe travels to the testing center!

Taking the test

Remember: the JLPT consists of 3 different sections: Language Knowledge (vocab and grammar), Reading, and Listening.

The scores needed to pass the JLPT come out to a 50% (90/180) for the N2, and a ~55% for the N1 (100/180).

Since all of the questions are multiple-choice and we have a time limit, we’ll want to make sure we aren’t spending too much time on each question.

If you know the answer, fill it in as soon as you see it and move on. No lingering.

If you don’t know the answer, do what you can to get rid of the obviously wrong answers.

That can give you a 1/3 chance or a 1/2 chance of guessing it correctly. Since we need a 50 or 55% to pass the test, we’re fine with making a somewhat large handful of these guesses.

You did a fantastic job of studying wide and not deep up to this point.

Take the test this way as well.

If you’re lost or stuck, mark it and move on. You’ll probably realize the answer as you keep progressing thanks to seeing different Japanese that can remind you of the correct answer.

Odds are you’ll remember something and then go choose the correct answer as you run into more Japanese, or you can just come back at the end of the test with your extra time and take another guess with a more open mind.

For the listening section, keep an ear out for the most important words. The JLPT audio doesn’t do trick questions, so all you need to do is try your best to understand what’s being said.

If you missed a word, that’s okay. Forget about it as soon as possible and catch the next sentence.

You will probably find that you understand the previous sentence due to the added context from the sentence after it. Keep your mind as wide open as you can and try to catch a lot here.

Don’t get caught up on missing a few things.

By the way, if you’re super lost on a sentence, read or listen for the final words of that sentence because usually they contain the most information. That’s why it’s important to just drop what you don’t know as fast as you can so you can catch the ending of sentences^^

Take a deep breath. You can do it.

Good luck!

Be sure to let us know how you felt during the exam and once you’ve passed in the NativShark Community!