Want to pass the Japanese Language Proficiency Test and never look back? Today I have three pieces of study advice for you that can change your relationship with JLPT studying once and for all, so your next test can be your last test.
For anyone that’s new here, my name is Pat and I’ve been living in Japan and studying Japanese for almost 4 years now. Here on Konnichiyall, I share language learning advice, Japanese reading practices, and more. I got my N2 certificate in two years of study, but the N1 proved to be more of a challenge. In December 2022 I took the JLPT N1 for the first time, and as you can see below, I failed it miserably.
If you are in a similar boat right now, it's okay! I promise we can make it out together. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to overcome failing the JLPT and get back on your feet here.
I was pretty sad after failing, and I took a break for the July 2023 test because after seeing these scores, I knew I wasn't quite ready for the N1 yet. However, after one year of studying, I decided to try the test again in December. This blog hasn't really been active since I made this choice. When I committed to studying for the N1 again, I wanted to really give it my all without distractions. I am happy to report to you that my absence was worth it!
I raised my overall score by 42 points and I passed the exam!
So of course, after my long silence, my first post is an obligatory how to pass the JLPT N1 post, something I’ve been looking forward to being able to do for a long time now!
These tips are different than my regular advice about learning Japanese, because passing the JLPT and studying Japanese are kind of separate things. And this post is very much designed to teach you how to pass the JLPT specifically. I’m not saying that you won’t learn Japanese along the way. You certainly will! But if your goal is to learn usable Japanese, please go check out some of my other posts on how to get good at speaking and reading Japanese.
But, if your goal is to slay the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, then you’re in the right place! So let’s commit to putting a little pause on our actual Japanese studies and shift our focus for a few months to studying for the JLPT. For some timeline context, I started studying using the methods outline here in September for the December exam. Pretty much as soon as I signed up, I knew I wanted this to be my last time spending money and taking this test, so I wanted to take it as seriously as possible.
All right, let’s get into the nitty-gritty! Here are the three things I did to pass the JLPT.
1. Study the test itself
Let’s read that again. I’m not saying study for the test. I’m saying study the test. Get access to as many old exams as possible, and study them religiously. Do them once, check your answers, and make a study sheet or Anki set of any words or kanji that you don’t know. This includes answer choices that weren't the correct one, too! Then, do the test again until you can get everything right.
Like all standardized tests, the JLPT has patterns that reoccur over and over again. But to take it a step further, something that I never really saw talked about when I was researching how to study for this test is that the JLPT straight up repeats questions! Between my friend and I, we noticed three repeat questions taken from old exams. If I had known about the chance of seeing repeat questions, exactly as they had occurred in the past, I would have studied the old exams even harder than I did! As you can see from my scores, my vocabulary definitely needed a bit of work still, but the single question I think I did get correct on 問題2 was a repeat question that I would not have gotten without studying the old tests.
Even with the reading section, where I don’t think they would ever reuse exact passages, practicing the old tests is the best way to get used to the kind of material and questions they’re going to throw at you. Studying the test itself is kind of like a fast track for getting the specialized knowledge that you need specifically for the exam, rather than studying the language as a whole, and hoping that something you’re studying comes up on the exam.
The JLPT website makes two full length tests available for free, along with an older sample question booklet that gives a few questions for each type of problem. Start here and once you’ve gotten good at these, start browsing the Internet and App Store for other old tests.
You’ll notice most of the apps have awful ratings - use them anyway. A lot of the apps aren’t made by professional developers so they include some errors and wrong answers. So if you get an answer incorrect and you really can’t understand why you got it wrong, it’s best to type it into Google and double check. But even with the mistakes, I really think that information that these apps provide is worth the extra effort of sometimes double checking.
I used this app called JLPT N1.
I had to scroll for about 10 years in the app store to find it, and it definitely has some bugs and wrong answers, but it lets you study freely and also take timed tests. I think it’s a one time purchase of about $5 USD.
If you take nothing away from this article other than this, please study the previous tests! I had pages full of vocabulary and grammar from the old tests that I hadn’t known before, and I would make my poor partner quiz me over them after work. But in the end, a lot of that information came in handy, either through understanding the passages better or straight up repeat questions. So please make yourself some studies sheets that are based on what you don’t know on these tests!
2. Know, accept, and work with your personal study style
I’ve said this in a lot of posts on my blog before, but please don’t fight against your natural study style. If textbooks aren’t working for you, it does not make you a bad student, and there are other study methods out there! If I had tried to stick to studying Japanese text books by myself, I would still be level N5. I cannot get myself to open a textbook consistently unless there’s literally a teacher there to hold my hand. But switching all of my Japanese studies to spaced repetition systems is what allowed me to study consistently and pass this test.
If you’ve been on this blog at all before you know that I use WaniKani for kanji studies. You can learn so much kanji so quickly through this website. I switched to studying kanji through applications rather than textbooks about six months into my studies because I wasn’t making any progress. Even with some longish breaks (usually while waiting for the results of the JLPT), I managed to learn all 2000 basic kanji within 3 years after that switch.
However, for some reason, I didn’t apply this to my grammar studies. I was still trying to study grammar out of books (when I studied grammar at all). In some of my old posts, you’ll see me recommending some grammar books that worked better for me than others. But in the end, I am just not a textbook person and I was having so much trouble keeping myself consistent, even with the books that schedule your grammar studies out for you by the day.
You saw above that my grammar score sucked with my first round of N1, but vocabulary and grammar was also my lowest score on my N2. I didn’t even get halfway through the grammar book for N2, I just relied on what I’d picked up through immersion. But that didn’t cut it for N1.
Thankfully last August, my friend who also studies Japanese via WaniKani visited Japan, and when we met up she recommended the website Bunpro, which is a spaced repetition system like WaniKani or Anki, but for Japanese grammar studies.
I had heard of Bunpro before, and had been kind of skeptical that it would work. I’m not really sure why to be honest, because I love spaced repetition! But at her recommendation I finally tried it out. Bunpro has a super friendly trial policy that lets you have a whole month free, during which you can learn a ton of grammar. By the time my trial was up, I was absolutely hooked. I was learning so much more grammar than I had been able to in years, basically since I was studying for N3 together with my teacher in Kansai before moving to Kanto.
Just in the time between August and December I was able to learn all of the 180 N1 grammar points on Bunpro, plus a couple I'd missed out on from N2. And when I took the test in December, the grammar section was super easy for me! I was able to do it quickly, giving me time in other sections, and when the scores came back, my grammar score was an A!
So if you're struggling to stay consistent in your studies in any section, I highly recommend spaced repetition systems like WaniKani, Bunpro, and Anki. These systems have the potential to change your studies completely! And most of them have super generous trial periods, so what are you waiting for?
3. Use a Japanese Language Proficiency Test study tracker spreadsheet
Because I failed the N1 so terribly the first time I took it, the first thing I did when I decided a year later to take it again was to do research about how other people had passed this test. Doing research about how other people study is not something I’ve done a lot of in my time studying Japanese - I usually try to figure things out myself with Japanese, or try out recommendations from friends. But with the N1, I knew I was a little out of my league.
At first, my research wasn't super helpful. Some people recommend a whole practice test every day - yeah right. I work full time! Other people tell you to learn through lots of immersion rather than studying, but realistically some of us don’t have that kind of time either. I want to apply for permanent residency as soon as possible, which meant getting the N1 quickly. I know a lot of people are in the same or similar boats. I wanted a study method that was both more realistic than a whole 3 hour test a day, and also faster than a year of deep immersion to increase my score on this test.
In my search, I finally found one YouTube video of someone who passed with a perfect score based mainly on spaced repetition systems and studying old tests, and I decided to follow their method (loosely - minus the textbooks and plus Bunpro). This person gave a very detailed guide on how they studied and tracked their progress in a spreadsheet.
Their spreadsheet breaks down the types of questions, what you should be able to do to get the question correct, study methods for each question, and then progress tracking your performance on that specific question. This was really helpful for identifying problem areas/questions. You can see my own spreadsheet below. In the notes section I used the system of:
What’s the test item about?
What do I need to do?
How can I improve this skill?
Another thing this sheet helped with was calling myself out for my tendency to practice vocabulary and grammar more than I did reading. The reading section of the JLPT is grueling and long and hard to understand sometimes. It can be difficult to get yourself to study this section. It’s really easy to study, kanji, vocabulary and grammar, and feel like you did so much because you answered a bunch of questions. But if you don’t practice reading, it bites you in the ass. My reading score on my first N1 test was barely passing with 23 out of 60 points.
But using this study guide and forcing myself to practice reading as much as I was practicing those other sections paid off. I tried to do one reading passage a day (on average) in the last couple months before the test. I raised my reading score by 24 points. The fact that it was my highest score is still mind blowing to me. But I can guarantee I would not have been able to accomplish that if I wasn’t looking at a visual of my study habits along the way.
The JLPT N1 app I mentioned above also gives a section by section score report for each time you attempt the timed tests, which is helpful for tracking progress and making sure you balance study sections. The reports look like this.
Go forth and pass the JLPT!
I truly hope you’ll find this advice helpful for studying for and acing the JLPT. It’s definitely different from how I recommend studying Japanese in general, but if your goal is to pass this test, then please try out these methods. Consistent practice and studying the right content (the test content) are truly the two keys to passing the test. It can feel impossible, but if you practice a little bit with these tests every day for a few months, you’ll amaze yourself with what you can do!
Good luck out there! I’m rooting for each and every one of you.
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