JLPT Vocabulary & Grammar: A Practical Study Guide (N5–N1) with Free Practice

The JLPT is scored on a scale of 0–180, and the pass marks are lower than most people expect:

Level	Overall pass mark (of 180)	Sectional minimum
N1	100	19/60 per section
N2	90	19/60 per section
N3	95	19/60 per section
N4	90	38/120 (language knowledge + reading), 19/60 (listening)
N5	80	38/120 (language knowledge + reading), 19/60 (listening)

Two things follow from this table. First, you do not need a great score — you need a score above the line in every section. Failing one section below the minimum fails the whole test, even with a high total. Second, because scoring is scaled (IRT-based), the reliable strategy is not to gamble on hard questions but to stop losing the easy ones — which is precisely what vocabulary and grammar questions are.

The test is held twice a year in most countries (July and December), so a failed section costs you six months. That is the real price of leaked vocabulary points.

The 文字・語彙 (vocabulary) portion mostly asks one thing in several disguises: do you know what this word means in context? A typical context-fill question looks like this:

急激な円安が家計に与える影響について、専門家は強い（　　）を示している。

1. 未練　2. 懸念　3. 野心　4. 愛着

All four options are real words you may have "learned." The test is whether you know 懸念 (concern) is what experts show about a bad outcome — that 懸念を示す is a set phrase — while 未練 (lingering attachment) and 野心 (ambition) are semantically impossible here. Recognizing a word on a flashcard and selecting it against three plausible neighbors are different skills. The second one is what the JLPT pays for, and it is only trained by answering questions. (Try this exact question with an English explanation.)

1. Study by answering, not by re-reading. Recall practice (answering a question) builds far stronger memory than reviewing a list. Work through questions for your level and force yourself to choose before revealing the answer.

2. Read the explanation even when you are right. The wrong options in a good question are next exam's right answers. Our explanations cover the target word's meaning, the set phrases it lives in, and why each trap option fails — in English, so nothing is lost at the exact moment you need precision.

3. Re-do only your mistakes. After the first pass through a level, stop cycling everything. A second pass over mistakes only is worth more than a third pass over everything.

4. Split by question type. Vocabulary-in-context (単語) and compound/grammar items (熟語) fail for different reasons. If your errors cluster in one type, drill that type — questions here are organized by level and type for exactly this purpose.

5. Calibrate with time. Vocabulary questions must be fast — roughly 20–30 seconds each — because reading passages need every spare minute. If a question takes you a minute, the word is not yet "known" in the JLPT sense.

Study-hour estimates vary widely by source and by background (learners who already read Chinese characters progress much faster). Commonly cited ranges run from a few hundred hours for N5–N4 up to 900+ hours of cumulative study for N1. Treat these as planning aids, not verdicts: what actually predicts a pass is whether your practice accuracy for your level sits comfortably above the pass line — for most levels, that means answering clearly more than half of section questions correctly, with no weak section below the 19/60 floor.

A sensible check, four to six weeks before the exam: work through a full set of level-appropriate questions, then look at your accuracy by type. Above ~70% everywhere: hold course and protect your listening stamina. One type dragging: that type is your remaining syllabus.

KotobaMake is the web version of a Japanese-learning app. The JLPT course gives you 415 vocabulary and grammar questions across N5–N1, free, with no sign-up, and — the part we think matters most — every explanation is written out in English: the word's meaning, its reading, the set phrase it appears in, a second example sentence, and why the trap option is wrong.

Questions are shown in Japanese, because that is the skill being tested; explanations are in your language, because that is where understanding happens. The same content is available in Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Indonesian.

What this site is not: a full mock exam. It does not cover reading passages or listening. Use it to make the vocabulary and grammar sections a place where you gain points, and spend the time you save on reading and listening practice.

All questions are original material written for this platform — not reproductions of past JLPT papers. JLPT is a trademark of the Japan Foundation and JEES; this site is not affiliated with them.