Japanese level test
What's your Japanese level? Board the train: from kana to JLPT N1, each station asks five questions on kanji, vocabulary and grammar. You keep going as long as you pass. Free, no account, about five minutes.
- Kana
- Tokyo
- Osaka
- Kyoto
- Nagoya
- Shinkansen
Departure: Kana station
Five questions per station, 30 at most. Get 4 right to go on to the next one. Answer without looking anything up: the test is there to show you where to start.
The stations of the test
Each level is a city on the Kotojutsu journey: Tokyo for N5, Osaka for N4, Kyoto for N3, Nagoya for N2, then the Shinkansen for N1. The first station checks that you can read kana, the two Japanese syllabaries.
- Kana: the hiragana and katakana people mix up most. Review hiragana
- Tokyo, JLPT N5: one kanji reading, two words to fit into a sentence, two grammar points. What N5 covers
- Osaka, JLPT N4: one kanji reading, two words to fit into a sentence, two grammar points. What N4 covers
- Kyoto, JLPT N3: one kanji reading, two words to fit into a sentence, two grammar points. What N3 covers
- Nagoya, JLPT N2: one kanji reading, two words to fit into a sentence, two grammar points. What N2 covers
- Shinkansen, JLPT N1: one kanji reading, two words to fit into a sentence, two grammar points. What N1 covers
A rough guide, not a certificate
Five questions per level give a good idea of where to start, not an official result. To measure yourself against a real paper, take the JLPT practice test for your level: the full written section, marked on the official scale.
Frequently asked questions
Does this test give my official JLPT level?
No: only the JLPT itself, held twice a year, gives an official level. This test is a quick estimate of the written section (kanji, vocabulary, grammar), without long reading passages or listening. It's there to show you where to start.
How is the level worked out?
The test goes from station to station: kana, then N5, N4, N3, N2 and N1. Each station has five questions; with 4 right answers you go on to the next. Your estimated level is the last station you passed.
Where do the questions come from?
From the Kotojutsu practice tests, written in the format of the JLPT written section and reviewed: one kanji reading, two vocabulary-in-context and two grammar questions per level. Every answer is explained.
Do I need an account?
No, you can take the test without signing up and nothing is saved. At the end, you can start the course at the level you reached, with a free trial that doesn't need an email address.