JLPT N5 Practice Test: Samples, a Full Mock, and Scoring

A full JLPT N5 practice test copies the real exam in three sections, each with its own time limit. Its score means something only when you read it the JLPT's way, as a total and part by part.

Once your exam date is set, you might tell a friend:

来週、日本語の試験を受けます。らいしゅう、にほんごのしけんをうけます。 (raishuu,nihongonoshikenwoukemasu.)

Next week I'll take a Japanese exam.

This page is for anyone who plans to take N5 and wants a timed check of what they can do today. Do not start here if you cannot read hiragana yet. The hiragana guide comes first.

If you are not sure N5 is your level, the field note on Japanese level tests helps you decide before you register.

The JLPT divides N5 into three test sections, and each one has a time limit of its own. Since the December 2020 test, those limits have been 20, 40, and 30 minutes.

The question counts come from the JLPT's 2020 notice, which gives a guide count for each type of question. The notice adds that a real test may differ slightly from the guide, and that the guide itself may change.

Here are the three sections with their guide counts and times:

Added together, that is about 67 questions in about 90 minutes. The listening time can be slightly longer or shorter, because it depends on the length of the recordings.

The result is reported in two scoring sections, which are the parts that each get a score of their own. Vocabulary, grammar, and reading share the first one, and listening is the second.

Some online quizzes called practice tests have around 25 questions. A quiz that size can show which words and patterns you know. It cannot show whether you finish about 22 grammar and reading questions in 40 minutes.

The JLPT site has a sample page for every level. In its own words, “One sample question is offered for each test item type.” You see the form of each type of question, but not a full test.

The same site posts the N5 questions, audio, and answers from two official workbooks, published in 2012 and 2018. The JLPT says each one contains “almost the same number of questions as an actual test.”

Both books were published before December 2020, when the N5 time limits and guide counts were reduced. Their N5 sets were written for that earlier form of the test.

They are still worth using, because their questions come from tests given since 2010. The JLPT's FAQ says it does not publish each exam's questions as they were given.

Their N5 sets have more vocabulary, grammar, and reading questions than today's test, so today's 20 and 40 minutes do not fit them. Use them to practice each type of question, and time yourself on a test in the current form.

N5 is scored out of 180. The first scoring section, Language Knowledge (Vocabulary/Grammar) and Reading, is scored out of 120, and Listening is scored out of 60.

To pass, you need two things at the same time. Your total has to reach the overall pass mark of 80.

Each scoring section also has a sectional pass mark: 38 for Language Knowledge and Reading, and 19 for Listening. One section under its mark is enough for a fail, whatever the total.

Here is the rule with example scores. Say you score 70 in Language Knowledge and Reading and 15 in Listening.

Your total is 85, which is above 80. Listening is four points under 19, so the result is a fail.

Now say the two scores are 55 and 28. The total is 83, both sections are above their marks, and the result is a pass.

The second total is lower than the first, and it is the one that passes.

The JLPT's FAQ adds that it uses scaled scores and does not total the points for correct answers. Any score you count from a mock is an estimate.

N5 Practice Test A is the first of eight full N5 tests, named A to H, on the JLPT page of Ukiyoe Japanese. You open one and start its three sections in order, and each section closes when its time limit ends.

The results page then shows an estimated total and an estimated score for each scoring section, marked as above or below its pass mark.

Those scores are estimates from your raw answers, not the JLPT's scaled scores. The questions are written for Ukiyoe Japanese, so they are not official JLPT questions.

A full test does not start without an account. A free account opens one full test in total, and any test after that needs a paid plan. You can retake that free test, but a retake uses the same questions.

If you want to practice with real JLPT items on paper, use the official workbooks instead.

For a timed test in the current form, take the three sections in one session and in the order of the real test. Keep the dictionary closed, and do not pause the clock.

Start with the two section scores, not the total. A section under its pass mark decides the result on its own, so that section comes first.

In the first example, that section is Listening, at 15 against a mark of 19.

Inside that section, find the types of question where you lost the most points. Language Knowledge and Reading covers vocabulary, grammar, and reading, so a low score there can come from any of the three.

The results page also groups your answers by question type, with a link to practice each type where you missed a question.

If listening is the section under its mark, the field note on listening practice explains how to train for it.

When both sections are above their marks but the total is under 80, study the section where your share of points is lower.

A retake with the same questions mostly measures your memory of them. The score can rise even when your Japanese has not changed.

To measure again, take a test you have not seen, such as another full mock or the other official workbook. Give the weak section some focused study between the two tests, so that the new score has a reason to change.

A workbook set follows the earlier form of N5, with more questions in its first two sections. If you use one as your second test, compare the share of questions you got right in each section, not the time you took.

A failed mock does not count toward the real exam. It names the section to study while there is still time before the test date. You can begin that study calmly.

Passing N5 takes two things: a total of at least 80 and every scoring section at its own pass mark.

Time each section as the real test does, or the score tells you little about the real day.

The JLPT site posts one sample question for each type of question, and the N5 files from its two official workbooks. Neither one is a full test in the current N5 form.

Ukiyoe Japanese gives a free account one full test in total, which can be an N5 test. Without an account, a full test does not start.

The JLPT's guide count since December 2020 is 67: 21 in vocabulary, 22 in grammar and reading, and 24 in listening. A real test can differ slightly from that count.

The overall pass mark is 80 out of 180. You also need at least 38 out of 120 in Language Knowledge and Reading, and at least 19 out of 60 in Listening.

The free test in Ukiyoe Japanese is one full test in total, for all levels together, and you can retake it any number of times. Practice by question type works in the browser and counts toward the daily practice limit of a free account.