JLPT December 2026: a 6-week revision plan

JLPT section timings for every level

Before you plan a single study session, learn how the test is cut up. Every mock you take in the next six weeks should use these times, because practising without them teaches you a pace you won't have on the day.

Notice where vocabulary sits. At N1 and N2 it's inside the same block as reading. At N3 to N5 grammar and reading share a block. Either way, every minute you spend stuck on an early question comes straight out of your reading time. Section 04 is about exactly that. (Source: the official JLPT test sections page.)

The 6-week JLPT revision plan, week by week

Each week has one job. If you can only study an hour a day, do that job and skip the rest. If you have three hours, the job still comes first.

1. W1

   Week 1 · 26 Oct – 1 Nov

   Take one full mock and find out where you are

   Sit one complete practice test this week, timed, in one go, phone in another room. Use the free sample questions on jlpt.jp for your level, or any full mock from a recent prep book.

   Then score it by section, not just in total. The JLPT fails people on section minimums: you can score 100 overall and still fail if listening comes in under 19. Write down your three sections and how far each is from the cutoff.

   • One full timed mock
   • Score each section against its minimum
   • Start an error log: question, your answer, why it was wrong
2. W2

   Week 2 · 2 – 8 Nov

   Fix the weakest section first

   Whatever your mock said was weakest gets the first hour of every study day this week. Everything else gets what's left.

   For most people that's vocabulary and kanji. Twenty minutes of flashcards every day beats a three-hour Sunday session, and it's the one part of the exam where volume still pays off this late. Grammar comes second: go through the error log and relearn only the patterns you actually got wrong.

   If you want a routine for those twenty minutes, use the one in how to study JLPT vocabulary with flashcards: every side of the card, said aloud, shuffled.

   • Daily vocabulary flashcards, 20 minutes
   • Relearn grammar patterns from the error log
   • Stop adding new textbooks
3. W3

   Week 3 · 9 – 15 Nov

   Train reading speed against the clock

   This is the week for the mistake we see most in our classes: students know enough to pass, then run out of time in the reading block. They spend too long on vocabulary and grammar questions at the start and leave the long passages half-read.

   Practise with the time budget in the table below. Set a timer for the vocabulary and grammar questions, and when it goes off, move to reading even if you're not done. One timed reading set every day this week.

   • One timed reading set every day
   • Use your level's time budget
   • Read the question before the passage
4. W4

   Week 4 · 16 – 22 Nov

   Listening every day, played once

   The JLPT plays each listening track once. If you've been practising with a pause button, you've been practising a different test. Thirty minutes a day, no pausing, no replaying, answer and move on.

   Sit your second full mock at the end of the week. Compare section scores with week 1. You're looking for the weakest section to have moved, not the total.

   • 30 minutes listening, no replays
   • Second full timed mock on the weekend
   • Compare section scores with week 1
5. W5

   Week 5 · 23 – 29 Nov

   Last mock, and no new material

   Third full mock, ideally starting at the same time of day as your real session. After this, nothing new goes in. Your job now is to review the error log until the same mistakes stop happening.

   Check your test voucher this week. In India it's posted or emailed by your test centre in November. If it hasn't reached you by about 28 November, contact the centre now, not on 5 December.

   • Third full mock at exam time of day
   • Review the whole error log
   • Confirm the test voucher has arrived
6. W6

   Week 6 · 30 Nov – 5 Dec

   Taper, and get the logistics right

   Light review only: flashcards, a few reading passages, one listening set a day. A tired brain on Sunday costs more marks than anything you could still learn on Friday.

   On Saturday, pack your bag and plan the route to the centre. Go to bed at a normal time. Cramming on the last night mostly costs sleep.

   • Short daily review, no mocks
   • Pack the bag on Saturday
   • Normal bedtime on Saturday night

How to stop running out of time in JLPT reading

Picture it. Forty minutes into the N2 block, you're still on a grammar question you half-know. You finally pick an answer. Then you turn the page and find four long passages, an information-search task, and about 25 minutes to read all of it.

That's the most common way our students lose a JLPT they were ready for. Not missing knowledge. Spending it in the wrong order. The fix is a time budget you decide before the test, and then obey.

These splits are our recommendation, not an official rule. At N3 to N5 the vocabulary section has its own separate time, so the split above is for the grammar-and-reading block. Three habits make the budget work:

• Thirty-second rule. If a vocabulary or grammar question takes longer than about 30 seconds, mark your best guess, circle the number in the booklet, and move on. Come back only if time is left.

• Questions first. Read the question before the passage, so you know what you're hunting for. Long passages stop being something to translate and become something to search.

• No blanks, ever. There's no negative marking. Two minutes before the block ends, fill in a guess for anything still empty.

JLPT pass marks and where each level loses marks

The plan is the same for every level. What changes is where your marks leak. Use your week 1 mock to check that you clear both numbers in each row: the total and every section minimum.

At N2 and N1 you'll meet plenty of kanji compounds you've never studied. Knowing how two kanji combine lets you guess most of them without a dictionary, and the five types of Japanese compound words is a quick way to learn that. If you're aiming at N5 or N4, our JLPT courses have level-wise vocabulary and practice tests you can use for weeks 1 to 5.

JLPT exam day checklist

In the listening section, answer each question as soon as the audio finishes and look ahead to the next one. If you missed it, guess and let it go. The audio won't wait while you think about the one before.