New JLPT Levels: N5 to N1…

Many people have asked when I would add support for new JLPT levels (N5, N4, N3, N2 and N1… replacing old 4級 through 1級). Short answer is: Real Soon Now™.

The more nuanced answer is that we are working on it actively, but gathering data for the new level (only N3 differs significantly from previous levels: other should match roughly the old J4-J1 levels) is a very slow and uncertain process. There are no official lists of kanji or vocabulary for the new levels and the only way to proceed, is to cull them from existing textbook exercises and training tests (on the mostly valid assumption that said textbooks’ editors routinely have business “lunches” with JLPT people where secret lists of kanji might change hands). Since I would prefer the lists to be somewhat validated by official tests, it might be difficult to release an update before late Spring (when the next JLPT exam takes place)…

As an aside: take all the alleged “updated JLPT” lists you see floating around with a large grain of salt: they are all based on interpolation and essentially just break down former J2 level in two groups along grade level (for kanji) and frequency (for vocabulary): a breakdown that is far from verified in practice.

Until then, I would simply advise people who want to train for N3 to use 2級 for now (keeping in mind that it is largely above N3, but still the closest we have).

In the meantime, stats syncing and online scores should arrive soon!

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