How JLPT Scoring Works

What each level needs

One surprise in this table: N3 needs more points (95) than the harder N2 (90). That's not a mistake — each level is scored on its own scale, so the numbers only mean something within one level.

On official score reports, "Vocabulary & Grammar" appears as Language Knowledge (Vocabulary/Grammar).

The two rules for passing

You pass when both of these are true at the same time:

• Rule 1 — enough points overall. Your total reaches the pass mark for your level.
• Rule 2 — no section left behind. Every section reaches its small minimum.

Rule 2 is what catches people out. Say you take N2 and score a brilliant 130 out of 180 — but only 17 out of 60 in Reading. You fail, because Reading needed 19. The minimums are low (roughly a third of each section), so think of them as a safety rail: they only stop you if one skill is almost completely missing. You can't pass by acing grammar and ignoring listening.

One more rule: if you skip a test section entirely, you fail automatically — your results sheet won't even show scores for the parts you did sit.

Which sections is each level scored on?

N1, N2 and N3 get three separate scores, each out of 60: Vocabulary & Grammar, Reading, and Listening. N4 and N5 get two scores: Vocabulary, Grammar & Reading combined (out of 120), and Listening (out of 60).

Confusingly, the papers you sit on test day don't line up one-to-one with the scores you receive:

• N1 & N2: you sit two papers (Vocabulary, Grammar & Reading together, then Listening) but get three scores — the first paper is split in two for scoring.
• N3: you sit three papers (Vocabulary; Grammar & Reading; Listening) and get three scores — but they're regrouped: vocabulary and grammar merge into one score, and reading gets its own.
• N4 & N5: you sit three papers but get only two scores — vocabulary, grammar and reading all pool into one 120-point score.

Your score is not "number of right answers"

The JLPT uses scaled scores. In plain terms: your raw answers are converted onto a fixed scale that adjusts for how hard your particular test was. A slightly harder December paper and an easier July paper end up meaning the same thing — 100 points is 100 points.

What this means for you: you can't count your correct answers and calculate your score, and "you need X% correct to pass" is only ever an approximation. The pass mark works out to between 44% and 56% of the points depending on level — so in practice, aim for a comfortable margin above the pass mark in your practice tests.

What your results sheet shows

Everyone gets a score report (overseas it's called a Certificate of Result and Scores). If you pass, you also get a Certificate of Proficiency — the document employers and schools usually want to see. Besides your scores, the report includes extra reference info that never affects pass/fail:

• A/B/C grades for each skill area (for example vocabulary and grammar separately): A means you got 67% or more right, B is 34–66%, C is under 34%. Useful for spotting weak areas.
• Percentile rank (overseas passers): the share of recent examinees who scored below you, published on the JLPT website about four months after the test.
• CEFR level (from the December 2025 test): where your score sits on the European A1–C2 language scale — handy for CVs and university applications.

JLPT levels in CEFR terms

CEFR is the international scale used on European CVs, from A1 (beginner) to C2 (near-native). A passing JLPT score maps to CEFR like this:

One honest caveat: the JLPT has no speaking or writing section, so the CEFR level describes your reading and listening only.