What is the OLD JLPT and NEW JLPT?

1. What is the NEW JLPT?

NEW JLPT (from 2010 July) (1) The New JPLT will be divided into 5 levels instead of 4 levels. (2) JPLT will be held twice a year. (Respectively early July and early December) (3) The score weighting for Listening Module becomes higher, up from 25% to around 33%. (4) The score of both the Overall and Individual Module have to be higher than the passing score. (5) Mock Examination Booklet: Instead of past paper, a JPLT mock examination booklet has been published in 2012. The questions published in this booklet are a mixture of the past paper questions extracted from JPLT 2010 /2011 while new designed questions are also be inserted. This mock examination booklet carrys the same format and has same amount of questions as in the actual JPLT.

OLD JLPT(Till 2009 December)					NEW JLPT(From 2010 July)
Level 1 900 learning hours 2,000 kanji characters 10,000 words				Almost same level →	N1 (about 2000 Kanji)
1	Writing, Vocabulary	45 min.	100 points		1	Writing, Vocabulary, Grammar Reading	110 min.	60 points
2	Listening	45 min.	100 points					60 points
3	Reading, Grammar	90 min.	200 points		2	Listening	60 min.	60 points
Total		180 min.	400 points		Total		170 min.	180 points
Level 2 600 learning hours 1,000 kanji characters 6,000 words				Almost same level →	N2 (1000-1300 Kanji)
1	Writing, Vocabulary	35 min.	100 points		1	Writing, Vocabulary, Grammar Reading	105 min.	60 points
2	Listening	40 min.	100 points					60 points
3	Reading, Grammar	70 min.	200 points		2	Listening	50 min.	60 points
Total		145 min.	400 points		Total		155 min.	180 points
[New Level] The difficulty of this new level lies between the old JLPT Level 2 and Level 3.					N3 (about 650 Kanji)
					1	Writing, Vocabulary	30 min.	60 points
					2	Grammar, Reading	70 min.	60 points
					3	Listening	40 min.	60 points
					Total		140 min.	180 points
Level 3 300 learning hours 300 kanji characters 1,500 words				Almost same level →	N4 (about 320 Kanji)
1	Writing, Vocabulary	35 min.	100 points		1	Writing, Vocabulary	30 min.	120 points
2	Listening	35 min.	100 points		2	Grammar, Reading	60 min.
3	Reading, Grammar	70 min.	200 points		3	Listening	35 min.	60 points
Total		140 min.	400 points		Total		125 min.	180 points
Level 4 150 learning hours 100 kanji characters 800 words				Almost same level →	N5 (about 120 Kanji)
1	Writing, Vocabulary	25 min.	100 points		1	Writing, Vocabulary	25 min.	120 points
2	Listening	25 min.	100 points		2	Grammar, Reading	50 min.
3	Reading, Grammar	50 min.	200 points		3	Listening	30 min.	60 points
Total		100 min.	400 points		Total		105 min.	180 points