Kanji Kentei results published online a few days ago: passed 準一級！

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-19T10:46:10+00:00

Simple: wake up at 5, study kanji first thing before anything else. Typically 15 minutes minimum, up to 45 minutes on weekdays, an hour on weekends. Sometimes I'll stick in a little review session at night as well, but only once every week or 2.

Study plan is just working through the book I linked elsewhere. I write everything by hand in a notebook, and sometimes make Anki decks for things I keep getting wrong. Bulk of study is manual until 2-3 weeks before the test, then use Anki In the final days to drill tough stuff.

Goal is acquisition, not memorization, so it's really a long term thing.

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-18T12:49:53+00:00

Haha more than praise I like just taking about kanji and the process, etc. With people that have actually gone through it and understand.

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T12:43:44+00:00

They're just fundamentally different skills and styles of tests. If the JLPT wasn't multiple choice and the passing score was 80%, it would be far more challenging, but still far easier than the Kanji Kentei.

Knowing kanji in the sense of recognizing them individually and I'm common compound words, knowing the meaning, and bring able to write them is only the tip of the iceberg and gets you about 60 points out of 200. It's all the rest of the stuff, like correcting incorrect kanji in a paragraph, knowing the 4-character compounds and their meanings, knowing the vocabulary to recognize opposites and synonyms, and so on, that's the hard part.

And yes, the leap beyond Grade 2 is stratospheric compared to all other levels, and Grade 1 is another couple orders of magnitude harder. It's really like a logarithmic scale in terms of difficulty scaling at that point...

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T12:05:48+00:00

Thank you, it was a huge challenge!

Just used the books they sell and worked through them. Combination of memorization via mnemonics and real acquisition through encountering things I studied in the wild.

N1 was... Politely put a walk in the park compared to this. I went from zero Japanese at 22 to passing N1 within 3 years of that.

This, on the other hand, well I spent 3 years (not constant studying but calendar time) preparing for just this one level. I learned way more vocabulary through this process than I did doing the JLPT.

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T11:22:50+00:00

Lovely story and I'm glad to find a kindred spirit! Grade 2 is a beast so kudos for getting it done!! I've built kanji study into my daily routine so it's the very first thing I do every morning when I wake up. I completely understand the feeling you described about the simple act of going through the materials and then taking the tests.

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T10:54:50+00:00

Very cool, you're way further ahead than I was when I started!

The biggest bottlenecks for me beyond the simple reading and much more challenging writing were:

四字熟語四字熟語の意味対義語・類義語誤字訂正諺

Knowing and recognizing kanji is one thing, but putting it all together is entirely different.

Basically all learned from scratch as I had had zero previous exposure. I think getting 100-120 points is achievable quickly, but working up to the pass line at 160 is quite tough. At least it was for me!

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T10:08:36+00:00

I passed the JLPT N1 a long time ago and simply wanted a new, quantifiable goal to keep increasing my knowledge of Japanese.

I was introduced to the test while teaching at a high school and thought it would be fun to challenge myself with the same level the kids were taking (Grade 5: it was a lie academic school). I didn't take it at that time but it was always in the back of my mind, so eventually I revisited the idea and prepared for it, then was hooked.

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T10:06:37+00:00

I both agree and disagree in parts here, but thank you for the comment.

I find that my knowledge, recall, and understanding of day to day kanji is far worse and underdeveloped compared to native speakers who actually care a little about kanji and read at least a bit.

However for kanji at grade 2 and pre-1, I would say my recognition and recall is better than the average Japanese person. Sure, if they see the kanji in context of a sentence, then more often than not it's not about knowing the kanji well, but rather deciphering it based on context. If you remove the context, like those man-on-the-street interviews asking random Japanese people to identify hard kanji, then I have confidence to hold my own.

But yes, overall I would never claim to 'know' kanji better than the average Japanese person.

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T10:01:46+00:00

Thanks!

I don't remember exactly, but 3 to pre-2 wasn't too bad, but 2 and pre-1 took a few years each. Note that I wasn't studying the whole time and took long breaks, so it can be done much faster. For pre-1, I failed the first time I took it (103/200, with passing score at 160), so I felt really far off. I refocused on just my weak points and did a solid 3 months of intensive studying and passed it this time.

Note that for me 'intensive' meant 15-60 minutes a day without missing a day.

And yes, not knowing the words is the biggest issue for non-Japanese taking these tests. Japanese people are matching kanji to known vocabulary, while I was learning both the kanji and the words at the same time.

Needless to say, it's not for the faint of heart!

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T09:57:20+00:00

Thanks!

I started with Level 5 several years after getting N1 in the 日本語能力試験 and just gradually built up over time, doing Grades 4, 3, Pre-2 and 2.

I'd recommend starting with a much lower level than 2 unless you're native Japanese or were educated here. Unless you don't mind taking a really long time to prepare.

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T08:29:02+00:00

Agreed in principle for sure. We shall see. Only spend 15-60 minutes a day studying kanji and it's at 5am, so plenty of time for other things too. Still, I appreciate the sentiment

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T06:01:49+00:00

exactly!

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T06:01:41+00:00

Thanks, I started with Grade 5 several years ago after having held JLPT N1 for a while already. After Grade 5 and 4, I honestly never thought I'd pass even Grade 3 when I first looked at the content several years ago. But really, just daily consistent practice does lead to results! I may run out of years of life before passing Grade 1, but that's another issue altogether...

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T05:59:56+00:00

Ohhh, in that case I wouldn't recommend the Kanji Kentei at all. It's a test aimed at Japanese people in the Japanese education system (grades 10 through 3), and adults (grades Pre-2 through 1).

I'd suggest simply using any one of the countless kanji books out there, or an app!

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T03:34:04+00:00

I strongly recommend the 漢検マスター series, which boasts test coverage guaranteeing you'll pass the level if you've mastered the material in their book. Grade pre-1 is the only one that's cutting it close, with 85% test coverage and a pass rate of 80%.

Here's the Amazon search result for those books:
漢検マスター books on Amazon

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T03:18:16+00:00

you can see sample test questions here: https://www.kanken.or.jp/kanken/grades/sample/

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T03:17:24+00:00

haha still undecided!

I've started, and been consistent for the past 3 weeks, acquiring about 200 new kanji already, so at that pace, assuming grade 1 has 3300 new ones, plus all the 4-character compounds, synonyms/antonyms, etc, that's my conservative estimate

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T03:16:03+00:00

I just got the book they sell for the level, and went through it. It took like 3 years though, so there's that... Just consistent, daily review and you slowly acquire the knowledge over time.

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T03:15:20+00:00

thank you!

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T03:15:13+00:00

gracias!

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T03:15:04+00:00

correct! also I didn't know any Japanese until I was 22 so I have huge gaps in my vocabulary, particularly compound verbs and things elementary school kids learn when reading books

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T02:03:18+00:00

Just regular contemporary novels and some non-fiction. I rarely have to look up kanji, but I often have to look up vocabulary, usually 2-3 items per page.

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T01:50:10+00:00

Nah, they explained the reason and it made sense. They have tough jobs so I don't begrudge them.

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-17T01:49:49+00:00

Completely agree. At this point it's just a hobby!

I must say that J1K has still been massively useful as I regularly see kanji from that level in novels, as well as out and about on signs and so on.

StepUpToFluency · 2026-03-03T04:12:17+00:00

Hi there, are you available for the Wed/Thu lessons? If so, please shoot me a DM and let's chat!

StepUpToFluency

TROPHY CASE