The Official JLPT N4 Practice Workbook

The Official JLPT N4 Practice Workbook post image

I often get questions about where to find past tests for the new ‘N’ tests.  You see before 2010, the JEES published old tests a couple of months after they were administered.  This was a great advantage because you could just take an old test to see if you could pass and then go and take the real test.

It was so useful actually, that too many people went about studying this way and became really good at taking the test.  This was a problem because well, the test is suppose to measure your level of Japanese not your ability to take a test.  So, they revised the test to be more practical, and stopped publishing previous exams.

Initially, to help people study and get a feel for the test, they made a JLPT N4 Practice Test available for free.  This was pretty handy because it gave you at least two examples of every question, but it wasn’t a full test.  You couldn’t really get your timing down or anything.

JLPT N4 Official Workbook

It’s the official franken-test

Official Workbook = Franken-Test

They just recently released what they are calling Official Workbooks though.  I’ve already released a version of the JLPT N5 Official Workbook that has some notes I made to help you get a better feel for the exam, but I thought I would release the N4 Official Workbook, so that those of you taking it this December could get a chance to practice with it before the big day.

The best part of these workbooks is that they are made up of previous test questions so should be pretty dead on for the level of the exam.

Also, they are completely free.

So, definitely give them a try if you haven’t already.

If you don’t have the time to do a full test, remember, I still have the much shorter JLPT N4 Practice Test (that is also free) you can take instead.

Or, if you are taking the N5, pick up the official workbook from the previous blog post.  Or if you are taking N3, N2, or N1, pick up the official workbooks at the main JEES site.

Here’s the Goods

Here is the giant wad of stuff:

JLPT N4 WorkBook Pack (zip/38.21MB)

Again, I separated out the 4 large audio files into separate CD tracks for each question, so that it is a lot easier to review.  I even included the muzak break!

If you love downloading things separately, here are all the files:

JLPT N4 Answer Sheet (pdf/1.11MB)

JLPT N4 Answers (pdf/131.86KB)

JLPT N4 Grammar Section (pdf/1.17MB)

JLPT N4 Listening Section (pdf/1.64MB)

JLPT N4 Listening MP3s (zip/33.15MB)

JLPT N4 Listening Script (pdf/309.89KB)

JLPT N4 Reading Section (pdf/618.12KB)

JLPT N4 Vocabulary Section (pdf/1.29MB)

If you are pressed for time, the much shorter older JLPT N4 Practice Test is also still available.

Also, if you prefer a hard copy, so that you can doodle on it and take notes, you can pick up the printed copy of the Official JLPT N4 Workbook here.

What you are Standing Around here for?

Go forth and take this practice test.  Download it and give it a whirl, you really don’t have anything to lose.  Let me know how you did in the comments.

{ 48 comments… add one }
  • Fernando U. November 17, 2012, 4:07 am

    This practice test is totally “間に合う” for my study sessions in the next week. Thank you so much, Mac!

    • Mac November 18, 2012, 3:39 am

      No problems, I’m glad I could get it out in time. I hope to have the other 3 available really soon!

  • Hugh B November 24, 2012, 9:29 am

    Thanks! Really useful stuff

    • Mac November 25, 2012, 2:04 pm

      No problems, I hope it helps you out!

  • Kat November 26, 2012, 10:06 am

    Thanks Mac, this will be really helpful, I’m not going to do N4 until July but this gives me a good headstart on studying! Keep up the good work, really appreciate it.

    • Mac November 27, 2012, 3:11 pm

      Thanks! I’m going to try to keep cranking out the resources as fast as I can.

  • Toru November 30, 2012, 3:05 pm

    thanks, mac! its help me so much.
    your awesome xD

    • Mac December 2, 2012, 10:44 am

      no problem!

  • Tuyền December 27, 2012, 12:08 pm

    thank you so much. It’s so useful…

    • Mac December 28, 2012, 2:53 am

      No problem, I love how they made these freely available for everyone to practice with. Enjoy!

  • Roman Selyanchyn June 20, 2013, 3:43 am

    Hello Mac, just finished the N4 test downloaded from here and realized that my grammar is quite weak (a bit more than 55%) while vocabulary and listening was almost 100% (thanks to your Memrise N4 Vocab course, I successfully completed). So there are 2 weeks until test, I would like to improve my grammar. Could you recommend some way how to make it more effectively and better focused for N4 level? Thank you for all your efforts and help!

    • Clayton MacKnight June 21, 2013, 2:34 pm

      Well, that is a tough question to answer. With just two weeks to go, it is time to go back over and really review what you are weak at whether that’s particles or conjugations, which are really difficult to master at the N5 and N4 levels. Anyway, 55% is not REALLY bad. You can still pass with that, especially if your vocabulary and listening is close to 100%.

  • Savitha September 11, 2013, 8:31 am

    Hi Mac, Thank you so much for the study materials and I have passed N5 exam. And preparing for N4 exam for Dec…

  • inaka_rob September 19, 2013, 9:40 am

    wow. thanks. They are selling this on Amazon.co.jp for 1500 yen. I almost bought it today. glad I didnt.

    • Clayton MacKnight September 19, 2013, 2:45 pm

      Yeah, they are a bit hard to find on the official site. So I thought I would make them a little more prominent. Hope they help!

  • Chee Yuen September 24, 2013, 6:34 am

    Thank you for the upload. They are really useful!

  • saujanya November 20, 2013, 11:34 am

    Thanks a lot , this is what i needed 😀

  • Mariana April 3, 2014, 11:49 am

    Hello! Thanks for share all this stuff! Greetings from Argentina!

  • Thank you June 20, 2014, 12:29 am

    Hey Mac, thanks for everything! Taking the next N4, I have two questions for you, if you don’t mind:
    1. Is the structure of the 3 subtests always the same? (For example in the first test: First choosing a reading, than choosing kanji, etc)
    2. I read on wikipedia that the questions are unequally scored, but that the weighting is not published. Do you have an impression which もんだい are more important? (Maybe it’s roughly weighted by the time you gave in the workbook?)

    • Clayton MacKnight June 23, 2014, 2:22 pm

      1. You mean the different sections of the test? Yes, they are always the same, same number of questions per part and section. Each level has a different number of questions for each section though, and some levels have different kinds of questions that aren’t on other levels.

      2. I have a section on this in the study guide kit that estimates the value of each type of question for on each of the levels. In summary though, the more difficult the question is to answer the more points it is going to be worth. I know that sounds a little obvious, but that is the basic idea without going into specific numbers.

  • Syna July 14, 2014, 6:58 am

    Thanks so much for the free dls!!! I was already stressing out on where to get the cash to buy those workbooks and BOOM! you have the VERY WELL-HIDDEN links and (even better!) workbooks with notes here~ I thank you from the bottom of my heart! I plan to take at least N3 this December, I will definitely come back here and post my results~

  • Gonlay April 6, 2015, 1:13 pm

    Thanks u very much sir. I don’t know where can i search for my studay that JLPT N-4.I don’t attend japanese class to answer JLPT test. So i need many facts n book relative that JLPT test. Now i can download related book n material also listening.
    Thanks u very much Sir.

  • laura July 4, 2015, 5:21 am

    thanks mac it really helped me with preparing for the N4 test , unfortunately doesn’t work for apple mac book , can you find any solution for it :3 ?

    • Clayton MacKnight July 5, 2015, 1:44 pm

      by ‘not working’ what do you mean? It won’t open on your computer? It is a regular pdf (except the package that includes everything), so you should be able to open it as long as you have Adobe Acrobat installed.

  • Karen July 7, 2015, 5:23 am

    Thank you very much for your input!!

    I did my N5 test using your materials and they were organized and great!

    Thank you for the hardwork ^^

  • Grant Poston September 28, 2015, 3:08 am

    Thank you for the great post! N4 shall be conquered

  • keshav October 4, 2015, 1:11 am

    Thank you so much Mac for your admirable hard work.

  • Sam December 3, 2015, 2:21 am

    Hi, Thank you for the information. I have the book but I don’t know how to check if my answers are correct. does the book have the answers?

  • Tony May 2, 2016, 12:43 am

    Thank you for all these pdfs .God bless you ..I want to live the rest of my life in Japan
    I love Japan from my heart.please guide me how to improve my Japanese too.

  • Crisjerom M. Ypil July 12, 2016, 1:50 pm

    Hey Mac, I’m from the Philippines, and this coming December 5, 2016 is the schedule of JLPT exam here n the Philippines, I have 1 question for you. Mac, is there a possibility that the questioner is the same? Because this is my day 1 of my review for N4 test. Thank you and God bless!!!

    • Clayton MacKnight July 12, 2016, 2:38 pm

      The questions are different each time the test is given. They only reuse the questions for practice tests and workbooks.

      Good luck in December!

  • vamsi November 30, 2016, 2:31 pm

    really helpful! thanks man

  • Ken May 12, 2017, 1:33 pm

    Is there a way to convert the JLPT raw scores into points like what is doable with SAT official practice tests?

    • Clayton MacKnight July 2, 2017, 12:06 pm

      Not really since the test is graded on a curve now. Basically if you score below 60% in an area, you need to study harder for that section, because you are at risk of failing it. If you score above 80%, you are generally okay, and should consider that a pass. Between 60 and 80% means are kind of okay, but should study more.

  • Chevis June 6, 2017, 2:53 am

    Thanks a lot for sharing

  • Jim August 3, 2017, 3:15 am

    Thank you very much!

  • justin November 15, 2017, 8:20 am

    arrigato gosaimasu!!!

  • John August 18, 2019, 2:57 pm

    Thank you so much…it will really help me preparing for the exam

  • Navos March 30, 2020, 11:11 pm

    It is a very useful reviewer for us ..Thank for sharing

  • izumi sakai July 2, 2021, 1:54 am

    Thanks for sharing:) God bless you!

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