Peter's Japan blog

The JLPT system has been unchanged since it started in 1984 and the number of participants still rises (last year being 524000 worldwide). There have been many requests for revision of certain issues.

One of the requests is to be able to takes the multiple times a year. As of 2009, Levels 1 & 2 will be held in July and December, and from 2010 this will also be the case for the other levels.

Another issue was the large gap between level 2 & 3. The difference between these levels quite large, being trippled between from level 3 to level 2, while from level 4 to level 3 is just a doubling. This has made it difficult for people to progress more easily. Therefore, the 4-level system will be changed to a 5-level system from July 2010. The new levels will be N1, N2, N3, N4 and N5. With old level 1 & 2 begin N1 & N2, the old levels 3 & 4 will become N4 & N5 respectively, and N3 will be the bridge level between the old level 3 & 2, making it easier for people to progress more gradually.

Another change is that the examinee will be given a more clear result of their exams. They will be given a more detailed list of what they can do with their current level.

Other changes will be less difference between tests in regard of difficulty, more effort will be done to make all the tests of the same difficulty. Also the test questions will not be published any more afterwards, only example questions will be published.

More info on: JEES (there is a PDF in the news section about the revisions).

I like this because I was actually planning to only go up to level 3, because of the fact that the jump to level 2 was so big. But now I could go up to the new level N3, which is inbetween the old level 3 & 2.