Bunpro tests vs JLPT tests

Bunpro
#10

Did pass N1 on Bunpro, ギリギリ didn’t pass the actual one. Same as other people say here, Bunpro has significantly easier questions.

I would add that the japanese way of doing tests is quite outdated and provokes nervousness to a big degree and this will factor into your performance enormously. You will take time filling out sheets with a pencil, it will be clumsy and you will lose focus constantly. The bunpro API makes it way more convenient than it is. You have no time at all to review your stuff, treat the first read and answer and the first hear and answer as the de-facto thing you will be submitting

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#11

I mean if most people who score 170 on N2, score 110 on N1, we can say that N2 170 is roughly equal to 110 on N1, and it doesn’t matter if it’s much easier.
Here I use the same logic

#12

How many points did you get on JLPT?

#13

Something about 10% short of passing points. There was also some major happening the day before and I didn’t get proper sleep. I basically blame something other than JLPT for my failing in the reading sections in particular.

For reference I was passing Bunpro N1 tests with about ~75 points at the time.

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#14

That doesn’t make sense, the N2 isn’t supposed to simulate the difficulty of the N1.

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#15

A detailed feedback post I left about the N4 mock tests: Bunpro JLPT Tests! New Feature, Sep 20th 2025 - #231 by BreadmanNin

The general consensus seems to be that Bunpro’s N5 and N4 tests are very accurate, while the N3/2/1 tests seem to be too easy. Bunpro staff themselves have posted about wanting to increase the accuracy of their N3/2/1 mock tests in future releases.

6 Likes
#16

I think you are confusing correlation with the intended purpose of the tests, which is to simulate the real tests and thereby help people be adequately prepared for them. Even if I happened to pass both the mock and the real test, I actually wasn’t adequately prepared for it, even though my bunpro scores made me feel I was suitably prepared. It could have easily gone a lot worse for me considering my score was only 7 points over the line. I’m not blaming bunpro - I’m extremely grateful for these practice tests - just pointing out that it DOES matter if they are a lot easier. I look forward to more accurate tests in the future if possible :slight_smile:

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#17

Want to weigh in by saying I don’t think it’s bad to have scaling difficulty on the N3 to N1 tests. Being able to kind of progress up a ladder of difficulty is value that doesn’t exist anywhere else.

If they add 5 more to each level as planned, it’s an opportunity to add more difficult tests and order them by difficulty. (i.e. N3, 1 Star to N3 5 Star or something like that)

I’d even go as far to say as adding a level between N2 and N1 with the highest frequency vocab and grammar would be substantial, especially considering the amount of kanji required doubles.

5 Likes
#18

Oh that’s a good idea!

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#19

Another point is that the topics of the reading sections in the bunpro tests were very similar. So you would get comfortable reading about a certain topic like “Living on your own for the first time” or about your バイトand then on the real N3 I got hit by the text about the electricity generating floor panels at a train station, farming companies or like reading to your kids class or whatever that was.

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#20

Yeah, that’s a good point- I noticed this too. Several of the readings were about the same topic across tests. To be fair, they were topics that routinely appear in JLPT ime, but more diversity is good.

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#21

I would definitely second this.
I took N3 and, even though the mock tests were significantly easier, it was really nice to build confidence and ability with these easier tests first.
I guess that’s more of a motivational factor, but it definitely helped!

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#22

This is a really important point which might be getting overlooked. It might not be that the tests are necessarily “easier”, but at N1 there is a lot of ground that could be covered. Statistically speaking, there might well be topics in the test that you are less familiar with. It doesn’t help that there is no JLPT syllabus per se.

If it is any comfort, my wife had this same frustration taking English tests (although they’re even harder and more prone to randomness because you have conversations as part of the test).

#23

This is a good point, but the readings were also just significantly shorter on the Bunpro tests (for N2 at least). From that aspect, the mock tests gave a false sense of security about reading speed/time and definitely were significantly easier.

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#24

Ah, that’s a big difference then!

#25

I agree that N2 is not supposed to simulate the difficulty of N1, but it doesn’t matter that we cannot understand what not interpret it (well, we cannot because one person cannot take N2 and N1 with little gap in time like a well)

But if person for example takes test N1 which feels as difficult as N2, scores like 160 (90% for Bunpro test) and then scores 110 on the real one. So if person used 100% of their brain capacity for both test, that would mean that it’s a max amount of points they managed to get on both, and we can say that the level of person with 160 points on the Bunpro test is roughly same as 110 on the real of.

Of course there are a lot of things except the real level of Japanese that can make this not as correct, but if we can get more results we can create somewhat accurate average picture with closest/furthest points on the scale.

That’s why I’m asking specifically about the numbers and not about the felt difficulty

#26

I don’t think I’m mistaken them, I’m rather interested in the first one.
I already understood that N2 and N1 tests are somewhat much easier then the real ones, but now I wonder how easier they are, so when I use them I’ll know what % I need to have chances on the real one

#27

Took and failed the N1 four times in a row (I’m a busy worker). To me:
The reading part of the mock test N1 bunpro is significantly easier: slightly shorter, easier style, and correct answer quite obvious to distinguish from the incorrect ones.

Listening part is of similar difficulty. Voc/grammar only slightly easier.

Otherwise, the care brought to produce the tests deserves to be noted. Nice job.

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#28

How many points have you managed to score on Bunpro tests/real one?

#29

I tried one N3 mock late November:

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I passed the real test in December with 108/180.

To me:

  • Vocab & Listening were comparable to the real test.
  • Grammar on the real test was harder
  • Reading on the real test was MUCH harder (and WAY longer)
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