JLPT December 2025

I prefer to think of it as JeLly on PiTa :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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Oh you’d better b-ready for some of that!

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I sure jam! :grin:

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Just received my N3 certificate!

One question regarding the percentile: i passed N3 with 129/180 and a percentile of 92.2…

Does it mean that only 7.8% of the people have a score higher than 129? It seems strange to me…

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That seems correct! Keep in mind that about 70% of people fail the JLPT, so just passing puts you in the top 30%. You can find more data, from July 2025, here (check the ā€œCumulative Distribution of Scaled Scoresā€ PDF specfically). Data for the test you took should come out later this year, if it follows the normal pattern.

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Can confirm. I got 131 and I’m definitely strange. :crazy_face:

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Congrats, that’s an impressive percentile! I’m curious, are you in the US?

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Yaay I finally got mine! 95.9 percentile on n3 for me!

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No, I am in Europe.

So it looks like it is a normal percentile. It is wild to think that less than 8% have more than 129/180.

129 is fine but not great. That means that very few people achieve a great score… maybe they are all here!

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Being in the 92nd percentile isn’t a normal percentile, you can’t just ignore the people that didn’t pass lol. You did well.

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It’s really interesting to hear tbh. I haven’t received my certificate yet but was a bit disappointed in my mark for vocab… But according to this it might actually be a relatively good one ?

I read somewhere that achieving a really high score for JLPT means that the person should have taken the test one level higher instead, this seems to corroborate that.

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The ~70% fail rate on the JLPT has always seemed weird to me, especially on a test where you can self-select the difficulty. It seems that test takers tend to greatly overestimate their abilities.

I failed N4 last year, and scored 55th percentile. The test was rough, and I knew I wasn’t ready going in. The people who score less than 5th percentile most be hopelessly inadequately prepared.

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Language learners in general tend to greatly overestimate their abilities.

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First its being paranoid of actually being able to get a spot!

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Lol I remember those days, was spamming refresh waiting for it to go live

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Here its per mail, so you dont even know if you got a spot or not till much later :clown_face:

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I think there is also a population of test-takers (at the very least two other guys and myself at my test site) that willingly go and register to an exam knowing well that it is going to be an uphill battle at the very best. I was very confident in my N3 last June, but I knew that passing the N2 this december was unlikely to happen, but not impossible, so why not try it? Also there is two sessions a year where I live and I already got the previous level, it’s a sunday where I am usually totally free…

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Does anyone know when will the statistic page get updated? (this one: Past Test Data | JLPT Japanese-Language Proficiency Test )
Alternatively, do we have the pass rate for december yet? there were the usual ā€œit’s the hardest one everā€ rumors and I would like to check that out

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I’ve heard people talk like that but I completely disagree with that mentality. As if studying a lot to perform well on a level is bad, and instead you should be aiming for a marginal pass on the next level, aiming specifically to be unprepared and barely understand the material?? It makes no sense to me.

According to my score, I could have taken N1 instead of N2 in December, but I’d much rather fully prepare for it the next time around!

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Just got my certificate this morning :partying_face: 86th percentile on N4 with 113 !

@Zanzou

Not sure what was behind the comments you read about this, but it isn’t the take I saw at all. So few people scoring in the higher grades is weird compared to what a lot of us are used to when it comes to exams. And the grade distribution being like that is probably linked to the mysterious JLPT grading system itself. Taking all of this into account, I don’t think it’s that much of a reach to assume that JLPT doesn’t want you to score super high, especially with the low passing grades associated with the exam.

Now if your goal is to get a perfect score it’s totally fine, but having so few people score above… let’s say 140, might suggest that those high scores mean that you’re a bit over-leveled compared to what you picked.

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