Study Plan — N4 Prep

Goal: Pass JLPT N4

The N4 pass mark is roughly 90/180 overall with section minimums of ~19/60 each (language knowledge + reading, listening). Community data suggests ~300–400 study hours from N5 to a comfortable N4 pass.

Use this app's built-in SRS — it automatically re-surfaces the items you miss. Trust the weights. The less you "choose what to study", the better the system works.

Daily routine

Pick the row that matches your timeline. Everything here fits alongside real life — you don't need big blocks.

If you have 6 months — ~60 min/day, 6 days/week

Block	Time	Tool
Warm-up: phoneme / pitch	5 min	🗣️ Phoneme
Kanji reading	15 min	🈁 Kanji
Grammar + coach	15 min	🧠 Grammar
Vocab listening	15 min	🎧 Listen
Dictation	10 min	✍️ Dictation

Finish all SRS due-items first, then move on. That's where retention lives.

If you have 3 months — ~90 min/day

Same split, more time. Skew extra time toward whichever drill shows the lowest mastery (Known vs Struggling counts at the top of each drill).

If you have 1 month — damage control

Drop the warm-up and the vocab quiz. Go in order: Grammar → Kanji → Dictation.
Aim for exam-familiarity, not mastery. Use the filter toggle to spend 70% of time on N4, 30% re-cementing weak N5 spots.

Weekly rhythm

Mon–Fri: the daily routine above.
Saturday — mock section: 30 grammar + 30 kanji questions back-to-back at N4 only, no pauses. Review misses via the wrong-answer coach.
Sunday — listening day: 30 min dictation + re-listen to this week's misses.

Milestones

Month	Target
1	Read all N5 kanji in ≤2s; ~80 N5 grammar patterns cold
2	Read ~150 N4 kanji in context; 50% N4 grammar recognised
3	N5 dictation ≥90%; N4 grammar cloze ≥70%
4–5	N4 kanji reading ≥80%; full N4 grammar ≥70%
6 (exam)	Sustained 30-min focus on mixed N4 questions at pass-level

Guardrails

Don't skip SRS due-items. The weight engine over-weights your mistakes; trust it.
Read the wrong-answer coach. That's where the actual learning happens, not the MC click.
One new grammar pattern/day max during intro weeks. Quality beats quantity.
If you have <30 min, prioritise Grammar + Kanji over Dictation — those are the sections you currently have 0% coverage for going in.
Weak-spot mode: the Dictation page tracks your error categories (particle / verb-ending / homophone / mora-count) and shows your top weakness in the header. Target that.

At the 2-week before exam mark: stop adding new patterns. Spend the final two weeks exclusively on SRS review + Saturday-style mocks.

What this app covers (and doesn't)

Covered Phonemes · pitch accent · N5/N4 vocab listening · N5/N4 grammar · N5/N4 kanji reading · sentence-level dictation

Not covered yet Long reading passages (読解) · full mock exam under timing · writing by hand.

For reading passages and timed mocks, supplement with Nihongo no Mori / Bunpro / a physical N4 Soumatome book in the last month.