DecksJLPT N5 vocabulary study plan: all 667 words in 8 weeks
Learn 12 new N5 words a day and you'll have seen all 667 in 8 weeks. Once you're going, expect about 50 reviews a day. Start about three months before the test so the last words have time to stick. The JLPT is held in July and December in Japan, and once or twice a year in other countries.
Vocabulary is only part of N5. The test also covers grammar, reading and listening, so this plan is one part of your prep.
Learn kana first
N5 cards use kana and kanji, with furigana (small hiragana over each kanji). So you need to read hiragana before you start. If you can't yet, spend a week on it: 46 cards at about 10 a day. See how to learn hiragana. Katakana can wait a bit, since most N5 words don't use it, but learn it before the test. See how to learn katakana.
The plan
The JLPT hasn't published an official word list since the test changed in 2010. So every N5 list, this one too, is built from older lists and past tests. The deck here has 667 words. The front of each card shows the word with furigana. The back gives the reading, the meaning, and an example sentence with a translation and audio.
The review numbers below assume you rate every card Good. In Decks, a card you keep getting right comes back after 1 day, 2 days, 5, 12 and 30. Cards you miss come back sooner, so expect more reviews than this, especially early on.
| Week | New words a day | Reviews a day (if all Good) | Words seen by the end |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12 | 10 to 25 | 84 |
| 2 | 12 | about 35 | 168 |
| 3 | 12 | 35 to 50 | 252 |
| 4 to 7 | 12 | about 50 | 588 |
| 8 | 12, last word on day 7 | about 60 | 667 |
| 9 to 10 | 0 | falling from 55 to 25 | 667 |
| 11 until the test | 0 | a few a day | 667 |
If you'd rather go slower, 8 new words a day takes about 12 weeks and keeps reviews closer to 35.
The JLPT N5 Vocabulary deck is free in Decks. To follow this plan on your iPhone, get Decks on the App Store.
Each day
- Do your reviews first. Those are the cards most likely to slip.
- Then learn your new words.
- Read the example sentence out loud and play the audio. It helps with the listening section too.
Missing a day won't ruin the plan. The next day, do the reviews and skip the new words. When reviews are back to normal, carry on.
If reviews pile up
If reviews start taking much longer than before, stop adding new words for a few days and let them settle. What to do when reviews pile up has more. Decks' free plan has a daily review limit. Premium lets you set your own.
After N5
The JLPT N4 Vocabulary deck has the 630 words on the next list. Keep doing your N5 reviews while you start it. If you'd rather study in Anki, Anki for Japanese covers the usual decks there, such as Kaishi 1.5k and Core 2k/6k. For grammar, Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar deck has over 2,000 example sentences.
Published 2026-10-19. Updated 2026-10-28.