N5 expects around 800 vocabulary items and about 100 kanji. That is a defined, finite target, which makes it one of the easier exams to plan for.
Twelve weeks at a sustainable pace covers it.
The arithmetic
800 words over 12 weeks is about 67 a week, or 10 a day with one rest day. That is comfortably achievable in 20 minutes daily if - and only if - you review as well as learn.
New words are the cheap part. Review is what makes them stick, and review time grows as the pile grows. Budget your 20 minutes as roughly 8 minutes of new words and 12 of review.
What order to learn them in
Not alphabetically, and not in textbook order if you can help it. Frequency and usefulness first:
- Weeks 1-2: numbers, time, days, counters. They appear in every section of every level, and they are dense in the listening test. Numbers and time.
- Weeks 3-4: people, family, places, basic adjectives.
- Weeks 5-6: the first 50 verbs. Learn them with their particle: 電車に のります, not のる alone.
- Weeks 7-8: daily routine, food, shopping.
- Weeks 9-10: school and work words, directions, weather.
- Weeks 11-12: no new words. Review only, plus past papers.
That last fortnight is not optional. Words learned in week 12 will not be available under exam pressure.
Method
- Spaced repetition, in short daily sessions rather than long weekly ones. How it works.
- Learn words inside sentences. A word alone is recognised; a word in a sentence is usable. The reading section tests the second.
- Include the kanji from the start rather than adding them later. N5’s hundred kanji are mostly in these very words - 人, 日, 時, 行, 見 - so learning them together costs almost nothing extra. Kanji for beginners.
Keep a single error list
Every word you get wrong twice goes on one list. Review it weekly. This list will be short and it will be worth more per minute than anything else you do.
Check the level rather than guessing
At week 6 and again at week 11, do a timed set of past-paper vocabulary questions. If you are scoring above 70% at week 6, consider whether N4 is the better target for the same sitting - the exams run twice a year and the gap between N5 and N4 is smaller than most people assume: N5 versus N4.
And if your goal is actually working in Japan rather than the certificate, check which exam you need first. JFT-Basic or JLPT answers it in a page, and our free exam demo will tell you where you stand on the JFT-Basic scale today.