Free tool
JFT-Basic study planner
Tell it when your test is and how many hours a week you can really study. It gives you a week-by-week plan, with our ten free mock exams placed in the weeks where they do the most good.
Your plan
Nothing is saved or sent anywhere. Print the page or take a screenshot to keep your plan. After each practice test, the accuracy calculator shows which section to focus on next.
How the plan is built
- Hours you have: weeks until your test × hours a week.
- Hours you probably need: our planning estimate for your starting point (table below).
- Three phases: learning to read kana if you cannot yet, then building all four sections in rotation, then one full mock exam a week in the final stretch — reviewed with its answer guide and followed by a few days of drilling your weakest section.
| Starting point | Planning estimate |
|---|---|
| Complete beginner — I cannot read hiragana yet | about 200 hours |
| I can read hiragana and katakana | about 160 hours |
| I know basic grammar and a few hundred words | about 100 hours |
| I score around 150–199 on full mock tests | about 40 hours |
A worked example
Your test is 12 weeks away, you can study 10 hours a week, and you can already read kana. That is 120 hours against an estimate of about 160, so the plan says tight: add about 4 hours a week, or aim for a test date about 4 weeks later. Weeks 1–8 rotate through the four sections, one focus a week. Weeks 9–12 are one full mock exam each — Mock Exams 1, 2 and 3, then the hardest, Mock Exam 10 — each reviewed with its answer guide.
What it cannot tell you
- The hour estimates are averages from our teaching, in line with our guideHow long does it take to pass JFT-Basic?. People vary a lot, and spread-out study counts for more than the same hours in one sitting.
- It does not predict your score. Your full mock results do that better — and even they are estimates, because the official score is calculated by statistical equating that is not published.
- It knows nothing about test dates or seats. Check those on theofficial Prometric schedule.