How to pass JLPT N3 in 100 days

A study plan for Nepali speakers — 10 words a day, one grammar point a day, and a little reading and listening every week. All of it free, with every meaning in Nepali and English.

Why 100 days?

N3 is the level where Japanese stops being “survival Japanese” and starts being working Japanese. It is the level many employers in Japan ask for, the level that makes daily life — the city office, the hospital, a job interview — much easier, and the bridge between basic N4 and advanced N2.

It is also a big jump. There is a lot of vocabulary, a lot of grammar, and the listening is faster than N4. That is exactly why a day-by-day plan helps. You do not need to study everything at once. You need a small, fixed amount, every day, for 100 days. This plan is built around the same idea as our N3 in 100 Days series: ten words a day, one grammar point a day, and a little reading and listening every week.

First, know the test

JLPT N3 is held twice a year, in July and December. On test day you will sit three parts:

• Vocabulary — 30 minutes. Kanji readings, choosing the right word, choosing the word that fits a sentence.
• Grammar and Reading — 70 minutes. Grammar forms, building sentences, and short to medium reading passages.
• Listening — 40 minutes. Conversations and announcements, played once, at natural speed.

To pass, you need 95 points out of 180 overall, and at least 19 points in each scoring section (Vocabulary/Grammar, Reading, and Listening are scored separately). This matters for your plan: you cannot ignore listening and make up for it with vocabulary. A balanced plan is not optional — the scoring rules demand it.

One more thing to know: since 2010 the JLPT does not publish an official word list. The N3 list on this site — 1,076 words grouped into 11 themes — is built from the words that appear again and again in N3-level materials and past-test style questions. Learn these first; they are the highest-value words for your 100 days.

The daily routine (about 45–60 minutes)

1. Ten new words (20 minutes). Open today's set in the N3 vocabulary days. Read each word out loud, read the example sentence out loud, then cover the meaning and test yourself. A word you can say in a sentence is a word you will recognise in the test.
2. Yesterday's words again (10 minutes). If a word does not come to mind in two seconds, it is not learned yet — star it and let it come back in the weekly review.
3. One grammar point (15 minutes). Work through the N3 grammar lessons one point at a time, finish the short quiz, then make one sentence about your own life using that grammar. Your own sentence is the one you will remember.
4. Listening while you live (10 minutes). Use dead time — the train, washing dishes, walking to the konbini. Play the audio from the vocabulary and real-life scenes pages. Daily small exposure beats one long session on Sunday.

The 100 days, in four blocks

Common mistakes Nepali speakers make at N3

• Learning words only in a list. N3 questions often test the word inside a sentence. Always learn the example sentence, not only the meaning.
• Translating grammar into Nepali word-by-word. Some N3 grammar has no clean Nepali equivalent. Learn it through examples and your own sentence.
• Skipping listening until the last month. Listening is one third of your score and has a minimum section score. Ten minutes a day from Day 1 is the difference between passing and “almost.”
• Reading every word in a passage. N3 reading is a time test. Practise finding the answer sentence, not understanding 100% of the text.

Your checklist

• ☐ I know my test date (July or December) and counted backwards 100 days
• ☐ I study 10 words a day from the N3 vocabulary sets
• ☐ I finish one grammar lesson a day, with one sentence about my own life
• ☐ I listen to Japanese at least 10 minutes a day
• ☐ I take a timed mock test every week in the last month
• ☐ I keep a mistakes notebook and review it weekly