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Tests & Japanese

JFT-Basic Reviewer: The Free Official Practice Materials and How to Use Them

Looking for a JFT-Basic reviewer? The Japan Foundation gives away its own practice materials: sample questions, the Irodori books and an online course. Here is what each one is and how to use them in order.

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JFT-Basic Reviewer: The Free Official Practice Materials and How to Use Them

Key Takeaways

  • The best JFT-Basic reviewer is the one the Japan Foundation itself publishes, and it is free: the official Sample Questions, the Irodori coursebooks, and the IRODORI Japanese Online Course.
  • The Japan Foundation says past test questions are not published and that it has no plans to publish them. The only questions it has released are the sample questions.
  • Use the sample questions twice: once at the start to see the format, and once near the end to check your timing and your computer skills.
  • Irodori Starter matches A1. Elementary 1 is a guide for A2.1. Finishing both Elementary 1 and Elementary 2 is a good guide for A2.2 (A2), the level most SSW fields ask for.
  • You can retake only if your total score is 199 or lower, and there must be 45 days between test dates. Do not spend your attempt on an untested plan.

What people mean by "reviewer"

In the Philippines, a "reviewer" is a set of notes or practice questions you use to prepare for an exam. For JFT-Basic, many people search for a reviewer with "actual exam questions" in it. That is understandable. You want to know what the test looks like.

The honest answer is that the Japan Foundation, which runs the test, does not publish past questions. Its FAQ says there are currently no plans to do so, and that only the sample questions have been released. So the closest thing to a real reviewer is the official material below. It is free, it is made by the same organization that writes the test, and it is built for the same kind of Japanese: daily life and work.

If you want to know what JFT-Basic is and what A2 means, read JFT-Basic Explained: What A2 Means and How to Pass It. This article is only about practice materials.

The three official tools

1. Sample Questions (on the JFT-Basic website). These are questions the Japan Foundation put online so you can see what the test is like. The FAQ says they are similar to the real test format. Each question has its own page, and the pages carry "Your Language" labels like the real test. The FAQ also says you can try some test screens with them to practice operating the computer. The Japan Foundation's Manila office tells examinees to look at the sample questions first, before anything else.

2. Irodori: Japanese for Life in Japan (coursebooks). Irodori is the Japan Foundation's own textbook series for daily life and work in Japan. The official Irodori site has four volumes: Starter, Elementary 1, Elementary 2 and Pre-Intermediate. Each volume has 18 lessons. Every lesson has a "Can-do" goal, which is a plain statement, in the form "I can ...", of what you will be able to do after the lesson. The site has PDFs and audio files (MP3) for each volume, plus word lists with audio and grammar worksheets with audio. The Japan Foundation lists these as free materials.

3. IRODORI Japanese Online Course. This is an online course based on the Irodori books. The FAQ describes a "Review quiz" (words, kanji, grammar, expressions, listening and reading) that resembles the sections of the test, and practice activities for words, kanji, grammar and expressions. It works on phones, computers and tablets. The Manila office recommends it for getting used to computer-based practice.

There is also JF Japanese e-Learning Minato, the Japan Foundation's online learning site. It has self-study courses and courses with a tutor. Most listed courses are free, a few are charged, and you must sign up. It is useful if you want more structure, but you do not need it to start.

Which Irodori book for which result

The Japan Foundation gives a simple guide in its FAQ:

Your target on JFT-BasicIrodori volume the FAQ points to
A1 (145 to 174 points)Starter (A1)
A2.1 (175 to 199 points)Elementary 1 (A2) can serve as a study guide
A2.2 (A2) (200 to 250 points)Finishing both Elementary 1 and Elementary 2 is "a good guide"

Most SSW fields ask for A2, which means 200 points or more. So Elementary 1 and Elementary 2 are the books to plan around. A "good guide" is not a guarantee. It tells you where to aim, not that you will pass.

How to use the materials in order

Step 1: Try the sample questions before you study. Do this in your first week. Do not worry about the score. You are learning what the test asks. The test has four sections: Script and Vocabulary, Conversation and Expression, Listening Comprehension and Reading Comprehension. Each section has around 12 questions, about 50 in total, and the whole test is 60 minutes. Seeing a question on screen, with audio through headphones, is different from reading a page of notes.

Step 2: Study with Irodori, lesson by lesson. Read the Can-do goal at the top of a lesson, study the lesson, then check whether you can really do what the goal says. Use the audio files every time. The Manila office points out that JFT-Basic questions use situations that also appear in Irodori, so a learner who has studied there can picture the scene and guess what the speakers will say.

Step 3: Use the online course quizzes as your weekly check. After each lesson or two, take the review quiz or the practice activities. Write down which area is weakest: words, kanji, grammar, expression, listening or reading. This is your own reviewer. It tells you what to study next, which a fixed list of questions cannot.

Step 4: Practice on a computer, with headphones. JFT-Basic is a computer-based test (CBT), which means you answer on a screen instead of on paper. The Japan Foundation's Manila office says it is necessary to get used to this style before the test. Prometric, the company that runs the booking and the test centers, has a "Steps for Taking the Test" page, and the Japan Foundation has a YouTube video called "Japan Foundation Test for Basic Japanese (JFT-Basic) Operating Guide." Watch both so the screen is not a surprise on the day.

Step 5: Go back to the sample questions in the last weeks. This time, treat them like the real thing. Use headphones, sit through it in one go, and keep to the 60 minutes. Remember the rules of the real test: the listening audio plays up to two times, you can change answers inside a section, and once you move on to the next section you cannot go back.

What the real test does that practice cannot show you

  • No time limit per section. The 60 minutes are for the whole test. Do not spend too long on one question.
  • Questions appear in English. A "Your Language" button shows them in your own language. Practice with it on and off, so you are not depending on it.
  • No speaking or writing test. You are not asked to speak or to write. Do not spend weeks on handwriting practice.
  • The score is not the number of correct answers. It is a scaled score from 10 to 250, calculated with a method called equating, which evens out the difficulty of different test forms. So "I got 38 of 50 right" in practice does not turn into an exact score on test day.
  • The levels. 200 or more is A2.2 (A2). 175 to 199 is A2.1, which means you have reached A1 and are on the way to A2. 145 to 174 is A1. Below 145 no level is shown.

About unofficial "actual exam" files

Search results and social media groups are full of files that say they contain real JFT-Basic questions. Think about what the Japan Foundation has said: past questions are not published. A file that claims to be "actual exam questions" did not come from the Japan Foundation.

There is also a rule to know about. The official JFT-Basic terms say that if the test provider considers conduct fraudulent, or the Japan Foundation doubts a score is valid, it may re-test, invalidate or withhold the result, ban future exams, and even invalidate past results. Study with the official materials and you never have to think about this.

How long should you study

The Japan Foundation does not say how many hours it takes, and this article will not invent a number. What the Japan Foundation does say is which books match which level. For a plan with months and weekly time, see our JFT-Basic study plan. For booking the test yourself, without paying anyone to do it for you, see how to apply for tests yourself.

If you do not pass

You can retake the test if your total score is 199 or lower. The date of the next test must be at least 45 days after the date of the previous one. People who have already reached 200 or more cannot retake. After a result, the official notice shows the percentage of correct answers in each section, so you can see where you were weakest. Go back to the online course quiz for that area, and then book again.

For the test dates and what else you need for SSW, see /tests and /routes.

Sources

About this guide

Hanapon Editorial

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