NAT-TEST 4Q case studies

NAT-TEST 4Q (formerly labelled 4級) is the second-easiest of five levels in the NAT-TEST, a Japanese-language proficiency exam produced by a private Japanese publisher and used mainly for language-school placement, specified-skills and vocational pathways, and in-house corporate assessment. It targets learners who have completed an elementary course: confident kana, roughly 300 kanji and about 1,500 vocabulary items, and enough grammar to follow short, predictable conversations and passages. This page is independent study material and is not affiliated with the exam body. The paper is sat with pencil and mark sheet in three blocks: 文字・語彙 (kanji reading and writing, orthography, word choice in context), 文法・読解 (sentence grammar, sentence ordering, short and medium passages) and 聴解 (task listening, point comprehension, utterance selection, audio played once with no replay). The grammar-and-reading block carries the largest share of the paper, so it deserves the largest share of your study hours. Prepare by working through a level-appropriate textbook in order, drilling kanji inside words rather than in isolation, timing your reading, and practising listening you cannot rewind. Topics on this exam: 文字・語彙 (moji/goi) - kanji reading and writing, orthography, and vocabulary in context, 文法・読解 (bunpou/dokkai) - sentence-level grammar, sentence ordering, passage grammar, short/medium reading comprehension, and 聴解 (choukai) - task-based listening, point comprehension, and utterance/response selection. The NAT-TEST 4Q case studies are 5 cases and about 234 words.