JLPT: Should You Study Kanji or Vocabulary First?

A recurring JLPT debate: do you grind kanji as standalone characters, or learn vocabulary and pick up kanji along the way? For most learners, the answer is clear.

Why vocabulary-first usually wins

• The test scores words, not isolated characters — you never see a kanji on the JLPT without a word around it.
• Learning 水泳 teaches you 水, 泳, a reading, and a usable word — four wins from one card.
• Vocabulary gives kanji context, which is exactly what makes readings stick.

When kanji-first helps

There's one good reason to front-load some pure kanji: building a base of radicals and the most common 100–200 characters early makes every later vocabulary word easier to absorb. So a short kanji sprint, then vocabulary-driven study, is ideal.

The hybrid approach

1. Spend your first few weeks on radicals and the top ~100 kanji.
2. Switch to vocabulary-driven study: learn words, and meet kanji inside them.
3. Use an SRS that quizzes whole words with their readings.
4. Read constantly so both kanji and vocabulary recur in context.

Don't choose kanji OR vocabulary. Learn kanji THROUGH vocabulary, with a small radical head-start.