EIKEN Past Papers Are Free, and the Board Says So

Most exam boards sell their past papers or release one sample and stop. EIKEN does something else entirely, and then warns you about the shops.

Every first stage paper is released after the test, with audio, free.

SpeakShark is free too, for the spoken stage the papers cannot cover, three AI conversation sessions a day with no card.

In this guide: what is released · why audio matters · what it does not cover · the board's own warning · how to use them · what to do about speaking · limits · method · FAQ

Key takeaways

All first stage materials are disclosed after each administration of the test.
Examinees may keep their test booklets for further study.
Recent tests for all grades, including audio files, are free public downloads.
The release covers the first stage only, not the speaking interview.
The Foundation warns that many bookshop materials are unaffiliated and may misrepresent the test.
Other resources listed include podcasts, interviews, articles and a Virtual Speaking Test.

What is actually released

The Foundation's wording is worth reading exactly, because the scope is wider than people assume.

As a service to learners and teachers, all first stage EIKEN materials are disclosed after each administration of the test. Examinees are permitted to keep their test booklets for further study, and recent tests for all eight EIKEN grades, including audio files, are open to the public as free downloads.

Three separate things are happening there.

Disclosure after every sitting, not a single sample paper kept current for years.

Booklet retention, which is unusual in itself. Many exams collect every paper.

Public free download including audio, so somebody who never sat the test gets the same material as somebody who did.

	EIKEN first stage	Typical international exam
Past papers released	After every administration	One or two samples
Audio included	Yes	Sometimes
Cost	Free	Often sold
Booklet kept by candidate	Yes	Usually collected

Why the audio is the valuable part

Reading papers can be approximated by a good publisher. Listening cannot.

A listening section has a specific speed, a specific accent mix, a specific number of repetitions and a specific relationship between what is said and what the question asks. Those are the things a learner cannot reconstruct from a description, and the things third party recordings most often get wrong.

So when the Foundation says the free downloads include audio files, that is the part of the offer with the most practical value. It is the difference between practising the test and practising something that resembles it.

Our posts on other exams' listening and speaking formats make the same point from the other side: see Aptis speaking format, Linguaskill speaking format, and TOEIC speaking.

What the release does not cover

First stage means reading, listening and writing. The second stage is the speaking interview, and it is not part of what is disclosed.

That is not an oversight, it is the nature of the thing. A face to face interview conducted on site by qualified examiners cannot be released as a booklet. We set out how that stage works in the EIKEN speaking test as a second stage and the unusual two examiner arrangement at the top grade in EIKEN Grade 1.

The Foundation does list a Virtual Speaking Test among its learning resources, alongside podcasts, interviews, articles and hands on exercises. That is a practice activity rather than a released past paper, and it should be read as such.

The warning the board prints about its own market

This is the sentence that makes the page unusual, and it is worth quoting because almost no exam board publishes anything like it.

Many of the EIKEN materials offered in bookstores are produced by private publishing companies not affiliated with the Eiken Foundation of Japan and do not necessarily reflect the actual difficulty levels, quality, or format of the EIKEN tests.

Read that as consumer advice from the only party in a position to know. A board that releases every real paper for free has removed its own commercial reason to stay quiet about imitations, which is probably why it can say it.

The practical instruction is simple. Start with the released papers. Use commercial books afterwards, for drilling volume, and treat any book that contradicts a real paper as wrong.

How to use the papers properly

Diagnose before you book. Sit a recent paper at the grade you are considering, under time. The result tells you whether that grade is the right one, which matters because each EIKEN grade is a separate test rather than a difficulty setting.
Do the listening with the audio, once, at full speed. Repeating it immediately teaches you the answers rather than the skill.
Keep the booklet if you sat the test. The Foundation permits it, and your own paper with your own errors on it is better revision than a clean copy.
Use several administrations, not one. Papers vary within a grade, and a single paper flatters or frightens.
Do not build your whole plan on the first stage. It is the gate, not the destination, since the interview follows about a month later for everybody who passes.

What to do about the part not released

The speaking stage cannot be revised from a booklet, and it arrives with a known date roughly a month after the first stage. That combination makes it the most plannable part of the whole exam and the most commonly neglected.

Four weeks of daily unscripted talking, with feedback on the specific sounds and hesitations that recur, is what changes an interview result. Reading about the format does not. That is what SpeakShark exists for: unscripted conversation with native accent AI teachers, follow up questions you did not write, and instant phoneme level feedback. The free plan is three sessions a day with no card, the pricing page shows the paid tier, how it works explains the mechanics, and our comparison of speaking apps is honest about the limits.

More on the grades and what they mean: the CSE score overlap, Grade 4 and 5 speaking, and for cross exam context the UKVI band table, what band 7 means and every English requirement we have read.

What free papers change about how you study

An exam that releases everything changes the shape of good preparation, and most learners keep studying as though it had not.

Volume stops being the constraint. When papers are scarce, people hoard them and do each one once, carefully, as a mock. When every administration is released, you can afford to use papers as ordinary practice material and still keep two unseen for timed rehearsals near the date.

Diagnosis becomes cheap. Choosing between two grades is usually guesswork. Here it is an afternoon: sit a recent paper at each, under time, and read the difference. Since each grade is a separate test rather than a difficulty setting, that afternoon answers a question no description can.

Commercial material becomes optional rather than central. It has a role for drilling one skill repeatedly, and it is a poor substitute for the real thing when the real thing is free.

The gap in the offer is visible. Everything released is first stage. The interview is not, and it is the stage with a fixed date about a month later. So the free papers quietly point at where your unassisted effort has to go.

One habit worth adopting from the start. Keep a single sheet listing every question you got wrong and the reason, not the answer, and review the reasons rather than the questions. Learners who work through many free papers without that sheet tend to repeat the same category of error across all of them and never notice, because each paper feels like a fresh start.

What we could not verify

We did not download any paper, so we make no claim about how many administrations are available, how far back the archive goes, or what the papers contain.

We did not use the Virtual Speaking Test and describe it only as a resource the Foundation lists.

The comparison table's right hand column describes general practice across international exams rather than a survey, and is presented as orientation.

How we researched this guide

The statements that all first stage materials are disclosed after each administration, that examinees may keep their test booklets, that recent tests including audio files are free public downloads, that additional resources include podcasts, interviews, articles and a Virtual Speaking Test, and the warning about unaffiliated bookshop materials all come from the Eiken Foundation of Japan's own Preparing for EIKEN page, opened directly in a browser rather than summarised from a preparation site. The two stage structure comes from the Foundation's EIKEN speaking tests page, also opened directly.

We are a speaking improvement tool. We are not an exam preparation provider, and we are not affiliated with the Eiken Foundation of Japan or any exam board. For materials, dates and current requirements, go to the exam body directly. Use SpeakShark to make your spoken English stronger, and use official material to learn the test.

Site: speakshark.com
Support: speaksharksupport@gmail.com
Free tier: 3 AI conversation sessions per day, no card

Sources

FAQ

Are EIKEN past papers free?

Yes, and from the Foundation itself. It states that as a service to learners and teachers, all first stage EIKEN materials are disclosed after each administration of the test, that examinees are permitted to keep their test booklets for further study, and that recent tests for all eight EIKEN grades, including audio files, are open to the public as free downloads. That is unusually open compared with most international English exams.

Do the free downloads include listening audio?

Yes. The Foundation states that recent tests for all grades are open to the public as free downloads including audio files. That matters more than the reading papers, because listening practice is usually the part learners cannot reconstruct on their own, and third party material rarely matches the recording style, speed and accent mix of the real test.

Does the free release cover the speaking test?

The wording covers first stage materials, which are reading, listening and writing. The second stage speaking interview is not part of that release. The Foundation does list a Virtual Speaking Test among its learning resources, so there is something for the spoken stage, but it is a practice activity rather than a disclosed past paper.

Are the EIKEN books sold in shops official?

Often not, and the Foundation says so itself. Its preparation page notes that many EIKEN materials offered in bookstores are produced by private publishing companies not affiliated with the Eiken Foundation of Japan, and do not necessarily reflect the actual difficulty levels, quality, or format of the EIKEN tests. It is rare for an exam board to publish that warning about its own market.

What should I use the free papers for?

Format familiarity first and difficulty calibration second. Because they are the real papers rather than an imitation, they answer two questions no commercial book can settle: what the tasks actually look like at your grade, and whether the grade you have chosen is the right one. Use a recent paper as a diagnostic before booking rather than as revision after.