How Many EIKEN Grades Are There, Seven or Eight

This looks like a trivia question and it is actually a dating tool for everything else you read about EIKEN.

The Foundation's own pages say seven in one place and eight in another.

SpeakShark is free if you would rather spend the time speaking than counting, three AI conversation sessions a day with no card.

In this guide: both answers · what the table lists · the likely cause · why it matters · two grades, one level · what to trust · limits · method · FAQ

Key takeaways

• The grades page says each of the seven EIKEN grades is a separate test.
• The table on that same page lists eight rows.
• The preparation page refers to recent tests for all eight EIKEN grades.
• The eight are 1, Pre-1, 2, Pre-2 Plus, Pre-2, 3, 4 and 5.
• Our reading is that Pre-2 Plus was inserted into a seven step ladder and one sentence was not updated.
• Practical use: a source describing seven grades may predate Pre-2 Plus.

Both answers in the same place

On the Eiken Foundation's grades page, the opening sentence describes each of the seven EIKEN grades as a separate test with a unique set of test items and tasks designed for that level.

Immediately below it, the level comparison table lists eight grades.

On the Foundation's preparation page, the release of past materials is described as covering recent tests for all eight EIKEN grades, including audio files.

So the two counts sit within the same official English site, one of them on the same page as the table that contradicts it.

What the table actually lists

Eight rows. Six of them carry a CSE range and a CEFR comparison, and Grades 4 and 5 carry neither, which is a different fact from not existing. We look at what those two grades do have in Grade 4 and 5 speaking.

The likely cause is the newest grade

This section is our reading, not the Foundation's stated reason, and it should be treated that way.

Pre-2 Plus reads as an insertion. It sits between Pre-2 and Grade 2, it shares its CEFR comparison with the grade below it, and its name is formed by extending an existing grade name rather than by taking a new one.

When a step is added to an established ladder, the structured content updates because a table has a row for each item. Prose sentences do not, because nobody has to touch the paragraph to add a row.

That is a mundane explanation and it fits the evidence better than any deliberate distinction between seven assessed grades and eight administered ones, for which we found no support on the pages we read.

Why a counting slip is useful to you

Here is the practical value, and it is bigger than the trivia.

A source that describes seven EIKEN grades is probably describing the pre Pre-2 Plus structure. That gives you a free dating signal on anything you read: guides, forum threads, school handouts and especially commercial preparation books.

That matters more for EIKEN than it would for most exams, because the Foundation itself warns that many EIKEN materials offered in bookstores are produced by private publishing companies not affiliated with it and do not necessarily reflect the actual difficulty levels, quality or format of the tests. We cover that warning and the free official papers in EIKEN past papers are free.

So: count the grades in any guide you pick up. Seven means old, and old means the difficulty steps described may not be the ones you will sit.

Two grades sharing one CEFR level

Pre-2 Plus and Pre-2 both compare to A2, on different CSE ranges of 1829 to 2500 and 1728 to 2400.

Two grades at one CEFR level tells you the ladder is not built on the CEFR grid. It is built on learner progress and on Japanese school stages, with Grade 3 as the ministry benchmark for junior high school graduates, Grade 2 for high school graduates and Pre-1 for English instructors.

A consequence worth carrying: the CEFR label will not choose between Pre-2 and Pre-2 Plus for you. The grade descriptions and the tasks will, which is another argument for sitting a real past paper at each before deciding.

The score ranges overlap across the whole ladder as well, which we work through in EIKEN grades and CSE scores.

What to trust when sources disagree

A short hierarchy that applies well beyond this exam.

1. The structured data over the prose. A table with eight rows has eight items regardless of what the sentence above it says.
2. The most recently maintained page over the oldest. Content that changes often is updated more carefully.
3. The primary body over anybody describing it. Especially where a commercial publisher stands between you and the source.
4. The specific over the general. A page about grades outranks a page that mentions grades in passing.
5. Check twice when a number is small enough to count. Seven against eight is exactly the kind of thing nobody checks because it feels beneath checking.

If you are choosing a grade rather than counting them, the practical route is in the CSE overlap post, and the speaking stage that follows is in the second stage post and Grade 1's two examiners.

For the speaking preparation none of these pages can do for you, SpeakShark is the reps: unscripted conversation with native accent AI teachers and instant phoneme level feedback on the sounds you keep missing. 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. Cross exam context: the UKVI band table, what band 7 means, Cambridge speaking criteria by level and every English requirement we have read.

A small check that catches large problems

The seven against eight slip is worth generalising, because the habit it rewards is cheap and the errors it catches are not.

Count anything countable. Lists, rows, steps, providers, accepted tests. Numbers small enough to verify in ten seconds are the ones nobody verifies, which is exactly why errors survive in them.

Compare the prose against the table. Where a page contains both, they were probably written at different times by different people. The table is usually maintained and the sentence usually is not.

Prefer the page whose job it is. A page about grades outranks a page that mentions grades while discussing something else, even when both are official.

Treat a mismatch as a date stamp rather than a scandal. Two counts on one site almost always means the structure changed and part of the site did not follow. That tells you something useful about the age of everything around it.

We have paid for this lesson repeatedly in other exam families. A regulator's approved list carried a spelling error in one row of an official spreadsheet. A score table listed one skill at a different threshold from its three siblings, identically, in two separate published files, so it was not a typo in one of them. Both were found by counting and comparing rather than by reading carefully, and neither would have surfaced from a summary.

The instruction that falls out of it is short. When a source gives you a number, check whether the same source gives it twice.

What we could not verify

We did not find any Foundation statement about when Pre-2 Plus was introduced, so the explanation above is inference from the structure and the naming, labelled as such.

We did not check the Japanese language pages, which may count differently or may already be consistent.

We make no claim about the CEFR level or CSE range of Grades 4 and 5, because the table lists neither.

Pages change. The two counts described here are what those pages said on the date we read them, and either could be corrected at any time.

How we researched this guide

The sentence describing each of the seven EIKEN grades, the eight row level comparison table, the CSE ranges and the CEFR comparisons come from the Eiken Foundation of Japan's EIKEN Grades page, opened directly in a browser. The reference to recent tests for all eight EIKEN grades and the warning about unaffiliated bookshop materials come from the Foundation's Preparing for EIKEN page, also opened directly. The explanation involving Pre-2 Plus is our inference and is labelled in the text.

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 grade structures, materials 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

• EIKEN Grades, Eiken Foundation of Japan
• Preparing for EIKEN, Eiken Foundation of Japan
• EIKEN speaking tests, Eiken Foundation of Japan
• CEFR global scale, Council of Europe

FAQ