Nation-wide Universtiy Entrance Exams

This weekend, on both Saturday and Sunday, high school students all across Japan took the "Center Test" that is administered by the National Center for University Entrance Examinations.

The Center Test is essentially the equivalent of the SAT (or ACT) in America, although there are big differences between the two tests. The two biggest differences are probably that the former is only administered once a year and that Japanese students take tests in many subjects.

Another difference is that the students who take the Japanese standardized test are allowed to keep their test booklets. Also, the tests and answers are published online almost immediately after the tests are finished, and, as far as I know, the answers are also published in newspapers the following day. Japanese students can therefore figure out their unofficial test scores almost immediately after the leave the test center. Amazing, huh?

Here is a look at the first four questions from the 2010 English grammar/reading test. The trick is to pick out the one word in the group that is pronounced differently than the others, based on the underlined part. For some reason, this skill is considered extremely important in Japan. I've studied about 7 foreign languages and have never seen so much stress placed on pronunciation.

Now here's a look at the next three questions. This time you have to determine which of the given word's syllables is stressed and match that with one word in the group. This is another requirement that I have never seen on a test in any of the foreign languages that I have studied.

Another favorite of Japanese test-designers is to make students unscramble a bunch of words in order to formulate a sentence (or part of one). I have seen this type of question on tests for other foreign languages and have even taught German lessons that involved this sort of activity, but I have never seen the activity used to the degree that it is used in Japan.

I think if you are trying to teach students who are studying German that the verb goes in the second (or last) position, or students who are studying English what a prepositional phrase is, for example, then yeah, by all means use such an activity. But why use it just for the sake of unscrambling words? I've even seen 15 word-sentences all scrambled up with plenty of short words like "to" and "do" repeated about three times each, leaving me scratching my head trying to figure out the correct order. Worse yet, the words are usually spaced so closely together (e.g., to / do / she / has / what/ to / that / is / it / finish = That is what she has to do to finish it.) that that in itself is confusing. (That's not the case on the Center Test, however.)

Also, you many have noticed how confusing taking a test in Japan can be. Notice, for instance, that each section of the test begins with Question 1, although the actual question number is placed inside a rectangle (or otherwise indicated). Also, notice on the unscrambling sentences activity that you are only required to indicate the placement of two words, not every word. If you're not especially careful, you can easily screw up your answer sheet.