EJU Japanese common mistakes
EJU Japanese · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
In the Japanese as a Foreign Language section, the candidate reads the reading passage first and only then looks at the question, spending so long on the passage that they run out of time for the later questions.
Habit carried over from school exams where full comprehension is expected. EJU reading passages are short but questions are information-retrieval tasks, so the question tells you which paragraph matters; reading everything first wastes minutes on irrelevant text.
What to do instead
Train a question-first routine: read the question stem and the four options, identify the keyword (often a proper noun, number, or quoted phrase), then scan the passage for that keyword and read only the surrounding two sentences. Time yourself at roughly 2 minutes per reading question and stop when the keyword sentence is understood.
The candidate treats the listening section as dictation, trying to catch every word and freezing when an unknown word appears, then missing the next two sentences.
Anxiety about unknown vocabulary plus the belief that full comprehension is required. EJU listening tests whether you can extract the speaker's conclusion or decision, not whether you understand every lexical item.
What to do instead
Practise listening for discourse markers that signal the answer: つまり, というわけで, 結局, ただし, でも. Take brief keyword notes in Japanese or symbols rather than full sentences, and deliberately let unknown words pass while tracking the flow. Do one timed listening set daily with no replay.
In the listening-reading comprehension (聴読解) tasks, the candidate looks only at the printed options and ignores the chart or diagram while the audio plays, then guesses from memory.
The dual-channel load is unfamiliar; candidates default to the mode they know (pure listening) and treat the printed material as a backup rather than the primary reference.
What to do instead
Before the audio starts, spend the preparation time labelling the axes, categories, and units on the printed figure. During playback, point at each option as it is mentioned and mark it with a tick, cross, or question mark. The answer is usually a single cell where two spoken conditions intersect, so mark conditions directly on the figure.
In the writing (記述) task, the candidate writes an opinion essay without addressing both of the two stated viewpoints, or writes under the required length, losing structural marks.
Candidates prepare generic essay templates and try to fit the prompt into them, rather than reading the specific task instructions, which in EJU ask you to state your position while referring to the given perspectives.
What to do instead
Practise a fixed four-part structure: state your position in the first sentence, summarise viewpoint A in one or two sentences, summarise viewpoint B, then give your reason and example. Before writing, underline the instruction words in the prompt (e.g. 賛成か反対か, 両方の立場に触れて). Count characters during practice so you know what 400 characters looks like on the answer sheet.
In Science, the candidate answers physics and chemistry questions using formulas memorised without units, mixing up grams and moles or joules and kilojoules, and getting numerically plausible but wrong answers.
Rote memorisation of formulas without dimensional reasoning; EJU science items frequently require unit conversion or give data in non-SI units to test this.
What to do instead
Write the unit next to every quantity before substituting into a formula, and carry units through the calculation until the result's unit matches what is asked. Drill a set of conversion problems (g to mol via molar mass, mL to L, kJ to J, °C to K) until they are automatic.
In Science, the candidate chooses between two similar-sounding biology or chemistry terms (for example 同化 and 異化, 浸透 and 拡散, 酸化 and 還元) based on the kanji's general feel rather than the definition.
Technical vocabulary in Japanese is learned as translation pairs, so candidates recognise the term but not its precise boundary conditions; the distractors are built exactly on these near-neighbours.
What to do instead
Build a personal glossary of confusable term pairs with a one-line Japanese definition and a concrete example for each (e.g. 浸透: 水が半透膜を通過する; 拡散: 物質が濃度勾配に従って広がる). Review the pairs before each practice set and add any new pair you miss.
In Japan and the World, the candidate answers questions about modern Japanese politics, economy, or international relations from general knowledge or news headlines rather than from the data and figures given in the question.
The subject feels like a current-affairs quiz, so candidates rely on impressions; in fact many items require reading a graph or table about population, trade, or GDP and drawing a conclusion from it.
What to do instead
For every data-based item, first identify what is being measured, the year, and the unit, then eliminate options that contradict the figure even if they sound true in general. Separately, memorise the core institutional facts (parliamentary cabinet system, the three branches, major postwar treaties and their years) as a fixed list rather than absorbing them passively.
In Japan and the World, the candidate confuses the positions of countries and regions on a map or misidentifies which country a described economic or environmental policy belongs to.
Geography is often studied from text alone, and EJU items frequently describe a country's characteristics without naming it, expecting you to infer it from climate, religion, or resource profile.
What to do instead
Practise a reverse-identification drill: read a three-line description (climate, main export, dominant religion, a recent international agreement) and name the country before checking a map. Keep a blank world map and mark each country you study with one distinctive fact, reviewing it weekly.
In Mathematics, the candidate spends too long on one difficult item in Course 2 (e.g. a complex-number or calculus problem) and leaves several easier later questions blank, even though all items carry similar weight.
The paper is ordered roughly by topic rather than difficulty, and candidates treat a stuck problem as a personal challenge instead of a time-management decision.
What to do instead
Adopt a two-pass strategy: on the first pass, answer everything you can within about 90 seconds per item and mark the rest; on the second pass, return to marked items with the remaining time. Practise with a visible timer and record which topics caused stalls so you can target them in revision.
In Mathematics, the candidate fills in the numerical answer boxes without checking whether the required form (sign, fraction, decimal places, or which of several boxes) matches the question, producing a correct value in the wrong slot.
EJU mathematics uses a fill-in-the-blank format where the structure of the answer is given in the question; candidates compute correctly but ignore the printed form and the constraints on each box.
What to do instead
Before writing, read the answer line as a template and state aloud what each box must contain (e.g. 整数, 分数の分母, 符号). After computing, substitute your values back into the template and verify the whole expression is consistent, including signs and simplified fractions.