Hokkaido Entrance English study guide
Hokkaido Entrance English · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The English section of Hokkaido University's general admission examination is a paper-based test used in the university's own entrance selection for undergraduate applicants. It is written and administered by the university, not by any outside testing organization, and this page is an independent study resource with no official affiliation. The Hokkaido Entrance English study guide has 5 sections and about 1,887 words.
01Reading Comprehension of Expository and Argumentative Passages
Hokkaido's reading passages are typically several hundred words of expository or argumentative prose - often a magazine-style essay on language, science, or social change - followed by 内容説明, 理由説明, 指示語, and 一致/不一致 items. The test is whether you can follow an argument's architecture, not whether you can decode every sentence.
378 words, about 2 min02English-to-Japanese Translation at Paragraph Level
The translation item gives one or two underlined sentences inside a full paragraph, and the marker wants contextual, natural Japanese - not word-for-word substitution. Read the whole paragraph first: the paragraph, not the sentence, decides the meaning of polysemous words (issue = 論点/発行; develop = 発展させる/発症する; figure = 数字/人物).
330 words, about 2 min03English Composition and Summary Writing
Two productive tasks: 条件英作文 (write 50–60 words meeting stated content conditions) and 要約 (summarise a passage within a set word count). Both are scored on content coverage, organisation, and grammatical accuracy - a simple, correct sentence beats an ambitious broken one.
394 words, about 2 min04Grammar, Syntax, and Vocabulary in Context
Hokkaido's grammar items are context-bound: 空所補充 (four options that may all be grammatical in isolation), 語句整序 (reorder chunks), and 語彙選択 where the deciding factor is collocation or transitivity, not the Japanese translation. Verb pattern first: refuse/decline/hope + to do; deny/enjoy/avoid + -ing; suggest that … (should) do; prevent X from doing.
375 words, about 2 min05Logical Structure and Discourse Cohesion
This item tests paragraph ordering (段落整序), sentence insertion, and connector choice. You are not asked what the text means so much as how each sentence depends on the ones around it.
410 words, about 2 min