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About this exam

The Kagawa Prefectural High School Entrance Examination in Japanese (香川県立高等学校入学者選抜 国語) is the Japanese-language paper sat by students applying to prefectural high schools in Kagawa Prefecture, including full-time, part-time and credit-based courses. It is a school-admission test, not a language certificate: its purpose is to place entering students, so it is written for students finishing the Japanese junior high curriculum rather than for adult learners of Japanese. The paper is delivered in Japanese and asks candidates to read modern expository and literary texts, work with classical Japanese (古文) and a classical Chinese-style (漢文) passage, read and write kanji, answer questions on vocabulary, grammar and language conventions, and write in response to a prompt. Because the paper mixes short constructed responses with selected-response items, marks depend heavily on writing precise answers within a word limit and on explaining the basis for an interpretation rather than only naming it. Preparation usually means working through past papers released by the prefectural board of education, timing full papers under exam conditions, and drilling the specific kanji and classical grammar points that recur. The official body publishes the current year's schedule, question counts and scoring information on its own site; check there for these figures rather than relying on second-hand summaries.

What you'll study

Common questions

About Kagawa Entrance Japanese preparation

Who sets and administers this exam?

The Kagawa Prefectural Board of Education sets and administers the prefectural high school entrance examination, including the Japanese paper. Application procedures, schedules and announcements come from the board and from your junior high school's guidance office. This page is independent study material and is not affiliated with the board or any school.

What is the format of the Japanese paper?

It is a written paper combining multiple-choice items with short constructed responses. You read modern expository and literary passages, answer questions on a classical Japanese and a classical Chinese-style passage, complete kanji reading and writing items, answer vocabulary, grammar and language-convention questions, and write a composition or expression task.

How long is the exam and how many questions are there?

Those figures change and are published by the Kagawa Prefectural Board of Education for each year's administration. They are not fixed here because quoting a stale number would mislead you. Check the board's official site or your school's guidance materials for the current time limit and question count.

How difficult is the paper?

It is pitched at the level of the junior high school curriculum, so the difficulty lies less in obscure content than in precision. Literary-text questions often ask why a character feels or acts a certain way, which requires linking a quoted phrase to context. Classical Japanese grammar and kanji writing are the areas where candidates most often lose easy marks.

Can I retake the exam if I do not get in?

Retake and reapplication rules are set by the board for each year and differ by course type and by whether places remain after the main selection. Ask your school's guidance teacher or read the board's current guidelines, since second-round recruitment and eligibility conditions are announced annually and are not something to assume.

In what order should I study?

Start with kanji reading and writing and classical grammar, because they are finite and improve quickly with daily short drills. Then work on modern expository texts, where answer patterns are learnable. Literary texts and composition need the longest runway, so begin writing timed responses early rather than leaving them for the final weeks.

What are the most common ways candidates lose marks?

Answers that restate the passage instead of explaining the reason asked for; responses that exceed or fall short of the stated character limit; kanji written with the wrong stroke or a homophone; and classical particles translated without regard to the sentence's structure. Composition tasks also lose marks for a vague opinion with no supporting example.

How should I use past papers?

Sit a full past paper under timed conditions first, without notes, to see where time actually goes. Mark it strictly against the official answer key, then redo only the questions you lost. Keep an error log by question type so you can see whether your losses cluster in literary interpretation, classical grammar or written expression.

Where do I find official exam information?

The Kagawa Prefectural Board of Education publishes entrance-selection guidelines, schedules and past examination papers on its official website, and your junior high school distributes the same materials to candidates. Treat those as authoritative for dates, formats and scoring, and use independent study pages only for practice and explanation.