Nagasaki Public High School Entrance Examination - English common mistakes
Nagasaki Public High School Entrance Examination - English · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
In the listening section, candidates start writing the answer while the second reading is still playing, so they miss the final clause that changes the meaning (for example a negation or a change of time).
Japanese junior high students are trained to write down what they hear immediately, and the exam's short pauses feel like a signal to start writing. The second reading is often the only one that contains the decisive detail, so writing during it costs the point.
What to do instead
Practise a two-pass routine: on the first reading, mark only keywords (who, when, where, how much) with symbols or initials; on the second reading, check the question options against what you heard and write the answer only after the audio ends. Do five timed drills a week with the script hidden, then check against the script to see which clause you missed.
Candidates choose a listening option because it repeats a word they heard, even when the option contradicts the speaker's actual meaning.
The distractors in this exam are built by echoing vocabulary from the dialogue. Students match sound to option instead of matching meaning, especially under time pressure when they cannot re-read the question.
What to do instead
Before the audio starts, underline the question word (what/where/why/how many) and predict the type of answer. During listening, note the relationship (for example 'but', 'so', 'not') next to the echoed word. After the audio, eliminate any option whose meaning is not supported by that relationship, even if the wording matches.
In long reading passages, candidates answer detail questions from memory of the passage's general topic instead of locating the sentence that contains the answer.
The passages are longer than the textbook material students are used to, and skimming feels faster than searching. Topic-level guessing works on easy items, so students do not notice it fails on inference and detail items.
What to do instead
Train a locate-and-cite habit: for every question, underline the line in the passage that justifies the answer and write the line number beside the option. If no line can be underlined, the answer is probably wrong. Do one passage a day this way and count how often your first guess lacked a supporting line.
Candidates treat English word order as Japanese word order, placing the verb at the end of the sentence or putting a modifier after the noun it describes.
Japanese places the verb last and modifiers before nouns, so students produce sentences like 'I to the library went' or 'the book interesting'. Classroom drills often focus on filling blanks rather than producing full sentences, so the habit survives.
What to do instead
Memorise and drill the five basic patterns (SV, SVO, SVC, SVOO, SVOC) until they are automatic, then practise rewriting ten Japanese sentences into English daily. For modifiers, drill the fixed order 'article/adjective + noun' and 'noun + that/which clause' with sentence-combining exercises.
Candidates use the wrong tense or aspect in grammar items, especially present perfect versus past simple and the difference between 'will' and 'be going to'.
Japanese has no grammatical perfect aspect, so students map 'have + past participle' onto the simple past. Time expressions such as 'since', 'for', 'ago', and 'already' are the only cues, and students do not scan for them.
What to do instead
Build a one-page cue table: 'ago/last/yesterday' → past simple; 'since/for/already/yet/ever' → present perfect; 'tomorrow/next' → will or be going to. Before answering, circle the time expression in the item, then choose the tense it forces. Review errors weekly and label each one with the cue word you missed.
In sentence-reordering items, candidates build a sentence that sounds natural in Japanese translation but violates English syntax, and they do not check that all the given words are used exactly once.
Students translate the Japanese prompt into Japanese word order first, then arrange English words to match. They also treat the numbered blank as the whole answer and forget that the surrounding words constrain the order.
What to do instead
Use a three-step method: identify the subject and verb first, attach the object or complement, then place adverbs and prepositional phrases last. After arranging, read the full sentence aloud and confirm every supplied word appears once and no word is left over. Practise ten items a day with the Japanese prompt covered until the English order is decided.
In sentence-transformation items, candidates change the words but keep the same grammatical structure, so the required pattern (passive, indirect question, comparative, relative clause) is not actually produced.
Students focus on meaning preservation and overlook the grammatical instruction. They also do not know the fixed frames, such as 'Do you know + if/whether + subject + verb' or 'not as ... as', well enough to produce them under time pressure.
What to do instead
Keep a personal list of the eight transformation frames this exam favours (passive, indirect question, comparative, superlative, relative clause, too...to, so...that, it is ... for ... to). For each item, name the required frame before writing, then check the frame is visible in your answer. Have a teacher or study partner mark only the frame, not the vocabulary, for one week.
In the composition task, candidates write a Japanese outline, translate it sentence by sentence, and end up with a paragraph that has no clear topic sentence and no linking words.
Translation-based writing produces sentences that are grammatical in isolation but disconnected, and students run out of time before revising. The exam rewards organisation and coherence, not length.
What to do instead
Use a fixed five-minute plan: write the topic sentence, two supporting reasons with one example each, and a concluding sentence; then write with linking words (first, also, however, for example, therefore). Leave two minutes to check subject-verb agreement and plural endings. Practise with a 15-minute timer twice a week and self-score against a checklist for organisation before grammar.
In situational-response items, candidates answer the literal question but ignore the register and the relationship, using casual forms with a teacher or overly formal forms with a friend.
Students learn one polite form and apply it everywhere, and they read only the question line, not the setting or the speaker's role given in the prompt. Japanese politeness rules do not map directly onto English modal choices.
What to do instead
For every item, first identify who is speaking to whom and where, then choose the form: 'Can I...?' or 'Could you...?' for requests, 'Would you like...?' for offers, 'Sure' or 'Sounds good' for peers. Drill ten short dialogues a day, labelling each with the relationship, and check that your chosen reply fits both the question and the relationship.
Candidates leave multiple-choice items blank or change correct answers at the last minute without a reason, losing points they had already earned.
Time pressure in the reading section leaves items unanswered, and anxiety makes students second-guess answers without new evidence. Japanese exam coaching sometimes encourages guessing only when certain, which students misapply.
What to do instead
Adopt a fixed time budget per section and a rule to answer every item, marking uncertain ones with a dot and returning only if time remains. Change an answer only when you can name the specific evidence that contradicts the original choice. Rehearse this rule in three full mock exams so the behaviour is automatic on test day.