Niigata Public High School Entrance Examination - English common mistakes
Niigata Public High School Entrance Examination - English · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
In the listening section, the candidate writes down the first place, time, or choice they hear and marks the answer before the speaker reaches the end of the turn, missing later corrections such as “Actually, let’s meet at the station instead” or “The bus leaves at 8:25, not 8:10.”
The audio plays once, and candidates often listen for isolated familiar words rather than tracking the whole utterance. Contrast markers and self-corrections are spoken quickly, so the first number or noun feels like the answer and later information is not processed.
What to do instead
Before the audio starts, read the question and options and predict what kind of detail is needed. During the audio, note the first value and leave space beside it; listen specifically for contrast and correction cues such as but, actually, instead, sorry, and no. Treat the last stated decision as the answer unless the question asks about an earlier plan.
The candidate hears a time, price, date, or quantity correctly in isolation but chooses an option that differs by one unit, such as 3:15 versus 3:30, 15 dollars versus 50 dollars, or the 12th versus the 20th, especially when the speaker says the number quickly or repeats it in a different form.
Numbers are processed as sound sequences rather than as meaning-bearing chunks, and Japanese learners often confuse similar English sound pairs or teen/ty distinctions under once-only listening pressure. The candidate also fails to convert expressions such as “a quarter past” or “half past” into the numeral form used in the options.
What to do instead
Practise dictating times, dates, prices, and telephone numbers daily in short bursts, including teen/ty pairs and quarter/half expressions. In the exam, write numerals immediately and say them silently in English; if two numbers are mentioned, note both and decide from the final sentence which one answers the question.
In the situational dialogue response question, the candidate picks an option that shares vocabulary with the prompt but does not match the function of the first speaker’s line - for example, replying “Yes, I like tennis” to an invitation instead of accepting or declining it, or answering “I’m sorry” to a request for information.
The candidate translates the prompt word by word and looks for a response containing related content words, without identifying whether the speaker is inviting, requesting, apologising, offering, or asking for permission. Grammatically possible but pragmatically wrong options therefore look attractive.
What to do instead
Before reading the options, label the first speaker’s line by function: invitation, request, offer, apology, suggestion, or permission. Then choose the response that performs the required social action and check that it is appropriate in politeness level. Eliminate any option that only repeats a content word without answering the function.
The candidate ignores the relationship and setting implied by the dialogue - for example, choosing a casual “Yeah, sure” when a student is answering a teacher, or “Give me the receipt” when a customer is speaking to a shop clerk - because the option is grammatically correct and understandable.
The candidate reads only the blank and the line immediately before it, not the whole exchange, and does not notice honorifics, job roles, or setting words. Register and politeness are rarely tested in isolation in Japanese English classes, so the candidate focuses on meaning alone.
What to do instead
Read the entire dialogue first and circle words that identify the speakers and setting, such as teacher, customer, station, or hospital. Rank options by politeness and choose the one that fits the relationship. Memorise fixed polite frames such as Could you please…?, Certainly, I’d be glad to, and I’m afraid I can’t.
In the fill-in-the-blank grammar and vocabulary items, the candidate chooses a word because its basic meaning fits the translation but ignores the required part of speech, verb pattern, or collocation - for example, selecting “see” after “look forward to” or “interesting” where “interested” is required.
Vocabulary is stored as Japanese meanings rather than as English chunks with grammatical behaviour. The candidate checks whether the sentence “makes sense” in Japanese and does not inspect what follows or precedes the blank, such as a preposition, a gerund, or a noun.
What to do instead
Before looking at the options, identify what the blank needs: a noun, verb, adjective, preposition, or a particular verb form. Then check the words immediately before and after the blank for patterns such as look forward to + -ing, be interested in, and too + adjective + to. Study collocations as whole phrases rather than single words.
The candidate answers tense and form questions by matching the Japanese translation rather than the English time markers, choosing the simple past for “I have lived here since 2010” or the present tense for a sentence with “by the time” and a completed earlier action.
Japanese tense and aspect do not map one-to-one onto English, and classroom translation habits encourage choosing the tense that sounds natural in Japanese. The candidate also overlooks discourse-level time signals such as since, for, already, by the time, and when.
What to do instead
Underline every time expression before choosing. Decide whether the action connects to the present, happened at a finished past time, or happened before another past action. Practise contrast pairs such as “I lost my key” versus “I have lost my key” and “When I arrived, he had left” versus “When I arrived, he left.”
In word-ordering items, the candidate builds the sentence by translating Japanese chunks in their original order, placing the verb at the end or putting adverbs in positions that sound natural in Japanese but are impossible in English, such as “I every day play tennis” or “She very likes music.”
First-language word order interference is strong under time pressure. The candidate treats the words as separate puzzle pieces rather than identifying the English sentence skeleton of subject, verb, and object, and has not automatised adverb placement rules.
What to do instead
Find the verb first, then build the subject-verb-object frame before adding modifiers. Apply placement rules explicitly: frequency adverbs go before the main verb but after be; manner and place usually follow the object. Rehearse common frames such as “It is important for us to…”, “I want someone to…”, and “This is the book that…” until they are automatic.
The candidate produces a grammatically possible order but ignores the surrounding context and the given first or last word, or misorders indirect questions and relative clauses - for example, writing “Do you know where is the station?” or attaching a relative clause to the wrong noun.
The candidate treats word ordering as a self-contained puzzle and does not read the sentence before and after the blank for meaning. Indirect question word order and relative pronoun attachment are common weak points because Japanese does not use the same movement rules.
What to do instead
Read the whole sentence and restate its meaning before arranging the words. Check that indirect questions use statement order, that relative clauses sit immediately after their antecedent, and that the given first and last words are respected. After arranging, read the full sentence aloud to catch unnatural order.
In long-passage reading, the candidate finds a word from the question in the passage and selects that sentence as the answer, without checking whether the passage paraphrases the idea, whether the question asks for the main idea or a detail, or whether quantifiers such as all, some, and only change the meaning.
Keyword matching is faster than reading for meaning, and limited vocabulary encourages the candidate to latch onto familiar words. The candidate also confuses a supporting detail with the author’s overall point and misses negative or limiting expressions.
What to do instead
Locate the keyword, then read the sentence before and after it and paraphrase the idea in simple English. Ask whether the question is asking for the main idea, a detail, an inference, or a reference. Circle quantifiers and negatives, and eliminate options that are true in the passage but do not answer the question asked.
In the conditional writing task, the candidate writes a short text that reaches the required word count but omits one of the stated conditions - for example, giving only one reason when two are required, writing about a past experience when the prompt asks for an opinion, or using memorised sentences that do not answer the question.
The candidate focuses on producing grammatically safe English and counting words under time pressure, so the conditions are read once and not checked again. Memorised templates feel efficient but may not fit the specific prompt.
What to do instead
Underline each condition in the prompt before writing: topic, number of reasons or examples, required tense, and word limit. Make a three-line plan - direct answer, reason or example, closing sentence - and keep every sentence tied to the prompt. After writing, tick each condition and count words, revising any sentence that does not serve the task.