Niigata Public High School Entrance Examination - English study plan
Niigata Public High School Entrance Examination - English · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 6 hours per week
Listening comprehension (聴解) - short dialogues, monologues, and information extraction from spoken English & Long-passage reading comprehension - main idea, detail retrieval, inference, and reference resolution
Transcribe 20 short dialogues of 2–4 exchanges each, underlining every number, clock time, price, and day you hear.
Tag 30 of your own listening mistakes with one of four cause labels: sound confusion, unknown word, missed number, lost the thread.
Read 4 expository passages of about 350 words and state the main idea of each in a single English sentence.
Compile a 50-item vocabulary list made only of words you personally missed, grouped by school-life, daily-life, and time/place themes.
Practise 10 minutes of shadowing daily on dialogue audio to stabilise rhythm and weak forms.
Your checkpoint
A 30-item tagged listening error log plus 4 one-sentence main-idea summaries; retest the same 30 listening items and score at least 70%.
Listening comprehension (聴解) - short dialogues, monologues, and information extraction from spoken English & Long-passage reading comprehension - main idea, detail retrieval, inference, and reference resolution
Answer 20 inference questions and cite the exact sentence or phrase that supports each answer.
Complete 30 paraphrase-matching items where you pair a question stem with a rewording in the passage.
Read 5 passages of 400–450 words on a 6-minute timer and record both time and accuracy for each.
Resolve 20 reference questions by naming what each pronoun or demonstrative points to.
Re-listen to 10 previously transcribed dialogues and note which details you still miss on the second pass.
Your checkpoint
A timed reading record sheet covering 5 passages showing comprehension accuracy of at least 70% at 6 minutes per passage, with cited evidence for every inference answer.
Writing (条件英作文) - producing a short coherent English text meeting stated conditions and word limits & Listening comprehension (聴解) - short dialogues, monologues, and information extraction from spoken English
Write 6 condition-based paragraphs of 25–35 words in 6 minutes each, satisfying all stated conditions (content points, tense, word limit).
Assemble a personal bank of 12 sentence frames for stating opinion, reason, and example, and reuse at least 8 of them across the week.
Apply a 4-point self-check to every draft: word count, verb tense consistency, subject–verb agreement, and spelling of listed topic words.
Keep listening sharp with 10 minutes of short-dialogue practice on 5 days, logging only new error types.
Your checkpoint
6 timed writing samples with completed self-check sheets; at least 5 of the 6 must stay inside the word limit and cover every required condition.
Long-passage reading comprehension - main idea, detail retrieval, inference, and reference resolution & Writing (条件英作文) - producing a short coherent English text meeting stated conditions and word limits
Read 6 passages of 500–600 words and answer 3 questions per passage mixing detail retrieval, inference, and main idea.
Rewrite 4 weak drafts into 40–50 word opinion paragraphs each containing two distinct supporting reasons.
Cut word count on 3 over-long drafts without losing any required condition, to internalise the limit.
Summarise each long passage in 2 English sentences to test whether you grasped the structure, not just the details.
Your checkpoint
One half-length mock: 2 long passages with 10 questions plus 1 writing task, scored against a written rubric; record per-question-type accuracy for reading and a condition-satisfaction score for writing.
Situational dialogue reading and appropriate response selection (対話文読解・応答文選択) & Vocabulary and grammar in context - fill-in-the-blank, function words, tense, and form selection
Work through 30 situational dialogue items, writing one line on why each rejected response fails (wrong register, wrong tense, off-topic).
Drill 60 grammar items on tense choice, articles, prepositions, comparatives, and infinitive versus gerund form.
List the 20 function words and phrase patterns that decided your answers, with one original example sentence each.
Start an error notebook and enter every grammar mistake with the rule it breaks.
Your checkpoint
A 40-item mixed dialogue-and-grammar quiz completed untimed, then re-done a week later, with accuracy of at least 80% and written justification for every corrected answer.
Vocabulary and grammar in context - fill-in-the-blank, function words, tense, and form selection & Word ordering and sentence reconstruction (語句整序) - assembling correct English word order
Reorder 30 scrambled sentences, marking the chunk boundaries (subject, verb phrase, modifier, connective) before writing the answer.
Classify the 30 items by the pattern that solved them: word order of modifiers, question formation, there is/It is, conjunction placement.
Rewrite 15 of your own incorrect orderings and explain in one line why the original order broke a rule.
Complete 25 ordering items under a 15-minute timer to build speed on this low-mark, high-certainty section.
Your checkpoint
A 25-item timed ordering set finished in 15 minutes at 80% accuracy or better, with the pattern label recorded next to each item.
Writing (条件英作文) - producing a short coherent English text meeting stated conditions and word limits & Listening comprehension (聴解) - short dialogues, monologues, and information extraction from spoken English
Write 8 full exam-style responses under strict timing, then proofread each in 90 seconds using the 4-point checklist.
Sit the listening section of a full paper twice: once untimed with transcripts, once timed without, and compare scores.
Trim and expand 4 paragraphs to hit a word target exactly, to build control at the boundary of the limit.
Re-audit the error log and retire every error type that has not recurred for two weeks.
Your checkpoint
8 timed writing samples with checklist scores averaging at least 90% condition satisfaction, plus a before-and-after listening section score comparison.
Listening comprehension (聴解) - short dialogues, monologues, and information extraction from spoken English & Situational dialogue reading and appropriate response selection (対話文読解・応答文選択) & Vocabulary and grammar in context - fill-in-the-blank, function words, tense, and form selection & Word ordering and sentence reconstruction (語句整序) - assembling correct English word order & Long-passage reading comprehension - main idea, detail retrieval, inference, and reference resolution & Writing (条件英作文) - producing a short coherent English text meeting stated conditions and word limits
Sit 2 complete timed mock papers under exam conditions with no pauses and no dictionary.
Score each section separately and rank your six domains by marks lost rather than by feeling.
Re-drill only the two weakest domains, spending 90 minutes on each across the week.
Reduce the error log to a single one-page review sheet of rules, frames, and listening traps to read on the morning of the exam.
Your checkpoint
Two scored full mocks with a section-by-section comparison showing improvement, plus a one-page final review sheet covering only your remaining weak points.
Milestones
Week 4: Half-length mock scored: reading accuracy at or above 70% across detail, inference, and main-idea questions, and the writing task meets the word limit plus every stated condition without prompting.
Week 6: Dialogue-and-grammar quiz at 80% or better on the retake, and the 25-item ordering set finished inside 15 minutes at 80% or better, with pattern labels showing the reasoning is deliberate rather than guessed.
Week 8: Second full mock outscores the first overall and in at least four of six domains, with no section left below 60%, and the one-page review sheet is finished and readable in under 5 minutes.