Shizuoka Public High School Entrance Examination - English common mistakes
Shizuoka Public High School Entrance Examination - English · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
While listening to a monologue or dialogue, the candidate tries to write down every word or reads the printed answer choices during the audio instead of listening, then guesses from a single word they happened to catch.
School listening practice often rewards note-taking volume, and candidates fear forgetting names and numbers, so they split attention between writing and listening and miss the overall message and the speaker's intent.
What to do instead
Pre-read the answer choices in the silence before the audio and circle the key words (who, when, how many, positive or negative). During the audio, look at the paper only to jot short symbols such as a time or a number, not full sentences. After the audio, decide from the whole conversation, not from one heard word, and check whether the question asks what the speaker will do next or how they feel.
The candidate hears a number, day, or price and writes the first one mentioned, even when the speaker corrects it ('Actually, let's make it 3:30, not 3:00') or when the question asks about a different person's plan.
Numbers and times feel like safe answers, so candidates stop listening after the first one and do not track who is speaking or how the plan changes during the conversation.
What to do instead
Train on audio with self-corrections: whenever a speaker says 'no', 'actually', or 'instead', cross out the earlier value and write the new one. Before choosing, ask 'who is this about?' and 'is this the final plan?' Practise dictating only times and numbers in short bursts so the correction pattern becomes automatic.
On short passage and dialogue questions, the candidate picks the choice that repeats words from the passage, or answers from personal opinion or general knowledge instead of what the text actually says.
Matching surface words feels safe under time pressure, and distractors are deliberately written with copied vocabulary while the correct answer is a paraphrase. Candidates also answer 'what would you do?' questions as if they were opinion questions.
What to do instead
For each option, find the exact line in the text that supports or contradicts it and mark it. Reject any option whose only link to the passage is shared words. When the question asks about the writer or a character, underline the sentence with their feeling or reason and choose the paraphrase closest to it, not the most interesting option.
The candidate ignores discourse markers and pronoun references, so they misidentify who 'she' or 'it' refers to, or they miss that a sentence beginning with 'But' or 'However' reverses the previous idea.
Candidates read sentence by sentence and treat each line as independent, and Japanese learners often expect the subject to be repeated rather than carried by pronouns, so reference chains are not tracked.
What to do instead
When you meet a pronoun, draw an arrow back to the noun it replaces before continuing. Circle contrast and cause markers (but, however, so, because, although) and note in the margin whether the next clause agrees or disagrees. Practise with two-person dialogues where each speaker's view differs, and label each line A or B.
On longer passages and information-retrieval tasks (timetables, notices, e-mails, multiple documents), the candidate reads every line at the same speed, does not check the conditions in the question, and answers before confirming which document or row contains the needed fact.
The volume of text creates panic, and candidates do not realise that retrieval tasks are designed so that several options are true in one document but fail a condition (day, price, eligibility) stated in another.
What to do instead
Read the question first and list its conditions as a short checklist (for example: Tuesday, under 2,000 yen, student). Scan for the matching row or paragraph, then test each option against every condition and eliminate on the first failure. For main-idea questions on long passages, read the first and last sentence of each paragraph first to build the structure before detailed reading.
The candidate answers a 'why' or 'what does the writer want to say' question with a detail copied from the passage rather than the reason or main claim, and cannot distinguish the example from the point it supports.
Detail sentences are easier to understand than abstract claims, so candidates latch onto them, and they have not been taught to see the paragraph pattern of claim, example, restatement common in English expository writing.
What to do instead
After each paragraph, write a five-word summary in the margin. Mark example signals (for instance, such as, for example) and treat those sentences as support, not as the answer. For author-intent questions, locate the concluding sentence or the sentence after 'so' or 'this shows that' and choose the option that generalises it.
In grammar and vocabulary items, the candidate chooses the option that sounds natural in Japanese word order or translates a Japanese phrase literally, ignoring tense agreement, subject-verb agreement, articles, prepositions, and countable/uncountable distinctions.
Classroom translation habits and the absence of articles and strict number marking in Japanese make these categories invisible, and candidates rely on 'this sounds right' rather than on a rule.
What to do instead
For each item, name the grammar point being tested before choosing (tense, agreement, preposition, article, word class). Build short personal error lists by category and re-test only those categories weekly. For prepositions and articles, memorise them inside full phrases from the textbook rather than as isolated rules, and check the whole sentence after choosing.
In sentence-reordering items, the candidate places words by translating the Japanese sentence in order, or starts from the first blank instead of finding the fixed grammatical chunk, leaving an unnatural order that fills all blanks but breaks the structure.
Reordering rewards recognising chunks (a relative clause, an infinitive phrase, a comparative pattern), but candidates work word by word and run out of time or force a fit to satisfy the numbered blank.
What to do instead
First find the chunk that cannot split, such as 'the book that I bought' or 'as soon as I got home', and place it as a unit. Then check the numbered blank's position against the required pattern (for example, the blank before 'to' must be an adjective or adverb). Finally read the completed sentence aloud silently to confirm subject, verb, and object order.
In sentence transformation, the candidate changes the meaning while following the given opening words, drops a necessary word, or forgets to keep the tense and person of the original, producing a sentence that is grammatical but no longer equivalent.
Candidates focus on the target structure (passive, indirect question, comparative) and treat the rest of the sentence as filler, so meaning shifts and small words are lost under time pressure.
What to do instead
Before writing, list the meaning elements that must survive: who does what, when, how many, and whether it is positive or negative. Apply the required structure, then compare the new sentence with the original element by element. After writing, count the words and check verb tense, singular or plural, and whether a preposition or 'not' is missing.
In guided free writing, the candidate answers the prompt with one short sentence per point, repeats the same simple pattern ('I like... I think... It is...'), ignores the word count, and does not connect sentences, so content and organisation scores stay low even when grammar is correct.
Candidates write to avoid errors rather than to communicate, and they have not practised planning reasons and examples within a time limit, so they stop as soon as the prompt is technically addressed.
What to do instead
Spend two minutes planning: a one-sentence opinion, two reasons, and one example or personal experience. Use a fixed skeleton (opinion, first reason with 'because', second reason with 'also' or 'for example', conclusion with 'for these reasons'). Learn ten linking phrases and five sentence patterns to vary openings, then check tense, plurals, and word count in the last two minutes.