Tochigi Public High School Entrance Examination - Japanese (Kokugo) common mistakes
Tochigi Public High School Entrance Examination - Japanese (Kokugo) · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
In 漢字の書き (writing kanji), the candidate writes a kanji that sounds correct but has the wrong component or wrong stroke arrangement-e.g. confusing 往/住, 関/閉, or writing 心情 as 心清-because they chose the character by sound alone without checking meaning.
Candidates often study kanji by memorising readings only. In the writing section the prompt supplies the reading in kana, so the brain retrieves the sound, and the first homophone or near-homophone that surfaces is written down. Component-level differences (衤vs 礻, 日 vs 曰, 木 vs 扌) are not encoded in memory because the character was never analysed as a structure.
What to do instead
Study each writing kanji as a pair of (meaning-bearing phrase, component breakdown). For every new kanji, write it once while saying aloud the radical and the phonetic element, and build a personal homophone list (e.g. 感/勘/歓 with their fixed compounds 感心・勘定・歓声). Before writing an answer, say the target word in a short sentence to confirm the meaning, then recall the compound it belongs to, not the isolated sound.
In 漢字の読み, the candidate applies the most familiar reading to a kanji used in a less common compound-reading 期日 as きじつ but 花形 as はながた when the intended reading is はなかた, or reading 生意気 as せいいき rather than なまいき-because they default to the first reading memorised.
Japanese kanji have multiple readings and the exam deliberately selects 熟字訓 and special readings (当て字, 熟字訓 such as 今日 きょう, 大人 おとな, 土産 みやげ). Candidates drill single readings per character and never meet the compound as a unit, so the on-yomi default wins.
What to do instead
Maintain a dedicated list of 熟字訓 and irregular readings as whole words, not characters (e.g. 田舎 いなか, 従兄弟 いとこ, 相撲 すもう). When meeting an unfamiliar compound in a past paper, record the whole word with its reading and a short context sentence. In the exam, if the default reading makes the sentence semantically odd, test the kun-yomi alternative before committing.
In 語句・文法, the candidate classifies a word by its dictionary meaning alone and misses its grammatical function in the sentence-labelling ない as a negative when it is an 形容詞 forming part of a 補助形容詞 construction, or failing to identify the 主語 when it is omitted, so the answer names the wrong 修飾語 or 被修飾語.
School grammar (学校文法) questions require identifying 文節 boundaries and 文の成分, which is a procedural skill distinct from vocabulary knowledge. Candidates who have memorised terminology but not practised 文節分け with ね・さ・よ insertion cannot reliably segment sentences, and they confuse 連体修飾 with 連用修飾.
What to do instead
Practise the mechanical procedure: insert ね (or さ/よ) after each candidate 文節 and check the sentence still parses; then label each 文節 by asking 何が/誰が (主語), 何を/誰に (目的語・補語), and どんな/どのように (修飾). Do ten sentences a day from past papers and mark boundaries in pencil before answering. For 品詞 questions, decide by 活用 (does it inflect, and how) rather than by meaning.
In 説明的文章の読解, the candidate answers a 理由説明 question by copying a vivid phrase from the passage that matches the topic but is not the causal clause, or writes a summary of the whole paragraph instead of the specific cause asked for, producing an answer that is true but does not answer なぜ.
Expository passages in this exam use long 複文 with the causal connector buried mid-sentence (から・ので・ため・によって・ゆえに). Candidates read for gist and stop at the first sentence that mentions the key term, so they miss the clause that actually explains the mechanism. Time pressure encourages lifting sentences verbatim.
What to do instead
Before answering, underline every 接続表現 in the relevant paragraph (しかし, つまり, たとえば, したがって) and circle the causal connectors. For 理由説明, locate the connector, then build the answer as 「〜から」 with the subject and predicate of that clause only, keeping it under the word limit by deleting modifiers rather than meaning. Check the answer against the question word (なぜ/どのように/何を) to confirm the type matches.
In 説明的文章の読解, the candidate treats 具体例 and 比喩 as if they were the author's central claim, so the 要旨 answer describes the example (e.g. a particular experiment or animal) rather than the general principle it illustrates, and misses the 筆者の主張 entirely.
Expository passages in Japanese textbooks are structured as claim–example–restatement, and the example section is often longer and more concrete than the claim, so it feels more important. Candidates also equate length with importance and overlook the 指示語 (このこと, それ) that points back to the abstract claim.
What to do instead
Map the passage before answering: mark 話題 (what it is about), 主張 (what the author wants to say, usually flagged by 〜べきだ, 〜のではないか, 重要だ), and bracket every 具体例 with たとえば/例えば. Trace each 指示語 to its antecedent and write the antecedent in the margin. For 要旨 questions, draft the answer using only the 主張 sentences and verify the example does not appear in it.
In 文学的文章の読解, the candidate explains a character's feeling by naming the emotion directly (悲しい, うれしい) from a single dialogue line, without grounding it in the 情景描写 or the preceding action, and so produces an answer the passage does not support or that contradicts the scene's context.
Fiction questions ask for 心情 and its 理由, which must be inferred from behaviour, silence, weather, and objects (情景融即). Candidates who read quickly latch onto an emotional adjective in the text and ignore the surrounding description that qualifies or reverses it, and they conflate the narrator's voice with the character's inner state.
What to do instead
For every 心情 question, draw a three-column note: 行動/情景 (what happens, what is described), 心情 (the inferred feeling), 根拠 (the exact phrase). Answer in the form 「〜という心情」 plus the reason drawn from the 行動 or 情景, not from an adjective alone. Pay special attention to 比喩 and 体言止め, which often carry the emotional charge, and check whether the feeling changes across the scene.
In 文学的文章の読解, the candidate ignores 指示語 and 代名詞 chains, so when the text says 「それは彼が言ったことではなかった」 the answer attributes the statement to the wrong character, or when a scene shifts the candidate keeps the earlier setting and misreads who is present.
Literary passages use こそあど words and omitted subjects heavily, relying on the reader to track referents across paragraphs. Candidates read line by line without building a character-and-scene map, and Japanese subject omission makes it easy to assign an action to the most recently named person rather than the grammatical subject.
What to do instead
On first reading, list the characters and draw arrows for each こそあど word to its antecedent, writing the antecedent above the word. Note scene changes (time and place markers such as その夜, 翌朝, 教室では) in the margin. Before answering any question about who did or felt what, confirm the subject by checking the preceding sentence and the 敬語 or speech style that identifies the speaker.
In 古典, the candidate translates a 古文 sentence word by word using modern Japanese meanings-reading あはれ as 'pitiful' only, をかし as 'funny', or いと as 'thread'-and so produces a translation that is grammatically possible but contextually wrong, and then answers the comprehension question on that false basis.
古典 vocabulary is taught as a list of 古語辞典 meanings, but the exam tests context-sensitive selection among several attested meanings, plus 係り結び and 敬語 that change the sentence's force. Candidates who have not practised reading full 古文 passages with 主語補い cannot choose the right sense.
What to do instead
Learn the high-frequency 古語 with two or three attested meanings each (あはれ: しみじみとした感動/哀れ/趣; をかし: 趣がある/おかしい) and always choose by context. Practise 主語を補う by writing the subject in parentheses above each predicate, using 敬語 (給ふ, 侍り, たまふ) as clues. For 係り結び, mark ぞ・なむ・や・か・こそ and check the ending form before translating.
In 漢文, the candidate reads the 返り点 in the wrong order-applying レ点 and 一二点 independently instead of composing them-so the 書き下し文 reverses subject and object, and the 訓読 of a 再読文字 such as 未・将・当 is written once instead of twice.
返り点 are a notation system with composition rules (レ点 applies to the immediately preceding character; 一二点 jump over intervening characters; 上中下点 nest inside them). Candidates memorise the symbols but not the composition order, and 再読文字 are taught as vocabulary without the two-read procedure.
What to do instead
Practise the mechanical routine: number the characters in reading order from the bottom of the stack upward, applying レ点 first, then 一二点, then 上中下点. For 再読文字, write the character twice with the second reading in ひらがな (未だ…ず, 将に…せんとす, 当に…べし). Read the resulting 書き下し aloud to check it makes sense as Japanese before answering.
In 作文・表現 and 詩歌・鑑賞, the candidate writes a composition that states an opinion but gives no concrete personal experience as support, or analyses a poem by paraphrasing its content (what the poem says) instead of its 表現技法 (比喩, 体言止め, 反復, 倒置) and the effect those techniques create, so the answer earns content marks but loses the technique and effect marks.
Composition prompts in this exam specify conditions (字数, 段落構成, 体験を交える, 意見と理由). Candidates focus on finishing within the time and satisfy the word count with generalities. For poetry, they have been trained to summarise meaning and have not learned to name 技法 and link each to the feeling it produces.
What to do instead
For 作文, outline in three lines before writing: 意見 (one sentence), 体験 (a specific incident with time, place, and what changed), 結論 (restate the opinion with a forward-looking clause). Count characters in blocks of 20 and leave one line for corrections. For 詩歌, annotate the poem for 技法 (repeat, 体言止め, 比喩, 擬人法, 倒置, 七五調) and for each write 「技法名→その効果→読み手に生まれる印象」; answer using that three-part structure rather than retelling the content.