Tokyo Metropolitan Public High School Entrance Examination - English

It is the English portion of the entrance screening for Tokyo metropolitan public high schools. Your English score is combined with results in other subjects and with junior high school records, interviews, and other application material to decide admission. Each school sets its own selection method within metropolitan rules, so check the schools you are applying to.

Those figures are set each year by the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education and are published in its official entrance selection guidelines. They have changed over time, so do not rely on numbers from older prep books or from friends who took the exam in a previous year. Confirm the current year's figures on the official site.

It is calibrated to junior high school English, not to university entrance level. Most students find the vocabulary and grammar familiar; the difficulty comes from reading speed, longer passages, and the writing task. Strong students lose points through careless reading and thin writing rather than through unknown grammar.

The metropolitan screening is held on a fixed annual schedule, with a later second-round recruitment for schools that still have places. Whether you are eligible to apply in a later round depends on your situation and that year's rules. Ask your junior high school's guidance counselor, who handles the official procedures.

Start with vocabulary and core sentence patterns, because both reading and writing depend on them. Then move to short passages and listening, and finally to longer passages and timed writing. Trying long reading passages before you control basic patterns usually produces slow, frustrated practice with little gain.

You are given a situation or prompt and asked to write a short English response - often giving your opinion or explaining a choice with a reason. Graders reward clear organization, a direct answer to the prompt, and correct basic grammar. Memorized essays that ignore the specific prompt score poorly.

Usually because they read the answer choices instead of listening to the whole exchange, or because they have only ever read English silently. Practise listening to short dialogues at natural speed and answering questions afterward. Train yourself to catch the question word and the final decision, since speakers often mention an option and then change it.

Use them under real time limits, then review every wrong answer and identify whether the cause was vocabulary, a misread question, or running out of time. One thoroughly reviewed paper is worth more than three papers done casually. Save your most recent papers for the final weeks so your practice reflects current formats.

Running out of time because they read too slowly, and writing answers that are too short or off-topic. A close third is neglecting listening practice entirely. Build a weekly routine that touches all sections, and rehearse the writing task until you can produce an organized answer without hesitating over spelling.

No. This is independent study material written for candidates preparing on their own. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government or its Board of Education. Always confirm application procedures, schedules, and exam-day rules with your school and the official metropolitan announcements.