Tokyo Metropolitan Public High School Entrance Examination - English common mistakes
Tokyo Metropolitan Public High School Entrance Examination - English · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Reading the four English options before reading the Japanese question stem, then choosing the option that 'sounds right' rather than the one that answers what was actually asked (e.g. answering 'why' with a 'what' fact).
Under time pressure candidates treat each item as a vocabulary-matching task; the stem is short and in Japanese so it feels skippable, and familiar words in an option create a false sense of recognition.
What to do instead
Fix the order: stem first, underline the interrogative and its target (who / when / why / how), then read the passage or listen, then eliminate options. Train by covering the options with a finger until you have stated the answer in your own words, and only then uncover them.
In longer passages and dialogues, answering from a single matching line without checking the sentence before or after it, so contrast markers (but, however, actually, in fact) and negation flip the meaning.
Candidates scan for a keyword and stop at the first hit; Japanese high school passages often place the correct information immediately after a contrastive connector, and the distractor is built from the earlier clause.
What to do instead
When you find a keyword, read one sentence before and one after before deciding. Circle connectors (but, however, so, because, although) and mark whether the statement is affirmative or negative. For dialogue, track who says each line and what each speaker actually wants.
In listening, writing nothing while audio plays and trying to reconstruct the whole item from memory afterwards, then missing the second utterance that changes the answer.
Students believe listening means 'understand everything'; without notes, working memory is overloaded, and the test deliberately includes a correction turn ('Actually, let's meet at three, not two').
What to do instead
Take abbreviated notes in the margin: numbers, times, places, names, and arrows for changes. When you hear a correction word (actually, no, wait, instead, after all), cross out the earlier value and write the new one. Answer the question that was asked in Japanese at the start of the item, not the last thing you heard.
Leaving answers blank or guessing randomly on the last listening items because the audio is played only once and the candidate is still thinking about the previous question.
There is no rewind, so a single lost moment cascades; candidates also try to finish the previous item perfectly instead of moving on.
What to do instead
Adopt a strict rule: the moment the next question's Japanese prompt begins, stop working on the previous item and write something (even a single letter). Pre-read the options for the next item during the pause. Practice with single-play audio and a hard cut-off to build the habit of abandoning and restarting.
In grammar and sentence-structure items, choosing the option that 'sounds natural' in Japanese word order rather than applying the English pattern, e.g. picking 'I have been to Kyoto last year' or misordering 'tell me where he lives' as 'where does he live'.
First-language interference: Japanese allows topic-comment order and drops subjects, so tense agreement, subject-verb agreement, and embedded-question word order are not monitored.
What to do instead
For each item, identify the tested pattern explicitly (tense marker, agreement, relative pronoun, indirect question, comparative) and write the rule in one line before choosing. For ordering items, build from the verb outward and check subject-verb agreement and word order in embedded clauses. Keep a personal error list of patterns you have missed twice.
Treating vocabulary items as translation recall and choosing a word with the right general meaning but the wrong collocation or part of speech (e.g. 'do a mistake', 'join the meeting' vs 'take part in', 'borrow' vs 'lend').
Word lists are studied as Japanese-English pairs, so candidates never see the word in a sentence and cannot judge which noun or preposition it partners with.
What to do instead
Study vocabulary in short chunks, not single words: record the word with its typical partner and preposition (make a mistake, take part in, be good at). For each item, check part of speech and the word immediately before and after the blank before choosing.
In free writing, producing short, safe sentences with no reason or example, and not answering the actual prompt (e.g. writing about a club when the prompt asks what the candidate wants to improve and why).
Candidates optimize for avoiding errors rather than communicating; they also run out of time because they plan in Japanese and translate sentence by sentence.
What to do instead
Use a fixed three-part frame: state your position in one sentence, give one concrete reason, add one example or experience. Answer every part of the prompt in the first two sentences. Spend one minute on a Japanese outline with three bullets, then write directly in English using patterns you control. Leave two minutes to check tense consistency, third-person -s, plurals, and spelling of high-frequency words.
In information-transfer items (notices, emails, charts, timetables), copying numbers or conditions directly from the source without applying all the constraints stated in the question, such as 'the cheapest option that is open on Sunday' or 'a reply to the sender'.
The data is familiar and looks easy, so candidates stop after finding one matching number and skip the second condition; charts are read by height alone without checking the axis labels or units.
What to do instead
Before looking at the data, list the conditions as a checklist in the margin (day, time, price, who writes to whom). Tick each condition against the source. For charts, read the title, both axes, and the unit first, then compare bars. For emails, confirm the recipient, the requested action, and the deadline before writing.
Spending too long on one difficult reading passage and then rushing the final passage and the writing task, leaving the composition half-finished or under length.
Passages are ordered by difficulty and the writing task comes last; without a time budget, a single hard item absorbs minutes that the composition needs.
What to do instead
Set a fixed budget before starting (for example, short passages quickly, longer passages with a cap per passage, writing with a protected block at the end). If an item exceeds its cap, mark it, put a provisional answer, and move on. Practise full papers with a visible timer so the budget becomes automatic.
Ignoring the Japanese instructions and answer-format rules, such as writing a full sentence where a single letter or number is required, answering in Japanese, or writing more than the specified word count.
Candidates focus only on the English content and assume the format is obvious; instruction lines are short and easy to skim past.
What to do instead
Read the instruction line aloud in your head and underline the required format (記号, 語数, 日本語, 英語で). After writing, check the format against the instruction before moving on. In practice, mark every lost point that came from format rather than knowledge and review that list before the next attempt.