Yamagata Prefectural Public High School Entrance Examination - Social Studies common mistakes
Yamagata Prefectural Public High School Entrance Examination - Social Studies · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
On topographic-map questions, the candidate reads the side where contour lines are widely spaced as the steep slope, and reads rivers as flowing along the ridgeline shown by the closing contour lines.
The rule "間隔がせまい＝急斜面" was memorised as a phrase but never tied to a direction of water flow, so when the map is rotated or the river is drawn crossing the lines the candidate relies on visual impression instead of the rule.
What to do instead
Adopt a fixed procedure: mark with a pencil where contour lines bend pointing upstream, draw an arrow for the flow direction, then state slope steepness only after comparing the spacing on both banks. Practise on ten different maps, including one of a Yamagata river basin, and write the one-line reason beside each answer.
For longitude problems, the candidate divides the longitude difference by 15 correctly but adds the time difference when the two places lie to the east and west of each other, or adds a day when crossing the date line the wrong way.
The candidate treats "東経どうしは引く、東経と西経は足す" as a rule to rehearse (it is really the calculation of the difference), and never anchors it to the fact that places further east have later time.
What to do instead
Use a three-step written routine every time: (1) compute the longitude difference, taking east and west into account; (2) divide by 15; (3) decide earlier or later by "east is later, west is earlier", then check the date against the date line. Write all three steps, not only the final number, and check with a known pair such as Tokyo and London.
When asked about Yamagata Prefecture's regions, the candidate labels the Shōnai plain as an inland basin climate, or writes that the Mogami River flows into the Pacific Ocean.
The prefecture's four regions (Murayama, Mogami, Okitama, Shōnai) are learned as a list of names rather than attached to a map, so the position of the coastal strip and the direction in which rivers run are only vague impressions.
What to do instead
Draw an outline map of the prefecture from memory and place on it the four regions, the Mogami River's course to the Sea of Japan, and the climate label for each region (Shōnai with heavy winter snow and wind from the northwest, inland basins with large temperature ranges). Redraw the sketch until no label is missing, and note which crops and industries go with each region.
The candidate confuses forcing cultivation and delaying cultivation when explaining horticulture near cities, and mixes up which industrial zone a city belongs to (for example, placing Kanazawa in the Chūkyō zone).
These terms are memorised by sound alone, without a picture of the season in which the crop is shipped or of the map position of each industrial zone, so similar-sounding labels are accepted uncritically.
What to do instead
For the cultivation terms, write a short seasonal table showing when the crop is shipped and why (price advantage, use of heating or cooling facilities). For industrial zones, keep a sketch map with the zone names written on it and, for each zone, note one characteristic product; check the city against the sketch before writing the answer.
Events are placed in the wrong century, or the order of reforms is reversed, for example treating the Taika Reform as later than the establishment of the ritsuryō codes, or placing the Mongol invasions in the Muromachi period.
Dates are memorised as isolated numbers, not as positions on a timeline, so an event from the 7th century and one from the 13th century can be recalled with equal confidence and no cross-check is made.
What to do instead
Keep a single timeline with about thirty anchor dates (645, 710, 794, 1192, 1274, 1467, 1603, 1868 and so on) and, before answering any chronology question, locate both events on that line and write the century in the margin. Rebuild the timeline from memory once a week, filling in gaps from the textbook.
Similar term pairs are swapped in answers, such as writing Kenden-ennen-shizai-hō where handen-shūju-hō is meant, or mixing the Japan–Qing Treaty of Amity with the Japan–Korea Treaty of Amity.
The candidate remembered the shape of the term rather than the four pieces of information that separate the pair: when it was issued, by whom, what changed, and what resulted.
What to do instead
For each pair, build a four-column comparison table (時期・主体・内容・結果) and test yourself by covering one column. When a term appears in a question, name the four items to yourself before choosing, and if two items do not match, the term is wrong.
On source-based questions, the candidate answers from general knowledge about the topic instead of from the quoted passage, ignoring key phrases in the text that identify the period or the institution.
Reading the source feels like a preliminary step rather than the evidence itself, so the candidate recognises the topic and writes the textbook summary without checking what the passage actually says.
What to do instead
Before writing, underline in the source the words naming the date, the person, the position or the key institution, and write in the margin what each underlined item tells you and which period it belongs to. Answers must cite at least one underlined phrase; if the answer could be written with the source covered, it is not answering the question.
In questions on the separation of powers, the candidate says the Cabinet passes a no-confidence vote against the Diet, or that the Supreme Court reviews the constitutionality of laws as part of its administrative function.
The relationship is memorised as a pair of institutions rather than as a direction of action, so the arrows in the diagram are reproduced without checking who acts on whom.
What to do instead
Draw the three-branch diagram with arrows labelled by subject and object (Diet → Cabinet: no-confidence vote; Cabinet → Diet: dissolution of the House of Representatives; courts: constitutionality review as a judicial function). Say the direction aloud as "who does what to whom" each time, and re-draw the diagram from memory before the exam.
For exchange-rate questions, the candidate answers from everyday intuition ("a strong yen is bad for everyone") rather than working out how a change in the rate affects import and export prices, and treats a movement along the demand curve as a shift of the curve.
The mechanism is remembered as a life-style judgement rather than as a chain of price effects, and the difference between a change in price and a change in conditions is not distinguished in the textbook diagram.
What to do instead
Write the chain explicitly every time: yen appreciates → export prices rise abroad and import prices fall at home → exporters lose, importers and consumers gain. For the diagram, state whether price or a non-price condition changed before drawing; only non-price changes shift the curve. Check the answer against both an exporting industry and a household.
In international-organisation questions, the candidate gives the General Assembly the power to issue binding decisions, or writes that all member states hold permanent seats with veto power in the Security Council.
The names of the organs are learned without their powers and composition, so the General Assembly, the Security Council and the specialised agencies are treated as interchangeable labels.
What to do instead
Build a three-row table for each organ: composition, decision rule, and an example of what it can and cannot do (General Assembly: one state one vote, recommendations; Security Council: five permanent members with veto, binding decisions; specialised agencies such as UNICEF and UNHCR, separate budgets). Test by covering the table and reproducing the row for one organ.