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entrance exam

Mie University to add “ninja section” on entrance exams

If you don’t know your mizugumo from your kunai, then I’m afraid you might not be Mie University material.

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Statue of “Kirby” Orita-sensei welcomes university entrance exam takers at Kyoto University

This exam season, a statue of an important historical figure at Kyoto University has gotten a Kirby makeover as part of a now yearly tradition.

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Kind train station staff help lost entrance exam takers get to, and hopefully into, high school

Many people who have spent time in Japan have stories of someone doing something really nice for them out of simple kindness. Such encounters range from getting a bag of onions from a shop owner to receiving an umbrella from a stranger, while standing in pouring rain (both true stories). Even on the job, workers’ kindness and sense of duty to show such consideration comes through in the form of outstanding customer service.

Such was the case in Chiba Prefecture last week when two junior high school students got on the wrong train and were about to be late to one of the most important tests of their lives: the public high school entrance exam. Thanks to some kind Japan Rail staff, they made it— although, we’re not sure if they passed.

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Tokyo Tech is one hard school to get into

Students across Japan have recently been taking their entrance exams which, if successful, will help them get into the higher level school they desire. Naturally, the more prestigious the school, the more difficult the entrance exam is.

Take these practice questions published in the Tokyo Institute of Technology’s newspaper, the Titech Press for example. In these questions, the student must rearrange the words to form a sentence with the same meaning as the Japanese one above. Even without understanding the Japanese, a native English speaker should be able to unscramble those words, right?

Why don’t you grab a pen and paper and give it a try before you read any further and see the answers? I got all of them except number three.

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Shiba Inu Makes Sure Her Master Won’t Fail the School Entrance Exam

By now, students in Japan have completed the entrance examinations required to enter high school and college, and until this past week, they had been diligently studying for the early March test. The tests, which cover core subjects such as math, English, and science, require hours of studying for several months to pass. Sometimes, students study for so long that they become burnt out, falling asleep right at their desks.

In a video taken two weeks before the big test, a little Shiba Inu is making sure her master doesn’t become a ronin. This term literally means, “wandering samurai without a master to serve,” but in modern times the term is used to describe a student who is waiting for another chance to pass the entrance exam. Watch the adorable video after the break.

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