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entrance exams

With entrance exams looming, “ads that only students can see” appear in Tokyo train stations

To the naked eye, these ads look like gibberish, but students cramming for entrance exams can see through the mystery.

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Students in Japan get free point on entrance exam because of typo, Internet says they got off easy

Fukushima Board of Education admits mistake, but it’s hard to imagine it made any difference.

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Real Buddhist monk shows off hot (and sweet) EDM dance moves in Mount Koya video

To make matters stranger, the video is part of a promotional tie-in with a popular candy company designed to cheer on a certain group of students.

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Japanese subway ad about depressed teens should probably be in a different place

Cram school’s message would be ordinarily be inspiring, but takes on an inadvertently dark, potentially dangerous atmosphere.

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Man kicked out of Japan’s national college entrance exam for improper mask-wearing technique

If you can’t handle wearing a mask properly, you’re probably not ready for higher education.

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Tokyo schoolboy assumes other boy’s identity for six months, attends classes at top high school

What the real boy was doing was even weirder.

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Bizarre English test in Japan asks students about winged vegetables, launches new meme

Say hello to the Four Heavenly Kings of Center Listening.

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Japanese high schools stop asking students to specify their gender on application forms

Two prefectures do away with once-standard question, over two dozen more consider following their lead.

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Most female doctors in poll can understand Tokyo medical school reducing female applicant scores

Majority say they can see some sort of logic behind university systematically reducing women’s entrance exam scores by up to 20 percent.

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Tokyo Medical University accused of dropping women’s entrance exam scores 10-20 percent each year

Source says score-rigging was born out of concern that many “female doctors quit their jobs after having children.”

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Teen gets perfect score on Japan’s college entrance history exam with crazy-detailed notes【Pics】

Because if you know everything, you don’t have to worry about what’s going to be on the test.

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Failed your important entrance exams? That’s too bad–here’s a steak to make you feel better

For the second year in a row, this chain of Kyoto butcher shops is offering a bittersweet deal to those whose dreams were dashed.
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7-Eleven that survived Fukuoka road collapse becomes mecca for Japanese students

This “unsinkable convenience store” has become a source of inspiration for exam-takers all over and business couldn’t be better as a result.

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Japanese train station staff offers heart-warming encouragement to college entrance examinees

Reminds them that they’re not alone, and that even if things look bleak now, they might be just about to take a turn for the better.

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Energy drinks for elementary school kids? Japanese Twitter users upset over product’s marketing

Being tired is no excuse to stop studying, packaging implies.

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Little brother’s observations of older brother “studying” cracks up Japanese Twitter

Day 1: The high school-bound specimen is not well adapted to its “natural habitat.”

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Work-in-progress Japanese AI program could probably get into 474 universities in the country

Now in its third year of testing, the artificial intelligence just earned its best mock entrance exam score yet.

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Report on lousy schools in Japan spurs debate on who’s to blame

A report last week from the Japanese Ministry of Education about the sorry state of some low-ranked universities, lovingly called “F-rank,” sent ripples through the country and reignited a debate about how to properly prepare students for “life in the real world.” While the Japanese government’s announcement sparked renewed interest in higher education reform, these low-level schools (and their terrible textbooks) have been the butt of jokes on the Internet for years. F-rank universities are notorious for their extremely lax entrance requirements, high student-to-teacher ratio and producing graduates who simply aren’t ready to enter the real world and join a company. Education advocates and people tired of dealing with incompetent co-workers all wanted to share their ideas about how to change the system to avoid a generation of poorly trained workers.

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Twitter user exposes test-taking “geek” to the world, geek sees tweet and turns to confront him

It’s January, which only means one thing to Japanese high school students: University entrance exams. These tests can be a source of extreme stress of Japaneses students, and many of them spend hours upon hours every day studying in class, at home, or at cram schools. Substandard test scores means they’re denied entrance–and spending the next year or two studying to take the tests again.

One of the hardest tests is the Center Test, which is used by both public and some private schools to make admittance decisions. Like the SATs or ACTs on steroids, it covers a range of topics and is, by anyone’s standards, really freaking hard. So what does the picture above have to do with the Center Test? Click below to find out!

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