Hello Konnichiwa
My son is 5th grade ES this April and he loves studying. He is currently enrolled in juku and he is aiming for high hensachi JHS. I don’t really know the education system here in Japan and my Nihongo is quite limited. Are there any tips/advises for going into this difficult journey? Also, is English important in getting extra point?
Thank you very much!
8 comments
The junior high school your son will go to will be 100% dependant on where you live.
High schools have entrance exams, JHS is based on where you live and how the school attendance is mapped.
If you want him to go to a specific JHS find out where the boundries are and move.
For private JHS – that’s going to depend largely on which one you want him to go to.
If he is going to Juku, why don’t you start by having a chat with his Juku teacher? Usually they have a quite good idea what he could aim for
As long as he wants to do it, just continue to support him as I’m sure you’re doing already. Although you REALLY need to get your SPOUSE to let you in on what’s exactly involved/going on at the juku, otherwise you’ll likely be an outsider to your son, in this experience at least.
Your juku teachers are a gold mine for resources too, as it’s literally their job. (And yes, passing the Eiken does add a few bonus points for private schools, but how much varies depending on the school.)
And, once you have some ideas I would suggest to visit the schools as most of them have some kind of open campus day
Ask your wife because she’ll know better about what “escalator schools” your son will be going to. If you live and go to such-and-such elementary school then you’ll go to such-and-such JHS. Sometimes it’s even decided when they enter preschool/kindergarten.
Thank you all for the inputs I really appreciate them.
If he is in 5th grade from April, do spend as much time this year going to the 説明会 and open campus events as possible.
You can focus on looking at the learning program the schools offer, teaching style, how feasible is the commute, and whether or not your son likes them or not for this year. i.e. don’t worry about whether the 偏差値 are in range for his skill levels yet, there’s plenty of time to narrow things down from year 6 as jukus will ramp up the intensity and that’s when you will start to get an idea of his actual capability vs. the entrance test difficulty.
English can be a good shortcut in if he is fluent and good at reading/writing enough to try and exam in the 帰国 category. I’m not sure about the super high 偏差値 schools but at the medium to high ones we looked at, the science and math questions for the 帰国 tests were so much simpler than the normal tests. We have cousins that were schooled abroad and tested into university like that and they were saying that the math/science level was almost a joke to them.
On the other hand, for the normal test categories, English is pretty much not required so won’t get any extra points.
Also a lot of schools will have test categories that only do math or only do math & “thinking ability”, etc. for the kids that are super strong in math & logic but may be weaker in reading/social studies. If your son is really strong in those areas that opens up other avenues to get into good schools.
There are likely some cram schools that essentially “specialize” in helping their students pass the entrance exam for certain top schools. You should find which cram schools have a good pass rate for the the junior high your son wants to enter, and send him to one of those.
Not all junior high schools have an English section on their entrance exams yet because English wasn’t required in elementary school until 2020. It’ll vary by school. The cram school will know.