Japan starts English pretests for new univ. entrance exams

February 13, 2018

Tokyo- Japan started Tuesday English pretests of its new unified examination system for university entrance set to be introduced in fiscal 2020.

Some 6,700 second-year students of 158 high schools across the country are expected to take the pretests, which will be conducted through March 3 for verifying exam questions and checking the grading procedures.

On Tuesday, students of a Tokyo metropolitan government-run high school in Nerima Ward took an English listening pretest.

The new unified exam system will replace the so-called center exams offered by the government-affiliated National Center for University Entrance Examinations.

Under the new system, which will also be administered by the center, English exams will test the university applicants' reading and listening skills as well as their speaking and writing ability.

For evaluating the four areas of English skills, the center plans to utilize private-sector English tests.

The current multiple-choice English tests for assessing the applicants' reading and listening skills that are conducted as part of the center exams will also be used until fiscal 2023.

The pretests that started Tuesday were drawn up by the center. The test time is set at 80 minutes for written exams and 30 minutes for listening tests.

The center will announce the questions of the pretests and the preliminary percentages of correct answers on March 14. Jiji Press