MEXT Scholarship Written Exam for Research Students

In this article, we will limit ourselves to talking about the written exam for the MEXT scholarship for research students, which is applied for through embassies. We mentioned in the previous article (Japanese MEXT Scholarship) that the scholarship application process includes the following: Announcement of the scholarship application, submission of papers to the embassy, ​​initial examination by the embassy, ​​which includes examination of papers, written examination and personal interview, communication with universities and requesting provisional acceptance, resubmission of the (Placement Preference) form to the Japanese embassy based on the result of communication with universities, second examination of the applicant’s file by the scholarship administration (MEXT), informing the student of the final result, travel, arrival and registration procedures at the university.

The main article about the MEXT scholarship can be found here.

For more details about the interview, you can read the following article by clicking here.

MEXT Scholarship Written Exam

We mentioned in the previous article (Japanese MEXT Scholarship) that students who pass the (paper examination) stage are subject to a written exam in English and Japanese. In the following paragraphs, I will give a brief overview of some things that may be useful to us before taking the written exam:

Exam duration (60) minutes

English language

The English test consists of four sections: multiple choice, find the mistake, fill in the blanks, and reading.

The first type of questions (usually the first (I) and second (II) sections of the exam) gives us a sentence with a blank space and we have to fill in the blank space with the appropriate word from the choices below the sentence as in the following image:

The second type of questions (section III of the exam) gives us a section containing underlined texts, one of which contains an error, and here we must select this text only without correcting the error, as in the following image:

It should be noted here that the incorrect word or phrase may be: incorrect in terms of the word structure or expression – incorrect use of a preposition – incorrect use of the verb tense – an extra word that must be deleted – a word that must be replaced with another word (while reiterating that what is required here is only to identify the incorrect word or phrase without correcting it).

The third type of questions (section IV of the exam) contains passages containing blanks, and here we are asked to choose the best appropriate word or phrase from the list to fill in the blanks, as in the following image:

The previous three sections measure our ability to form correctly constructed sentences, our commitment to grammar rules, our ability to use correct grammar and catch mistakes. They require prior preparation and intensive training before taking the test, by relying on a book or books specializing in grammar.

The fourth type of questions (section V of the exam) gives us a passage that we must read and then answer the questions below the passage by choosing the correct answer for each question from among several answers. Here, there are usually two passages (part I and part II) and each passage has five questions. The first five are usually multiple choice and the second five are usually fill-in-the-blanks.

MEXT Scholarship Written Exam Models

To save your time, I have collected the written exam models for the years (2007) to (2020) in one compressed file that can be downloaded directly via the following link:

Download the written exam forms for the MEXT scholarship

Japanese Language

We would like to point out at the outset that proficiency in the Japanese language is not a mandatory requirement for applying for the exam, but it is an additional advantage to strengthen the applicant’s file for the scholarship. Also, having a certificate of proficiency for a certain degree of the Japanese language may exempt the applicant from spending the first period of the scholarship learning the Japanese language.

The Japanese Language Test is divided into three levels: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. All kanji at the Elementary level have furigana above them (furigana are Japanese reading aids, consisting of lowercase or syllabic letters, printed next to kanji or other characters to indicate their pronunciation. Furigana are also known as yomigana and rubi in Japanese), while the Intermediate level has some furigana, and the Advanced level has no furigana above kanji. Each level consists of a multiple-choice section, a fill-in-the-blank section, and a reading comprehension section.
The multiple-choice section has four answer choices. Each question is fairly brief. The fill-in-the-blank section has two types of questions that test your kanji skills. In the first section, you must write the correct hiragana for the given kanji, and in the second section, you must fill in the correct kanji for the written hiragana. The final part of the reading section has a longer section with multiple-choice questions following it. While this section contains short paragraphs for the elementary level, the advanced level is longer and followed by multiple-choice questions.

–Note 1: The Japanese language examination result will be used as reference data for determining the university study placement and Japanese language instruction to be provided upon applicants’ arrival in Japan.
–Note 2: In particular, if an applicant with limited Japanese language proficiency wishes to pursue fields of study such as Japanese linguistics, Japanese literature, Japanese history, or Japanese laws – fields that require sufficient knowledge of the Japanese language – he or she will not be selected as a recipient of the scholarship unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Tips to follow on exam day

Here are some tips from Dr. Akram Momen’s book for the TOEFL exam, and these tips may be useful to students in our case here:
-Bring your entry ticket or official permit and proof of identity, as well as two blue pens, a pencil, a good, clean eraser, and a wristwatch (no alarm clock).
-You are not allowed to bring papers, food, calculators, dictionaries (or any other books), recording devices, or cameras.
Question: May I guess the answers in the test?
Yes, there is no penalty for wrong answers, so do not leave any blanks on the answer sheet. But guessing has a basis: avoid answers that you are certain are wrong and then choose what you think is the correct answer from the remaining possibilities. Some teachers believe that if you have a lot of blanks left unanswered and time is running out, you can improve your score a little by sticking to the same choice for all the remaining unanswered questions.
-Make sure you know the instructions for each section of the test in advance.
-You should get used to the atmosphere of the test, and try to finish reading the questions and answering them in a short time.
-Be accurate and quick.

The following video is from Mr Bean’s YouTube channel 😅:

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References

-TOEFL Test (Paper and Pen – Computer – Internet), Akram Momen, (2006). Arabic edition
-mextipedia.wordpress.com
-schoolynk.com

This article by Farhan Blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

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