| Japanese high school students typically take
センターしけん administered by College Admission Examination Center
(大学入試センター)
when they try to enter universities in Japan. (This is similar
to SAT in the U.S.) All national and public universities and
nearly 400 private universities participate in センターしけん. The
application period is usually in October and the actual exams
are administered at designated universities in each prefecture
in January. (The Japanese school calendar starts in April and
ends in March.) The exam subjects include a foreign language,
world/Japanese history, geography, general science, physics,
chemistry, geology, biology, Japanese language, mathematics,
social science, politics/economics, and so on. Each university
or college decides which exam subjects are required.
In order to help students pass these exams, a large number
of self-help books are available and numerous cram schools
have sprung up throughout Japan. |