2018年4月9日月曜日

EDU-JPN:What Happens when there are Mistakes on the University Entrance Exams?

Education in Japan (Natalie Collor)

The Assistant Dean at Osaka University, Kobayashi Tadashi, recently spoke about the mistake found on the university’s entrance exam last year and acknowledged the university staff was at fault for roughly thirty students being rejected from the school because their correct answer was considered invalid. It took over eight months for the university to investigate this matter and realize that an alternative solution was possible and completely correct. In addition to accepting all fault for this occurrence, the university is prepared to offer admittance to all the students rejected based on their answer to this problem on last year’s test. However, it may be too little too late for some students.

Since entrance exams are taken just months before the first day of university classes, students have very little time to decide their future after the results of the exams are released. If students do not pass the exam at their top choice university, most of them choose one of two options: to enter a prep school for a year and retake their desired school’s exam the next year, or to enter a different program at the same school or a completely different school. Therefore, the students who have retroactively been given admission to Osaka University may already be nearing the end of their first year at a different school and find it difficult to transfer to Osaka University. Others may have already spent an additional year’s worth of money and energy preparing to re-take the exam in a few weeks.

Each student will likely have to make a decision very soon, because the university only has a specific number of seats available in each year of admission. Dean Kobayashi also spoke on how this unexpected situation created a bit of chaos in calculating the size of this year’s incoming class.

This is not the first time a university entrance exam was not graded accurately and the results mistakenly rejected a large number of students. The man responsible for bringing light to an alternative answer on the Osaka University entrance exam, Yoshida Hiroyuki, added his two cents on the issue. He said that while human errors are impossible to avoid completely on man-made tests like university entrance exams, he wished the university would have begun an investigation much sooner to resolve the error. Perhaps then the university admissions staff would not be scrambling down to the wire to figure out the exact number of students to grant admission to this year.
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2018年4月2日月曜日

EDU-JPN:Cell phone apps quickly becoming a reliable study partner for students

Education in Japan (Natalie Collor)

Technological advances are often talked about in educational settings with reference to how they improve the classroom environment, but these improvements in technology can affect students’ success outside the classroom, too. In recent years, the development of many cell phone apps geared towards preparing students for entrance exams has skyrocketed. Nearly 95% of high school students have smart phones, thus giving them access to these study apps.

One popular app is called “Study Plus,” and the company estimates that over 200,000 students nationwide use this app. Given that many students have positive experiences with these apps as well as the fact that smart phones are becoming the main platform through which most communication is completed, it is likely that the number of educational apps will only continue to grow and their features continue to expand.

It is no surprise then that improvements in smart phone accessories have been made to make this type of studying easier. Stylus pens have become very popular add-ons for written exercises. In addition, book publishers have digitized all of the paper materials so that students can access practice problems, answer keys, and explanation videos all through their phone.

On exam day last year, even on their way to the exam, students were trying to get in one last study session via the Study Plus App. Although most students appreciate the convenience of being able to watch explanation videos on their phones and find productive ways to use the time they spend commuting, some students say they are tempted to use their phone for gaming or social purposes. Additional students commented that having control of explanation videos allowed them to process the material at their own pace and review important or difficult concepts as many times as necessary.

Of course, the use of these apps cannot guarantee success on the exams or in general studies, but the creation of these apps allows students for greater educational opportunities and mediums that suit their individual learning styles.
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