The Level of Essays Required by Competitive Schools (Points Deducted for Responses Like Those Generated by AI)
In the 2023 metropolitan area middle school entrance exams, which saw a record number of examinees, the competition was particularly fierce for returnee students’ exams. English, a mandatory subject, required high scores not only in grammar, reading, and listening but also in descriptive essays. Even sixth graders holding EIKEN Grade 1 certificates faced surprising failures.
Are you familiar with the most challenging returnee student exams, known as ‘Shibu-zu’ and ‘Shibuya-kei’?
（※ ’Shibu-zu’ and ‘Shibuya-kei’ ➤ Shibuya Educational Academy Shibuya Junior High School；Shibuya Educational Academy Makuhari Junior High School ）
In 2023, the number of examinees for the metropolitan area middle school exams hit a record high of 66,500 (according to Nihon Kenkyu), marking an exceptionally competitive year. Recently, besides the four main subjects of Japanese, mathematics, science, and social studies, diverse examination formats, such as exams for one or two subjects or special entrance exams testing thinking and expression skills, have become more common.
Amidst this, the popularity of ‘returnee middle school entrance exams’ is heating up.
Traditionally, returnee exams have been for ‘returnee’ students, that is, children who have lived overseas due to their parents’ overseas assignments and have returned to Japan. Most schools with returnee quotas specify in their application criteria that the student must have lived overseas continuously for at least one year due to a parent’s overseas transfer or residence and returned to Japan within the past three years.
However, in the 2023 exams, noticeable among the top school qualifiers were sixth-grade students from international schools within Japan. Many of these students, referred to as ‘pure Japanese,’ have Japanese parents and have never lived abroad.
In general middle school entrance exams, the top-performing students often aim for the prestigious ‘Big Three’ schools: Kaisei, Azabu, Sakuragaoka, and Joshi Gakuin. But what schools are the top tier of returnee and domestic international students dreaming of passing?
They are the ‘Shibu-zu’ and ‘Shibuya-kei’ schools.
Shibuya Educational Academy Shibuya (Shibu-Shibu: Shibuya Ward) and Shibuya Educational Academy Makuhari (Shibu-Maku: Chiba City) have been conducting returnee student entrance exams separately from general middle school entrance exams. Known among examinees and their parents as Shibu-zu and Shibuya-kei, these schools have a distinguished presence in the returnee middle school entrance exam industry.
‘Both Shibu-Maku （Shibuya Educational Academy Makuhari Junior High School) and Shibu-Shibu ( Shibuya Educational Academy Shibuya Junior High School) are the most challenging schools even for general exams. Their advanced image as pioneers of global education makes them unrivaled in the returnee exam world. Passing Shibu-zu as a returnee is equivalent to passing Kaisei or Sakuragaoka in general exams,’ said a person affiliated with a cram school.
‘The attraction is the possibility of aiming for both the University of Tokyo and top overseas universities,’ added a parent of an examinee.
In January 2023, the English entrance exam for Shibu-Shibu had a competition ratio of 4.9 times, and Shibu-Maku was 4.0 times, making both schools exceptionally difficult to enter this year.
What is most astonishing is the difficulty level of the exam questions.
Shibu-Maku presented comprehensive questions of high quality and level, reminiscent of the University of Tokyo entrance exams, while Shibu-Shibu posed literary questions about writing romance novels, following their usual trend in question setting. What’s common is the necessity of scoring high in essays: even if students achieve passing marks in grammar, reading, and listening, they can still be disqualified if they don’t excel in essay writing. This is why even holders of EIKEN Grade 1 certificates have been failing.
Moreover, the required content for these essays is incredibly demanding.
For instance, consider a topic like, ‘What changes do you think the world will experience in the next 20 years?’ For an EIKEN Grade 1 writing question, writing a flawless essay on general theories such as technological advancement, climate change, and population issues might fetch full marks.
However, content that a comprehensive AI might generate would not even secure 70% of the marks, which is the disqualification threshold in Shibu-zu’s exams. It may seem harsh for sixth-graders with only 12 years of life experience, but the essay must reflect their personal experiences both domestically and abroad, what they have learned from them, and how they plan to apply these learnings to their future and give back to society.
In other words, only those children who can write about how they are such fascinating individuals, capable of contributing to the school and their classmates, using difficult words and literary expressions not even used by natives, are the ones who can pass.
The returnee entrance exams for Shibu-zu and Shibuya-kei are this challenging. In Shibuya Education Academy Shibuya’s returnee exams, there’s a category where students can take the test in mathematics, Japanese, and Japanese essay writing, without using English. This category has become a preliminary testing ground for top-tier students who possess returnee exam eligibility but have abandoned English early on to focus on general entrance exam preparations at cram schools like SAPIX, a phenomenon known as ‘hidden returnees.’ This too has become an extremely narrow gate, and every year there are students from both schools who fail in the returnee quota but succeed in the general admissions.
Even more popular among recent returnees than Shibu-zu and Shibuya-kei, known for being almost ‘impossible games,’ are Hiroo Gakuen (Minato Ward) and Hiroo Gakuen Koishikawa (Bunkyo Ward), belonging to the same group and referred to as the ‘Hiroo series.’
Hiroo Koishikawa’s general middle school entrance exams are at the beginning of February, but the first round of returnee exams takes place on November 3. Top-tier students aiming for Shibu-zu and Hiroo Gakuen participated as a warm-up, but when the results were revealed, even holders of EIKEN Grade 1 certificates were unexpectedly failing, causing astonishment among cram school personnel.
‘The competition ratio may seem more accessible at 3.4 times compared to Shibu-zu and Hiroo, but the English level of the examinees was incredibly high. Particularly this year, many students who later passed the returnee exams at top schools like Kanagawa’s Seiko and Keio Shonan Fujisawa (SFC), initially failed Hiroo Koishikawa’s exam,’ a cram school affiliate revealed.
This year, only the top tier who were within the passing range for Shibu-zu and Shibuya-kei series managed to pass the Hiroo exams. In other words, those who had Hiroo as their first choice might have struggled,” said a person affiliated with a cram school.
Both the Shibuya series and Hiroo series are currently open to not just returnee students but also domestic international students, as long as they possess high English proficiency. This has led to a concentration of domestic and international students with excellent English skills at these four schools. A significant difference from general exams is that the exam dates for the ‘Big Three’ schools are confined to February 1st, while the returnee exams have a schedule that allows the top candidates to apply to all the most challenging schools. As a result, the top 5% of all returnee examinees tend to sweep the admissions at all four schools.
【One reason for the chaos at Shibakokusai was the end-of-year returnee entrance exams.】
One factor behind the uproar at Shibakokusai (formerly Tokyo Girls’ Academy: Minato-ku, Shiba) in the 2023 middle school entrance exams, including returnee exams, was the year-end returnee entrance exams.
Shibakokusai, which opened in April 2023 following the recent popularity of ‘International + Coeducation’ emerging schools pioneered by Shibuya and Hiroo, caused major turmoil in its inaugural year of entrance exams.
For the general exam, which had a quota of 120 students, a total of 4,681 applicants rushed in, leading to a significant uproar on social media in February, with hashtags like ‘Shibakokusai refugees’ trending. The author believes that a cause of this chaos was the returnee entrance exams held in November and December.
At information sessions targeting returnee students, the school reportedly said, ‘You can almost consider everyone getting in for the first year,’ appealing strongly to the middle and lower tiers of returnee examinees. Moreover, offering a comprehensive scholarship system to appeal to the top tier who consider Shibuya and Hiroo series as their primary choice resulted in an unexpected increase in the overall level of applicants.
As a result, the returnee entrance exams turned out to be far from accepting everyone, with less than half of the applicants passing the ‘Advanced Course,’ a development contrary to expectations. Meanwhile, the school also liberally granted scholarships to top performers. Thus, securing a higher level of successful applicants than expected in the returnee exams within the year apparently led to the restriction of the number of successful candidates in the general exams in February.
While this discussion has primarily featured the Shibuya and Hiroo series, this year, schools like Seiko (Yokohama City) with 78 University of Tokyo admittees and Sensoku Gakuen (Kawasaki City) with 22 admittees, both coeducational and challenging middle-high continuous education schools, have also been conducting returnee entrance exams, with many returnees applying and enrolling every year.
However, for returnees who have spent their early years overseas and are accustomed to speaking English, there’s no doubt that they find a greater affinity with coeducational progressive schools like the Shibuya and Hiroo series, which promote global education. Moving forward, the top tier of returnees will likely continue to aim for the Shibuya and Hiroo series, while the middle tier will target emerging coeducational schools in Tokyo, such as Mita International, Shibakokusai, and Salesian International, with no significant change expected in this trend.
