Kumon Japanese has the potential to make Japanese a strong subject not only for junior high school entrance examinations, but for the entire examination process, including university entrance examinations. However, there are some things that are required in order to receive such benefits.
In this article, we will talk about the effects of Kumon Japanese and how far you should proceed with Kumon Japanese for the junior high school entrance examination.
Hopefully, you will be able to spend your exam life without any difficulty at all in Japanese.
If you can enjoy the full potential of Kumon Japanese, you will be able to lead a life in which you have no difficulty at all in learning Japanese for entrance examinations. This is not just a story about taking junior high school entrance exams, but also about high school and university entrance exams.
In Kumon Japanese, most of the reading comprehension of modern Japanese is completed by the I materials (equivalent to the third year of junior high school), and most of the high school materials deal with ancient Japanese and Chinese texts. In fact, Kumon's recommended books are only up to I materials, and the last recommended book in I materials is Tolstoy's War and Peace. It is the pinnacle in terms of reading difficulty. Kumon probably thinks that students have at least the necessary skills to read and comprehend modern literature once they have completed the I reading materials.
And what you have acquired at this stage is not limited to reading comprehension. At Kumon, you will not only read passages, but also solve questions in the form of summaries and extracts that will appear on the exam. Kumon helps students develop not only the necessary reading comprehension skills, but also the ability to solve problems.
You can get points for basic questions such as those on the first round of university entrance exams.
Kumon is especially effective for exams that require fast solving of basic questions. The most effective results are probably seen with questions like those in the first round of university entrance examinations.
I myself have progressed to the point where I have finished the Kumon Japanese I materials. As mentioned above, I have mastered the basics of modern Japanese reading comprehension, although I am at the "so-so" level for a Kumon student.
Later, when I was in my second year of high school, there was an event in which the entire school year tried to solve the Center Test (Common First Examination) once before starting full-fledged exam study, and I got almost a perfect score in modern Japanese. I am ashamed to say that I did almost no home study at that time. I can say it was purely the power of Kumon Japanese.
If you can advance further in Kumon, you will be able to read ancient Japanese and Chinese, and I have often seen cases where students get nearly perfect scores from the start.
Although there are some reading comprehension questions at a considerable level in the junior high school entrance examination, if you can read at a university level, you will be able to handle most of the questions. Kumon allows students to progress to the high school level while still in elementary school. While still in elementary school, students can acquire the basic ability not to have trouble with Japanese, including the university entrance exam. Kumon Japanese has that much potential.
Finding Japanese easy for junior high school entrance examinations goes much further than the F materials.
On the other hand, if you are focusing on the junior high school entrance examination, one theory is to finish Kumon up to the F materials (equivalent to grade 6) by grade 4, and then transfer to a junior high school entrance examination cram school. This is a strategy to allow students to have enough time to study for the entrance examination by completing the elementary school range before entering a junior high school entrance examination cram school.
This strategy has a certain effect in the area of arithmetic. Although Kumon does not deal with graphic problems in arithmetic, it is possible to develop basic arithmetic skills through Kumon. Kumon also helps students acquire study habits, so there are certain advantages to doing this in the early grades.
However, in Kumon Japanese, this strategy has only a limited effect. This is because the level of Japanese required for the junior high school entrance examination is much higher than that of Kumon's F materials.
It is said that the standard amount of sentences for junior high school entrance examinations is 3,000 characters. However, in the Kumon Japanese F materials (equivalent to grade 6), the number of characters covered at one time is only a few hundred, so even if you finish Kumon Japanese after completing the F materials, you will not be able to stand up to the Japanese for the junior high school entrance exam. It is not that it is meaningless, but it is not enough.
My impression from looking at the difficulty level of the sentences is that the difficulty level of Nada Junior High School Japanese is about the level of GI materials, and the difficulty of the questions themselves is about the level of HI materials. You may need to prepare for vocabulary-related problems separately, but if you are comfortable with the Japanese for the junior high school entrance examination, I think that completing the H materials is a good benchmark.
It is not unusual for students to change schools if they cannot finish the H materials.
However, there are some areas where it is somewhat difficult to reach the H materials. This is because the level of Kumon is such that if you have been doing it for a few years, there are a good number of students who move on to the next three grades.
If you are considering taking the junior high school entrance exam, grade 4 is the time to change schools. If you started Kumon in the first or second grade, one standard for families who are considering taking the junior high school entrance exam would be to complete the F materials by the end of the third grade. However, in order to complete the H material, it is necessary to advance two more grades.
Speaking of Kumon, the most obvious results are in arithmetic. Since the math taught in junior high school and high school is not useful for the junior high school entrance exam, it is probably standard practice for students to transfer to a different school after completing the F materials. However, if this theory is applied to Japanese, there are some areas where it does not work well. As a result, it is common for students to transfer to a new school halfway through their studies and end up finishing their studies without gaining the benefits of Kumon Japanese.
The key is duration, conversation, and amount of reading
We have talked about the fact that F materials are not enough to obtain sufficient reading ability from Kumon for the junior high school entrance examination. So how can we get to the more advanced Kumon materials before it is time to change schools?
Start Kumon earlier
The progress of Kumon is in direct proportion to the length of time you have spent with it.
In Kumon Japanese, it is necessary to solve 400 printouts in order to progress through one grade level of Kumon materials. If you want to progress from grade 1 (A material) to grade 2 (H material), you will need to solve 3,200 printouts. Moreover, each printout must be solved not only once, but also two or three times over.
Of course, progress may be fast or slow, but I think you can understand that it takes time to finish this many printouts. On the other hand, Kumon's materials progress step by step, so if you take your time, you will be able to make some progress.
Although it is too early for children under the age of 2, it is worth considering the option of starting Kumon before elementary school. The longer you continue with Kumon, the higher the probability that you will be able to advance to the next level.
Slightly delaying the time to change schools
Although this is not a desirable option, there is also the idea of extending the time of transferring to another school.
The most common time to transfer to a cram school for junior high school entrance examinations is in the fourth grade, but not all students necessarily enter a cram school in the fourth grade. Some enthusiastic families start cram school in the lower grades, while others enter in the 5th or 6th grade for various reasons.
It is also true that monthly fees are lower at Kumon. If you feel that you are close to achieving your goal at Kumon, you may want to consider switching to another school after you have reached the end of your studies.
Make efforts to improve reading comprehension outside of Kumon
Kumon Japanese is an effective way to improve your Japanese language skills, but it is not the only way. There are two other means that are particularly effective. These are conversations with parents and reading.
It is said in many places that conversation with parents is related to Japanese language ability. If you can have conversations about the news or books from an adult's point of view rather than from the child's side of the conversation, the child's ability to think will quickly improve. It is not just a matter of having a conversation at a higher intellectual level, but it is a joy for the child to be able to talk with his or her parents on an equal footing. A child's willingness to actively grow will, more than anything else, develop his or her abilities, and conversations with adults will directly lead to the growth of his or her thinking skills.
Another is reading. No matter how difficult a reading comprehension test may be, there is no test with a passage longer than a paperback book. With reading, children can choose a book in a field they are interested in, and with stories, reading from beginning to end is the most enjoyable part. If the child loves books, he or she will probably read more than 100 books a year. Of course, the amount of text read at a Kumon or junior high school entrance exam cram school is a world apart. Even if it is difficult to see the connection with the score, there is nothing that will improve your Japanese language ability more than this.
In the end, it is the Japanese language that grows with Kumon.
Kumon Japanese has the potential to help students acquire comprehensive Japanese language skills not only for the junior high school entrance exam, but also for the university entrance exam. This is because while there are few connections between units in arithmetic (for example, calculus, vectors, and probability are almost independent of each other), in Japanese, if you can read texts at the university entrance examination level, it is unlikely that you cannot read texts at the elementary or junior high school level.
So the most effective way to use Kumon Japanese is to finish the final material as early as possible. If you are thinking only of taking the junior high school entrance examination, then the Japanese language course should be called "H" material as a guideline.
If you want to improve the progress of Kumon, you should either extend the period of time you continue with Kumon or make efforts to improve your child's Japanese outside of Kumon. Conversation with parents and reading are effective ways to do this.
Although Kumon often focuses on math, more and more people see the benefits of Japanese and English the further they advance. Let's not think about how far is enough, but rather, let's work with the mindset that the more we advance, the greater the benefits will be.