How do you prepare for the MEXT Scholarship Exams in the Primary Screening? Here are some tips and past exams to practice.
Once you’ve submitted your application for the MEXT Scholarship to the Japanese embassy and passed the document screening, the next step is the MEXT Scholarship exams and the interview. Depending on your embassy, these could be held on different days or on the same day, but in either case, you will need to be present in person at the embassy for both steps.
For those of you living outside of your country when you apply, this means you’ll have to book a trip home to attend these sessions. You might only get 1-2 weeks’ notice of the date after passing the document screening step, so be prepared to travel at short notice!
How Important Are the Exams?
Here’s the famous Japanese answer: It depends.
But, in this case, I can be more specific. It depends on the type of MEXT Scholarship you apply for. In general, I can say that it is “less” important for the MEXT Scholarship for Research Students than it is for any of the other scholarship types.
Research Students
Research Students only take language proficiency exams, and you only really need to score well in the language that you plan to study in. If you are pursuing a course taught in English, then they are not going to eliminate you from the application because of a poor score on the Japanese language proficiency test. But in the past, they have eliminated applicants for leaving the Japanese test blank, so make sure to take a guess at it, even if you have no hope of scoring high!
If you score poorly on the language proficiency test for the language you plan to study in (typically English) and have not submitted any other proof of language ability, such as test scores, there’s a chance that your exam scores could ruin your application chances. But overall, as long as you show adequate proficiency, you should move on to the next step with no problem.
For Research Students, your undergraduate university performance and especially your Field of Study and Research Program Plan are much more important in your overall score. A few points of difference on the language test is not going to make a difference in your application compared to those other factors.
Undergraduate, College of Technology, Specialized Training College Students
For any of these scholarship categories, the tests are significantly more important!
You will take subject matter tests in different fields (the fields you test in depend on the major you apply for under the scholarship) and that should be an important factor in your selection, since there are few other objective reference points. Yes, the embassy has your high school transcripts, but those aren’t as reliable of a reference as university performance, and you do not really have much of an essay opportunity to show your future goals. So, I can only conclude that these exams will play a significant role in eliminating applicants from contention.
Make sure that you can score well–as close as possible to perfect–on the exams, particularly the content exams for your major, to give yourself the best shot.
To find out what subject matter exams you need to take, refer to the application guidelines.
How to Prepare for the Exams
MEXT has made some past exams available for you to use in practice. So, my recommendation is to try those exams, see where you have any weaknesses, then find your own study resources to improve in those areas.
If you find an area of weakness, chances are good that you can find any number of free online resources to study that particular subject or sub-subject. You could also ask a trusted instructor from your current or previous institution for advice.
Where to find past MEXT Scholarship Exams
Currently, the 2014-2016 exams are available on the official Study in Japan website. In the past, they also made some exams from 2018-2020 available there, but they have since taken those more recent exams down.
Fortunately for you, before they took them down, I downloaded and saved them all! So, you can find the 2014-2016 and 2018-2020 exams at the link below:
https://www.transenzjapan.com/tests/
You’ll notice that not all of the exams are available on either of the site. As you can see on the official site, some of the exams were never released for study. In particular, many of the language proficiency exams were never released. But if you check 2019, you can find the language proficiency exams for each type of scholarship. That is the only year I am aware of that all of the scholarship types’ language exams were made available for study!
Language exams: In the years that these sample tests come from, there was only one English and Japanese test. According to multiple applicants’ reports from 2023, there are two versions: English/Japanese (A) for Social Sciences and Humanities majors and English/Japanese (B) for Natural Sciences majors.
It’s not exact, but the sample tests should be similar to the (A) tests, which would be the more intensive of the two, since you typically need higher language ability for humanities and social sciences!
I have also heard that the Japanese exam, at least, is no longer split into beginner/immediate/advanced levels, as it was in the past. It is not one single test that has questions of varying difficulty. I recommend that you go through the entire test and try to answer all of the questions within your ability level!
Want to know more?
My book, How to Apply for the MEXT Scholarship describes the scholarship in detail, including the eligibility criteria, purpose and coverage, how to develop a successful applicant mindset, and how to craft your application strategy for the greatest chance of success! Later books in the series also cover How to Write a Scholarship-Winning Field of Study and Research Program Plan and How to Find Your Best Degree Program and Advisor for the MEXT Scholarship.
Special Thanks
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Questions?
Let me know in the comments below!
sir, I know bio, chem eng, and math, but my Japanese is zero would it affect
Hi Aafaq,
You won’t be eliminated from the scholarship for having no Japanese language ability, but of course you would be at a disadvantage compared to applicants who scored the same as you in the subject tests and also had Japanese language ability.
When you take the Japanese language proficiency test at the embassy, be sure to not leave it blank. You should guess even if you don’t know the answers. I have heard of applicants being rejected for leaving the test blank.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Dear Travis,
I wish to apply for MEXT Scholarship of 2025 session. I’m currently doing my masters degree in marine biology and my dissertation work is on bivalves and their depuration. But I wanted to work 9n microalgae for my PhD and I even talked with a professor from Tokyo University and he advised me to write my proposal based on biofuel production from marine microalgae. But my previous studies and the intended research proposal do not have a connection but both belong to the same field, ie: marine biology. Moreover I am not able to find any professors actively involved in research regarding bivalves and their depuration. So what should I do regarding my research plan? Please help if you are able to
Hi Arya,
I saw that you asked the same question on multiple articles, but it seemed most relevant to the article about the Field of Study and Research Program Plan, so I answered it there, first.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hello Travis,
Next year i will apply again, (i applied in 2022 and was rejected at the examination phase). If i dont do well on the english test, but i have a good score in the toefl, is there still a chance to pass to the interviews?
Also, do you have any advice on how to prepare for the english test?
Thank you!
Hi Thomas,
My understanding is that the Embassy’s English test is going to be the basis for your score for the Primary Screening, but the TOEFL will matter more to the universities. There may be a system where they consider a certain TOEFL score to be equivalent to full points on the Embassy’s test, but I do not know for sure. (I know that some Japanese universities have this system for their admissions exams, but I do not know if the Embassies have adopted it.)
As for preparing for the test, my best recommendation is to take the practice tests I have linked from this article, see where your strengths and weaknesses are, then study your areas of weakness to bring up your performance.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hello Travis,
Which score is considered “adequate” in the English exam for research students? I mean, I can barely get 80-90 (78 sometimes, even) on mock tests and, obviously, I’ll get something like 80 on the real exam and curious if it could hurt my chances
Don’t asking Japanese score because I can answer no more that 6-7 questions in part A (omg)
Hi Dias,
Unfortunately, I do not know what the scoring scale is for the test, so I can’t tell what is “sufficient”. (Even when I processed Letter of Provisional Acceptance application for my former university, we never knew what applicants’ scores were on the English test or what those scores meant). MEXT wants you to have at least a B2-level in English, to show that you can keep up in your classes and write your thesis in English, but I do not know what that would be on the test.
It you are scoring in the 80-90 range, that should be sufficient, I would guess, just based on the relative percentage.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hi, i am applying for the undergraduate scholarschip, and im studying as hard as i can. But because my highschool program did not have chemistry, and the time frame that i have to learn for the exam is extremely short, I can only focus on getting 90% + in everything except chemistry (that i dont know at all) and japanese which i’ll probably do fine. Also, my highschool grades are an average of 3.8~4/5, but my university grades are straight A’s. I am applying for natrual sciences, more specificaly information, electronics and electrical engineering. My question is, what is the chance that i’ll get the scholarship if I ace the math exam with doing the chemistry horribly (physics and english is more likely than not to be above 80 or 90%), and should i leave the chemistry exam empty? My embassy told me that i don’t need to worry about the chemistry as it is justifiable as to why i did poorly in it but i can’t help to worry. Also how important is the interview and our application. (if it’s filled in propperly)
Also, the exam is in a week.
Also, what if there is a mistake on the application form or on the health repport, but the embassy checked them and said they’re alright. Are they going to be acceptable?
(I think my doctor, at the part without glasses, underlined the without glasses instead of marking both of the R and L)
Hi Avik,
If the embassy has already checked the documents and said they were alright, then you should be fine. For the Health Form, I think the worse they would do would be to tell you to take it back to the doctor to get that part corrected (but only if they thought it necessary). For the application form, if you have made a mistake about your information that you need to correct, then you should contact the embassy to try to fix it. But if you made a mistake like miscounting the years of education, or something minor like that, and they didn’t tell you to fix it, that should not be a problem.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hi Avik,
My area of expertise is the MEXT Scholarship for research students (graduate students), so I am less familiar with the specific details for the undergraduate scholarship.
If your embassy told you that a poor grade in the Chem exam won’t hurt you, then I don’t have anything that would contradict their statement. I would recommend that you do not leave it (or any other exam) blank, though. At least take a guess and answer as many questions as you can.
For the application form, there is not much in there that can really distinguish one applicant over another, so I do not think it is that important. The interview (the final stage of the screening) is certainly important, and I would say that your exams and GPA are also very important, as well.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hello Travis,
I have a question am applying for research student course for the Japanese test I don’t know anything of the Japanese language should i leave the exam paper for the Japanese test empty or should I guess the answers.
Regards,
ABDULLAH
Hi Abdullah,
Definitely guess! I haven’t heard of people losing the scholarship for scoring poorly on the Japanese test, but I have heard of some applicants in the past who were rejected for leaving it blank. (As far as I know, that was only in one year, when MEXT needed a reason to cut a lot more applicants than usual, but it’s better to be safe than sorry!)
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
I am applying as a Research Student (for graduate purposes), do you think the English exam will be split here as well?
Hi Marulas,
According to the follow-up comment from S.O. I just received, yes, there do seem to be different tests for Research Students, too.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
I’ve been told that this year the English test was split into two versions: for STEM and for humanities. I was asked by the embassy to confirm which one I’m supposed to take. Did that happen elsewhere, or it’s just my country?
Hi S.O.,
Yes, for the undergraduate test, there are now two version for the English test (that was not the case for the years that I have the sample tests linked in this article).
Your embassy should be able to choose the appropriate test based on the majors you filled out in your application, but English (A) is for Social Sciences and Humanities majors and English (B) is for Natural Sciences majors.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hi and thanks for the answer. I’m applying for the graduate program, though it looks like the English test is the same both for research students and undergrads, at least it was back in 2016.
And yes, the embassy staff told that they’ve selected the appropriate version based on my FoSRP, they were just making sure they got it right.
Big thanks for this site, advice here is worth its weight in gold if you want to go past the document screening.
Hi S.O.,
Thank you for your update. That was surprising and good to know! I have only seen separate English exams mentioned in the application guidelines for undergrads.
For graduate students, it seems like the Placement Preference Form would actually be a better resource to determine if you needed the STEM test or humanities test, but as long as they got it right, that should be fine.
Thank you for sharing this! I’m sure it will be helpful to other applicants in their preparations, as well.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Just a quick follow-up. I’ve had my exams and interview, and it turned out that not only the English test was split – the Japanese one was split as well! As a STEM applicant I’ve been handed the B version of the tests, and the English one really seemed to be somewhat easier than the previous years’ tests. Same probably applied to Japanese, though I barely solved anything there.
Hi S.O.,
Thank you for letting me know about the split Japanese language test. That is news to me!
I think, in general, the linguistic requirements for STEM majors is going to be lower than for humanities and social sciences, regardless of the language. So, the English test being easier may be a reflection of the split between the two versions.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz