Junior 3 Student Passes Eiken Grade 1
Student, MO, talks about his experience taking Eiken Grade 1 and offers some advice on passing it.
| Interviewer: | First of all, congratulations on passing Eiken 1. |
| MO: | Thank you. |
| Interviewer: | So, how do you feel now that you have passed Eiken 1? |
| MO: | Honestly, I feel great. At first I didn't have that much confidence that I would pass, but after passing, I believe there wasn't as much to worry about as I had first thought. |
| Interviewer: | So it kind of sounds like it was a little easier than you had expected. |
| MO: | To pass, yeah. |
| Interviewer: | Ok. So Eiken 1 is the highest level possible for Eiken and a lot of students are studying for it and are having problems with it. How did you prepare for the exam? |
| MO: | I actually didn't prepare for the exam, but on a day-to-day basis you should use English in everyday conversation. For example, if you have the opportunity, speak with someone like a family member that can speak English or go online and chat with people that are from different countries, so that you can get much more used to using English and knowing a wider variety of words and expressions. |
| Interviewer: | I see, that is actually good advice. |
| MO: | Also, this is my experience, but I have gotten the hang of using much more advanced English by watching videos, for example, on Youtube, fully in English. Watching is a slow process, but you get the hang of what the words mean as it [the video] progresses and as you watch more and more videos in English. |
| Interviewer: | Do you have any videos that you recommend? |
| MO: | I honestly don't know what to recommend, but if it's in English, it can be anything like, for example, it can be gaming or comedy or commentators speaking to each other, so it can be any kind of video. |
| Interviewer: | So, please tell me about the interview test. |
| MO: | I kind of was nervous at the start, compared to the other grades of Eiken, Eiken 1 has a different format of speaking. So there are like 5 topics, the examiner will give you 5 topics and you have to choose 1 under a minute, and then you have to talk about it for 2 minutes, which is very difficult. If you struggle to choose which topic you want, you might not finish preparing what you want to say and what are your reasons and why you support those reasons in under one minute. If you take too much of your time to decide on what topic you want, it's going to become difficult to talk for two minutes. Speaking while thinking is much more difficult. It gives kind of a weird sensation, like you're rushing, and because of that you might panic. Also you might struggle to find the words you want to use or find another reason. I believe you should try to choose your topic really fast, in an instant, and then think about what you want to say and the reasons and the supporting reasons in the remaining time. And then prepare the overall message that you want to say, so you don't have to think about everything, but you just have to think about the overall things that you want to say, so that will become much more of a supportive preparation in the one minute that you have, I also believe that in the exam when you talk about something if there is like an agree or disagree question, I believe that you should give three reasons to support your opinion. If there are only two reasons, it might be too short because you have to speak for one minute for one reason. I believe three is a balanced number and is much better and efficient. |
| Interviewer: | So what was the most difficult part of the exam for you? |
| MO: | For me the most difficult part of the exam was the vocabulary in the first part. There were some words that I didn't know. I believe that I could have studied much more difficult words by using English or just taking pre-tests in my free time, so I believe that was the hardest part. |
| Interviewer: | Yeah, the level of vocabulary is very high , so I think you did a great job passing the test. You said that you didn't prepare so much, but obviously you must have studied vocabulary, and the suggestion you gave about doing pre-tests is a good idea. Do you have any advice that you would give to those who plan on taking Eiken 1? |
| MO: | I suggest that people who are going to take Eiken 1 in the future should use vocabulary books, or buy a test preparation book, and it should be the newest one possible because Eiken changes every single year. You should also use flash cards and write the meaning on the back in Japanese and try to guess them. You should speak them out loud so that you know them completely in your head. Some people can just read and remember them, but it's just better to practice speaking out loud. |
| Interviewer: | What are your plans now that you have conquered Eiken? |
| MO: | I haven't planned yet, but I believe I should take TOEFL. There are many more different exams. Some of them are even higher than Eiken 1, and I believe I can take them to boost my English language higher and see how far I can go. |
| Interviewer: | That sounds great. I wish you the best of luck in that. If you do plan to study abroad, you will eventually have to take one of those tests, so that sounds like a good plan. Is there anything that you would like to say? |
| MO: | I feel honored to pass Eiken 1 as a Mejiro Kenshin student, and I also want to tell future examinees to keep on studying and they'll get through anything. |
| Interviewer: | That's good advice. I'm sure they will be happy to hear that. Thank you very much for your time and I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. |