My experience and test-taking strategies to pass Japanese medical schools after six months of self-study, starting from NO knowledge of biology or chemistry - note for international applicants

1. Introduction

This article is about my experiences and the strategy that I had developed to to pass the admissions of Japanese medical schools within six months through starting from NO knowledge of biology or chemistry and studying hard on my own. 

 This article goes into specific details from general analysis to the textbooks I used. I write about my experience of studying by myself and taking examinations and interviews at medical schools, my personal statements, and my motivation for applying to the medical schools.

In particular, I wish this would be helpful for people like following.

・International students who aim to get in Japanese medical schools

・Someone once gave up entering  medical schools because of the difficulty of the admissions or too expensive tuition but want to try again

・Those who were rejected from top companies in their own country

・Those who were rejected from top-tier universities or medical schools in their own country

・Those who decided to apply for medical schools yet have not decided to apply to which schools

2. My profile

I would like to introduce a brief profile of myself so that readers can decide if they will find my experience useful.

My own results of admissions in the last year 

TOEFL ibt 98 

Japanese Medical school (enrolled)

The University of Tokyo, Japanese Technology Management Masters Program (accepted)

Profile

Undergrad Institution: Kyoto University
Major: Physics, Math
Minor: Statistics
GPA in Major: 3.85
Overall GPA: 3.8

When I graduated from high school, I could not do chemistry at all and chose physics and geology for the subject in my university entrance examination. 

In addition, I majored in physics at university, so I started studying chemistry and biology just before 4 months before the examination of the medical school.

 Due to lack of time and funds, I did not attend any preparatory school such as KALS to prepare for the medical school transfer exam. In addition, since I was in my fourth year of university, I also applied for the school of engineering of the University of Tokyo and prepared for the entrance examination of it in parallel.

河合塾KALS － はじめよう。まだ、未来は変えられる。

3. What made me decide to go to medical school?

 I originally entered the Faculty of Science at Kyoto University with the intention of becoming a researcher. The Faculty of Science at Kyoto University is a bit unusual in that the only required courses are second language courses and a thesis, so I studied mostly physics and mathematics until last April (at the start of my third year).

　What made me,  like that, decide to go to medical school are following.

・A lack of hope for my future as a researcher and engineer.

・An opportunity to participate in research that would involve artificial intelligence

・Participation in research programs that also involved a bit of life science (soft matter experiments, brain science seminars, etc.)

 Taking all of these factors into consideration, I decided to apply to both medical schools and a graduate school where I could study artificial intelligence and other fields.

 In summary, my motivation and aspirations for quitting physics and going to medical school or engineering graduate school were not so strong, but somewhat like I wanted to stabilize my life while utilizing my skills.

 So I had a hard time writing my personal statement and preparing for the interview. However, in the six months since I started to pursue medical school, as I thought about various things, my goals became more resolved and my motivations became more solid. 

 From this point of view, it can be said that it is important to start moving from the day you decide to give it a try, not only for medical school transfer.

4. Overview of Japanese Medical School Entrance Examinations and Merits of Applying for and Studying at a Japanese Medical School

Overview　

 This section is written for those who are unfamiliar with the admissions process of Japanese medical school, in particular the admissions of Japanese medical schools for those who have a bachelor's degree. If you are already familiar with it, you may skip this section.

 The admissions of Japanese medical schools for those who have a bachelor's degree is a system that make those who graduated from four-year universities transfer into the second year of a Japanese medical school, and receive medical education. This system is said to have been inspired by medical schools overseas.

  Currently, in Japan, 27 national and public universities offer this type of admissions process, and most of them require a bachelor's degree.  Among the national universities, like University of Tsukuba, Gunma University, and Oita University allow applicants without a bachelor's degree to apply.

 In the admissions process, applicants should pass two steps. At the first step, applicants take examinations basically on English and life sciences, and some universities requires them to take also physics, chemistry, and statistics also. 

 The second step is only open to those who have passed the first step. At this step, applicants write an essay and take an interview. 

 The admission result is determined holistically based on the results of the submitted documents, the test scores, and the evaluations of the essay and the interview. The criteria and weights seem to vary from university to university.

 This sites may be helpful in getting an overview of the admissions process. 

医学部編入実施大学リスト | 試験概要 | 医学部学士編入 | 河合塾KALS

Merits of applying for and studying at a Japanese medical school

 In this section, I discuss the Merits of applying for and studying at a Japanese medical school.

Why you should apply?

・It is much easier to get accepted from Japanese medical schools, compered to medical schools in other countries like US and Korea. 

Why you should study at a Japanese medical school?

・Japanese public university medical schools have very low tuition fees.　It costs only 530,000 yen (3600 US dollars) a year.

・It is relatively easier to graduate from Japanese medical schools, compered to medical schools in other countries like US and Korea. In Japanese, Attendance requirements are not strict. In fact, I have studied or attended lectures very little since I entered my school, but I could earn credits.

・Doctor is one of the most privileged profession in Japan, and it is very difficult to get the same level of treatment in other professions.

・If you obtain a medical license in Japan, you can work as a doctor in various countries other than Japan.

5. Strategy 1- Deciding which schools and subjects to take

The major features of the admissions process of the Japanese medical schools are as follows

・You can apply to more than one school as long as the schedule does not conflict with each other.

・The number and type of subjects differ depending on the school (Life Science is required at almost all schools, and subjects such as Physics, Chemistry, Statistics, etc. and external exam scores such as TOEFL are required at some schools).

・The timing of the examinations differs between the first half of the year (April to July, we call the first round) and the second half of the year (August to December, we call the second round).

・The admissions process is in a holistic approach. The decisions are made not only based on test scores, but also on whether the applicant is a good fit for the university and whether the applicant has the qualifications to be a doctor.

　Therefore, it is clear that you should take these four factors into consideration when choosing the school to take the entrance examination.

　In addition, when choosing a school, it is necessary to consider the location of the university, the school culture, and the fields in which the university is strong, considering that you will spend five years as a student.

 While many people apply for more than 6 schools, I applied for only 3 schools. If you have done any research on Japanese medical school admissions, you may know that three schools is quite a few.

 You will understand why I decided to apply for such few school after you read about my strategy, which I will write about in the following.

a strategic choice of schools to apply to

When making a strategic choice of schools to apply to, you should consider three main things following.

・Your history of studying subjects

・Your background and accomplishments

・How long you can prepare for the exam

 First, the history of studying subjects refers to the subjects you have studied during the college entrance exam and after college. In the medical school examinations, the type and number of subjects vary from school to school.  You, thus, need to strategically decide which school to apply to according to your history of studying subjects.

 For example, if you have chosen Chemistry for your university entrance examination, you will have an advantage if you choose a university that has questions on high school level chemistry (e.g., Shiga University of Medical Science, Hokkaido University, Ehime University, etc.). Also, if you studied life sciences at university, you will have an advantage at universities with a high weighting of life sciences (e.g., Nagasaki University, Oita University, etc.).

 As for English, if you have a TOEFL score or read articles on a daily basis due to your experience like overseas experience or your research, you will have a big advantage at universities that require TOEFL scores or have difficult English exams (e.g., Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Hokkaido University, Okayama University, Shiga University of Medical Science, etc.).

 Next, with regard to your background, you should consider how your college major and, if you are a working professional, your experience in your current position can contribute to the medical field, and then consider whether you match the type of person the university is looking for. When thinking about this, it is also important to read the university's application guidelines carefully. This is also important when writing your statement of purpose and during interviews.

 Finally, regarding the preparation period before the exam, it is advisable to take the exam at a university with an exam schedule that allows sufficient time for preparation, taking into consideration the start of the study period and the time taken for research and work. For example, if you can take a month off from your research or work to concentrate on studying for the exam just before the exam, it would be a good idea to study only a rough outline of the range of exam during that month, and then cram all the details in the period just before the exam.

 If you are applying to more than one university, you should also consider the distance between the exam dates of those universities (too close together and you will be fatigued from traveling, while too far apart and you will have to study intensively for the exam).

 You should also check in advance which universities offer which subjects and at which time of year they will hold their examinations by referring to the links above or the university's application guidelines. Then, you need to make a study plan according to the subject and the time of year. How to make this examination plan is described in the next section.

 In my case, I specifically took the following into consideration when deciding which schools and subjects to take.

My history of studying subjects

I will describe my history and the strategies I have developed based on it.

・I scored 95 on the TOEFL ibt before entering university, and I also scored 98 on the TOEFL ibt, which I took as a trial at the end of March 2021.

・I read English papers frequently.

・I majored in physics at university, so I can solve most of the questions on the transfer exam without preparation.

・I have some knowledge of statistics.

・I have no knowledge of chemistry and life science.

 Based on these considerations, I thought that I should take universities which have a high TOEFL requirement or a difficult English exam. I also thought that I should apply to universities with many subject tests and a high weighting of physics and statistics, because I believed that I would not be able to compete with those from life science or pharmacy schools no matter how hard I studied.

My background and accomplishments

・I majored in physics with no background in pure life science or medicine.

・I have experience in research in the area between data science and epidemiology, and have participated in seminars on data assimilation in neuroscience.

 Based on these considerations, I decided to avoid applying to universities that seem to be seeking physicians or research physicians who contribute only to purely clinical medicine, and to apply only to universities that seem to focus on AI, which would accept our reason for applying: to become physicians who contribute to clinical medicine using mathematical methods, including AI medicine.

 I also aimed to get enrollment by getting high scores at universities with a high paper exam weighting because I also thought that my background did not have a strong enough relevance to medicine to make schools think they should make me re-enroll in medical school.

Preparation period before the exam

・Started studying chemistry and life sciences in April of the year.

・I had many tasks such as seminars and research in the laboratory until July.

・I planed to take the graduate school entrance examination at the end of August.

・Osaka University no longer accepts the home edition of TOEFL (I noticed this just when I applied).

In light of these factors, I decided to focus on admissions in the second round (examinations held in August or later), which have multi-subjects .

I applied actually for the schools following.

・Tokyo Medical and Dental University

 Although it is the first half of the school, this school have no written exam for life science, high TOEFL requirement and only English exam. There is no written exam for life sciences, only an English exam. I thought that I might be accepted if my background is evaluated.

・Hokkaido University

This is a school with a test on many subjects with equal weight given to Physics, Statistics, Chemistry, and Life Sciences, and relatively high the TOEFL score requirement. The test content is standardized, so I was able to  prepare well by looking at past papers and solving similar questions with practice books.

・Shiga University of Medical Science

 It is one of the schools with a test on many subjects in the second round. The exam on sciences has many questions in physics, chemistry, and statistics, and the weight of life science is quite low (only about 3 questions were given in the year I took the exam). Also, the English exam is said to be difficult.  

 It is also said that the weight of paper tests is so high. Although past exams are not published, as long as I have good overall academic skills, I thought that I would be easily accepted . 

 In addition to the expectation , I thought this school as a target school because it was near to Kyoto University and easy to travel to the university from my house in Kyoto.

6. Strategy2 - Study Plans

 Once you have decided on a school to apply to, the next step is to make a study plan, which is actually the most difficult part. This is actually the most difficult part of the process, because the questions and the range of subjects vary greatly from university to university, even within the same subject area. Therefore, it is advisable to obtain the past exam questions of the university immediately after or before deciding the school you will apply to, if you can obtain them. I requested the university and obtained only what I could get.

 One of the things you should do once you have the past exam questions is to analyze them. To put it simply, you should try to solve the past exam questions by looking at the textbooks and exercise books. If you have not yet studied the basics and have not mastered many parts of the questions, you will probably end up not being able to do anything at all.

 It would be a shortcut to do this past question analysis before proceeding with the basic study, but if you are unable to do so, you may skim the basic textbooks and exercise books that seem to be in the scope of the subject matter first. In particular, it may be a good idea to just study the KALS test bank for life sciences, which will be discussed later.

生命科学テストバンク（標準編）

 Once the past question analysis is complete, you should begin basic study and practice. You should have a vague idea of the scope of study required from the past question analysis mentioned earlier, so you should set up a schedule and proceed with your study taking that into consideration. Detailed study methods and recommended reference books will be described in the next section.

 If you have no prior knowledge of the exam, it is recommended that you concentrate on understanding the basics in the first part of your study, and cram in the details in the last month or so before the exam.

 It is also important to keep in mind that the amount of study time required will vary greatly depending on your subject and background. We will define the level of study attainment as described below, and write my view on the level required to pass the course and the time it will take to get there.

Level 1 : "You can understand the outline of the textbook and explanations in the exercise book, and You can solve the level of the past examinations with them beside me"

Level 2 : "You can solve the past examinations and similar questions without looking at anything and without time limit"

Level 3 : "You can solve the past examinations and similar questions smoothly in the exam format".

 I feel that the minimum level of achievement required to pass the transfer written exam is approximately 30% in areas at level 3, 30% in areas at level 2, a little over 30% in areas at level 1, and less than 10% in areas below that that are out of your control.

 In addition to the required level of achievement and the time it takes to get there, it is necessary to consider the weight of the exam and make a cost-effective study plan. Past question analysis can be of great help.

 The time required to reach a certain level of achievement in each subject area may vary depending on a person's suitability, but I show it roughly in the following. This is the case when you aim to complete the university level, and it does not apply when you stop at the high school level.

Level 1

Physics >>> Chemistry >> Statistics >> Life Science, and

Level 2

Life Sciences >>> Chemistry >> Physics >> Statistics

Level 3

Physics >> Chemistry, Statistics > Life Sciences

The main things that can be inferred from this are that

・Physics takes a lot of time to understand in the early stages of learning.

・Physics requires a lot of practice to solve problems exactly and fastest.

・Life science does not take much time to get an overview.

・Life science takes time to get a solid input of memorized items and a solid output such as writing.

・Life science does not require the practice of solving problems fast like you do for physics and chemistry, so it is difficult to get more points in the life science section than other students.

・Chemistry is time-consuming in all phases: understanding, memorization, and practice.

・Statistics is actually quite easy to understand. You can easily become advantageous in the section of this subject. 

 In my case, at the beginning of my study (April), I was in physics (level 2-3), chemistry and biology (level 0), and statistics (level 1). Therefore, from the beginning of my study, I spent most of the time only working on general memorization through comprehension and practice in life sciences and comprehension and practice in chemistry, and memorization of detailed items in life sciences and chemistry and practice in physics and statistics only in the last 3 weeks or less before the exam.

7. Strategy 3 - Study Methods

Once you have a study plan, the next step is to actually study for the exam effectively as you can. In the medical school exams, one common study tip for all subjects is to study only what will appear on the exam. In other words, study only the basic content.

If you specialized in a university subject, you would need to read serious, thick textbooks and practice difficult problems. However, this is not necessary for the  preparation for the exams because the number of examinees who can solve such difficult problems is small compared to the quota, and it is unlikely to have an impact on the success or failure of the examination. 

 First of all, you should study the basic contents using only simple textbooks and exercise books.  Furthermore, you should prepare well for the schools that you decided to apply for by solving problems that are similar to the past exams.

If you are interested in details of my studying method and experiences and books that I used or recommend, please contact me.

contact information

taichi.transfer.medical (at) gmail.com

8. Strategy 4 tips for writing our personal statement and taking interviews

 I believe that it is as important to make sophisticated documents for applying and prepare well for interviews as it is to prepare for the paper tests.

 This is because students with high academic ability have already been admitted through the undergraduate entrance examination, and it is meaningless to admit the same kind of students through the admissions of Japanese medical schools for those who have a bachelor's degree because they are just older and with potentially shorter years to work as doctors.

 Therefore, I believe that you should pay particular attention to the following two points when creating your motivation for applying for the admissions of e medical schools for those who have a bachelor's degree.

・Why do you need to get in a medical school to become a doctor or a medical researcher after you got your bachelor's degree?

・Why do the school need to let you enroll in the program though you can  work shorter than those who enter the program after the pre-med program?

  Based on these considerations, I believe that candidates should reflect on their own experiences and make their personal statements for applying on a factual and logical basis.

 For example, you should write or talk about following topics.

・Research experience related to medicine and life sciences

・Work experience related to medicine and life sciences

・What motivated you to become involved in medicine

・Suggestion about what you are learning now is actually useful for medicine and medical care, even though it is not directly related to medicine, but

・Past leadership experience

 In my case, I majored in physics and had no direct experience in medicine or life sciences. Thus, I summarized my motivation to become a doctor who has a strong background in mathematics and physics and will contribute to advanced medicine with a mathematical approach, including AI medicine, based on my experience in data science and in my physics major.

 In summary, I think it is important to gather materials from the past to support your motivation and to appeal your strength.

9. My Schedule

I write the schedule below.  I decided to apply for medical schools in the end of March 2022 and started research on information about the admissions.

Early April~Early June 

Basic study of life sciences using Test Bank and Life Sciences for Science Comprehensive, etc., and practice only basic chemistry questions in parallel with the high school and university ranges.