Chie ARIJI1, Kensuke SEKI2 and Tetsuya KANEKO2
Introduction : The low pass rate of candidates from the Republic of Indonesia taking the Japanese National Nurse Examination is a matter of national concern. We analyzed their answers to examination questions, and extracted weak points.
Methods : We asked Indonesian examinees to reproduce their own answers to 50 compulsory questions in the 100th national examination (2011). They were also requested to extract difficult words, and evaluate the effectiveness of Japanese and English ruby.
Results : Data from 42 examinees were analyzed. The only significant difference between two groups of examinees with and without sufficient scores was the years of their stay in Japan. There was no significant difference associated with the occupational or educational history. Japanese and English were judged as meaningless by both high-and middle-scoring groups. A total of 92 difficult words were extracted, and 80% of them were everyday language rather than medical terms. The rate of correctly answered questions with the extracted, difficult words in the text body or appropriate answers was significantly lower.
Conclusions : Difficult common words clearly had a negative impact on candidates' score in the national examination, suggesting that daily active communication in Japanese would promote their progress toward passing the examination.
