The English translation is below
今月１８日、１９日は、大学進学の登竜門である
共通テストが日本全国で一斉に行われました
受験生はこの日のためにたくさんの楽しいことをガマンして
勉強してきたことと思います
まさに人生をかけた大勝負の舞台です！
。。。なのに毎年のように受験生を惑わす珍問・奇問が出てきて
試験後の S N Sは受験生たちで大荒れです♪
試験問題と解答は、次の日の新聞に掲載されるので
私も毎年ちょっと楽しみにしています🎶
なので今回は伝説にもなっている、テスト問題の一部を
ご紹介します！
2018年 地理の問題で、ムーミンが登場しました
出された資料からムーミンの出身地がフィンランドであることを
導く問題なのですが、分からなくてノルウェーと間違えた
受験生たちが、ムーミンの公式ツイッターアカウントに
『国籍書いとけー！』
『全受験生がおまえを知ってると思ったら大間違いや』
など書き込み、逆恨みのツイートで炎上気味になっていました
しかしこれを受けて、ムーミンの公式ツイッターは
と神対応し、受験生の怒りをしずめ、好感度を上げたのでした
お次は 英語のリスニング問題 『浮気発覚！』です
このスクリプトが
。。。しどろもどろになっている男性の顔か浮かびます
時すでに遅しですが
同じリスニングでも、2019年の第1問は衝撃でした
問題冊子を開いたら
このキャラクターたちが目に飛び込んできました
教室がちょっとザワついたそうです
問題文は、新しい漫画のキャラクターを考えようという
内容だったのですが、インパクトがありすぎて
試験が終わった後も話題となって世の中に広まり
実際に製品化までされてしまいました！
今でも、『リスニング四天王』として
語り継がれています
2022年はコロナ禍だったので、問題文の中でさえも
ちゃんとマスクをつけています
問題作成者のこだわりが感じられます
そして数学なのに、やたら文章が長すぎる問題
読みづらいと思いますが、読まなくていいです♬
自転車と歩行者の意味不明な行動に
もはや受験生のライフ♡はここでゼロになってしまいました
。。。まだまだ紹介しきれませんが、今回のタイトルは
こういう問題にでくわしても 負けるな受験生！という思いです
その昔、私も同じような受験生でしたので、
どうしてもこの時期は、心の中で応援せずにはいられません
大丈夫！何が起こっても
後から振り返ったら、みんな笑い話になってるから！
On the 18th and 19th of this month, the Common Test for University Admissions — a major gateway to higher education in Japan — was held simultaneously across the country.
I’m sure many students have spent months, even years, studying for this day, giving up a lot of fun along the way.
It truly feels like a high-stakes moment where so much of their future is on the line.
And yet, almost every year, some unusual or baffling questions manage to confuse the test-takers.
After the exam, social media is flooded with frustrated posts from students, and things get pretty heated.
The exam questions and answers are published in the newspapers the following day,
so I secretly look forward to checking them every year. 🎶
So this time, I’d like to introduce part of a test question that has become something of a legend.
In 2018, the character Moomin appeared in a geography question on the exam.
The question asked students to determine that Moomin is from Finland based on the materials provided.
However, some students couldn’t figure it out and mistakenly chose Norway instead.
After the exam, frustrated students flocked to Moomin’s official Twitter account, posting comments like:
“Just write his nationality already!”
“Don’t assume every test-taker knows who you are!”
These bitter, misdirected complaints spread quickly, and the situation almost turned into a small online backlash.
However, in response to this, Moomin’s official Twitter account…
It seems many people were upset after a question appeared on the national entrance exam asking whether the world of Moomin is set in Finland or Norway…
This made us realize that Moomin is still not as well known as we thought. We’ll take that to heart and work even harder on our official website to help more people get to know Moomin better.
We hope this becomes a good opportunity for everyone to discover the world of Moomin.
With that response, they handled the situation brilliantly, calming frustrated students and earning widespread goodwill.
Next up is an English listening question often remembered as “Caught Cheating!”
You can almost picture the man’s face as he stammers through his excuses —
but by then, it’s already too late.
Even among listening questions, Question 1 from 2019 was especially shocking.
The moment students opened the test booklet…
These characters immediately caught everyone’s eye,
and I heard the classroom became a little restless.
The question itself was about coming up with characters for a new manga,
but the visuals were so striking that they stayed in people’s minds long after the exam was over.
The topic spread beyond the test, became a talking point nationwide,
and eventually, the characters were even turned into real products.
Even now, they are still talked about as the “Four Legendary Listening Questions.”
And in 2022, during the COVID pandemic, even the characters in the listening script were properly wearing masks.
You can really sense the care and attention of the people who create these questions.
And then there are math problems that, despite being math, come with an absurd amount of text.
It may look hard to read, but don’t worry — you don’t actually need to read it. ♬
Between the inexplicable behavior of cyclists and pedestrians,
many students’ “life gauges” probably dropped straight to zero at that point.
…There are still so many examples I could share,
but the title this time reflects my message:
Even if you run into questions like these, don’t give up, examinees!
I was once a student going through the same thing myself,
so around this time of year, I can’t help but cheer for them in my heart.
You’ll be okay.
No matter what happens, when you look back on it later,
it will all turn into something you can laugh about.
