At present, most graduate schools in Japan still use the traditional selection method of written examination + interview, specifically for accounting researchers: the written examination mainly examines accounting-related theoretical knowledge, including financial accounting and management accounting; The interview mainly revolves around the research proposal.
Today, Xiaoyuan will introduce to you the specific content of the first level → written examination of Japanese accounting. Take a few popular schools as examples to briefly summarize the exam direction and preparation strategies for accounting, and let's take a look together~
The overall direction of the question
Since accounting researchers are often classified under the category of business administration, the written test is generally taken together with students in business administration, and accounting students can directly choose the topic of accounting direction to answer. The most common questions in the written test are two major questions, one in financial accounting and one in management accounting, and the exam time ranges from 90 minutes to 120 minutes.
For example, in the case of the Accounting Major at Waseda University's Graduate School of Commerce, the official website has published the scope of questions for the Financial Accounting and Management Accounting directions, as well as a list of recommended books. Since the benchmarks in the field of accounting are constantly changing, it is best to start with the latest edition of the textbook every year. The range of questions and exam preparation books of other schools can also be roughly referred to in Zaoda.
It can also be seen that the written examination of accounting requires the preparation of both financial accounting and management accounting. However, in the case of the same general direction, the focus of the examination is also different for each institution, so the knowledge points that are emphasized in learning are also different for different institutions.
Next, I will introduce you to the trend of several popular accounting colleges~
Analysis of the trend of popular school written exams
University of Tokyo
The University of Tokyo has resumed the written test that was canceled during the epidemic in the entrance examination for the 2024 academic year, and continues to use the examination format of written test + interview. According to the direction of the written test before the epidemic, accounting researchers at the University of Tokyo only examined the knowledge of financial accounting, and the two major questions were related to financial accounting.
According to the exam feedback from the predecessors of Zhiyuan, many questions in the written examination of the University of Tokyo involve the knowledge points in the "アドバンスト財務会計" by Mr. Dai Nichi, such as "Securities Market 㠴の有効性", "会計情報に関するアノマリー", "会計発生高", etc.
These proper nouns are basically not encountered in general accounting studies, so it is recommended that students who are preparing for the examination of Tokyo University must start this book to understand these relatively "unpopular" knowledge points.
(The concept of "アノマリー" that appeared in the past examination questions of the University of Tokyo is relatively rare.)
Hitotsubashi University
Hitotsubashi University Accounting Researchers take the form of an examination in the form of English translation from Japanese + short essay + professional knowledge. Among them, the professional knowledge test requires candidates to choose 1 of the 5 questions to answer, and the selected questions do not have to be limited to the field of aspirations, which means that accounting students do not necessarily have to choose accounting questions to answer.
Taking the 2024 entrance examination questions as an example, financial accounting examines the content of financial commodity accounting, including the time point of understanding financial assets and financial liabilities, accounting treatment of retention purposes, and fair value evaluation. Focusing on a specific knowledge point, the questions are asked in detail.
(Hitotsubashi University's 24th year entrance examination financial accounting original question)
In terms of management accounting, the content of original price management is mainly examined, including three subdivisions: original price maintenance, original price improvement, and original price planning. Like financial accounting, it is also an in-depth discussion around a specific knowledge point.
(Hitotsubashi University's 24th year entrance examination management accounting original question)
Waseda University
As mentioned above, the official website of Zaoda gives the scope of accounting questions and recommended books for reference. In the formal written test, candidates are required to answer 2 out of 9 questions, at least 1 of which is related to their area of ambition.
Therefore, candidates for accounting can choose either a combination of financial accounting + management accounting, or a combination of financial accounting/management accounting + other questions.
Specifically, in terms of financial accounting, the necessity of monitoring standards, the two major functions of financial accounting, and the subject of deferred assets were examined in terms of financial accounting. The content of the exam ranges from basic knowledge points of accounting to specific accounting subjects, covering a wide range of subjects.
(The original question of financial accounting for the 24th year entrance examination of early university)
On the other hand, management accounting involves a small part of the calculation content, mainly examining the knowledge points of budget and final accounts. Management accounting may be more likely to examine calculations and analyses related to practice than purely theoretical knowledge, so you need to pay more attention when preparing for the exam.
(The original question of management accounting for the 24th year entrance examination of early university)
Keio University
Keio University's Accounting Written Examination also selects accounting topics to answer. Out of a total of 4 questions, there is only 1 accounting question, so there is basically no choice. In this only accounting question, there are 4 questions, and candidates can choose 2 of them to answer.
Also taking the 2024 entrance examination questions as an example, the first two questions are the knowledge points of financial accounting, and the last two questions are the knowledge points of management accounting.
Among them, question 1 examines the content of the three public standards of accounting, question 2 examines the contents of foreign goods construction and financial debts, question 3 examines the content of performance management and responsibility accounting, and question 4 explores the knowledge points of original price management. In general, it is still more important to grasp the knowledge framework.
(Keio University's 24th annual entrance examination accounting question)
Summary of written test countermeasures
After learning about the trend of questions in the four popular schools of Dongyi Zaoqing, I believe that the students have a basic understanding of the content and difficulty of the written examination of accounting. After grasping the focus of the questions of each institution, it is also very important to have targeted pre-exam countermeasures.
➤ How to get started?
Most colleges and universities will publish past exam questions on their official websites, which can be directly consulted and downloaded, but sometimes the following problems will still be encountered:
◆Question 1: What should I do if I only published the past year or three years in the past, and there are too few questions to brush up?
◆Question 2: What should I do if I had to mail it offline in the past, but I can't get it if I don't have to do it in Japan?
◆Question 3: In the past, I could only go to the school to pick it up in person, what should I do if it is inconvenient to go?
◆Question 4: What should I do if I apply to multiple schools at the same time, and the collection process is complicated and takes too long?
In response to these common pain points, Xiaoyuan has specially prepared a complete database of past questions for everyone, collecting past questions from various colleges and universities in the past ten years, so that everyone can brush up and ask questions in the past~
(Part of the past question bank of Zhiyuan Education)
➤ How to effectively practice past asking?
If you can't use it effectively, it will be difficult to bring out the real value of the past. However, unlike accounting professionals, the written test questions are basically essay questions with no standard answers. After doing a lot of questions by themselves, students may find that the speed of doing questions has improved, but the quality of the answers is still difficult to grasp, so how to solve this kind of problem?
Here, Xiaoyuan highly recommends the top school training course of Zhiyuan Education Accounting to everyone! Instead of repeating the mechanical process of brushing questions without feedback, it is better to optimize the answering ideas step by step under the guidance and suggestions of professional teachers to avoid falling into the wrong mode of inherent thinking.
With the accounting lecturer team led by Dr. Su of Accounting at Hitotsubashi University as the core, supplemented by the manual improvement service insisted on by the homeroom teacher and the rotating TA teacher, Zhiyuan Accounting has always been committed to providing students with practical written examination services~
(Some of the outstanding assignments of Zhiyuan students)
Entry test speedrun
Zhiyuan Education's top school training class in accounting is an intensive training course to help you prepare for the exam in a short period of time and achieve a qualitative leap. The summer exam is about to start, and we are now recruiting comrades who have broken the axe and sunk the boat, and we will seize the last moment together and go ashore qualified!
Sign up for the training camp now and sprint to the top school!
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