Yobikō

Yobikō (予備校^?) are privately run schools that are marketed to students taking examinations held each year in Japan from January to March to determine college admissions. These students generally have graduated from high school but have failed to enter the school of their choice. This test, unlike the French Baccalauréat or the South Korean College Scholastic Ability Test, has different versions with different schools looking for results from different exams. In Japan, this test is generally considered the most important event in a child's education. Students who fail may spend a year or more studying to retake the examination. They are sometimes referred to as rōnin, after masterless samurai. Yobiko are similar to juku except for differences such as curriculum, legal status, and the primary type of students who attend.

Yobiko are for-profit private corporations that are officially listed as schools by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. At the municipal level they are supervised by boards of education. Even so, they are subject to little supervision as compliance with regulations for physical conditions is mainly checked, and curriculum and teacher salaries are not inspected.

Yobiko mainly differ by the number of enrolled students. The most numerous yobiko are those for each city, and each has less than 500 students. National yobiko called mammoth yobiko have 10,000 students or more. There are also yobiko to prepare students to pass specialized entrance exams such as those for medical and art schools and have less than 100 students and typically charge higher tuition than other types of yobiko.

Designed to prepare students to pass college entrance exams, the curriculum consists of memorization of facts and learning of exam-taking skills. A study of a typical yobiko. found that the curriculum consisted of studying questions that were on previous exams, specific ways to improve answers, and specific subject topics that would be covered in the exam.

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