Good news for university hopefuls who cannot afford prep schools: A popular website is now offering free video lectures given by successful entrants of prestigious universities.
The site, "manavee," was launched two years ago by a University of Tokyo student to support those who may not be able to attend cram or prep schools for financial or other reasons. Currently, about 170 students from 15 universities nationwide are participating in the initiative to help teach over 10,000 users.
Student teachers film their lectures using their own video cameras and upload them onto the website as a free learning service.
About 3,200 15-minute lectures covering 11 subjects--including Japanese, mathematics, world history and geology--are available on the manavee website. In addition to basic lectures such as "Avoid failing with just two hours of study! Positive and negative numbers, literal equations and graphs" and "Pinpointing your weak points in English grammar," there are also videos that analyze past exams, such as "Breakdown of University of Tokyo's mathematics by a student of the university" and "Physics for Hokkaido University: Focus on entrance exams from the past two years."
The "teachers" are categorized into 30 teaching styles, such as "serious," "genius-type" and "passionate," to make it easier for users to choose the best tutor to suit their needs. If users register on the website, they can also send questions to teachers by e-mail.
Taketsugu Hanafusa, 23, a junior at the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Letters, came up with the idea to create the site in the autumn of 2010.
"I thought, 'Not everyone can go to prep schools during a recession.' So I wondered if there was a way to help anyone effectively study for entrance exams," he said.
After launching the website with some friends, Hanafusa traveled to nine universities, including colleges in Hokkaido, Nagoya, Kyoto and the Tohoku and Kyushu regions, to seek support from students there.
Manavee's users are grateful for the website, with one saying, "Thanks to the site, I was able to correctly answer about 80 percent of the questions on the National Center Test for University Admissions."
A second-year high school student in Chiba Prefecture said: "As I'm being raised by a single mother, I don't know if should go to a prep school. This video-sharing site helps as I can watch the videos as many times as I want."
This year, about 540,000 people took the National Center Test, a standardized college entrance exam. Meanwhile, manavee's users, which include first- and second-year high school students, now total 11,000.
According to the website's operator, many users are keen to return the favor and teach after passing their entrance exams. In fact, one has already begun teaching since passing the University of Tokyo's entrance exam.
"I'd be delighted if this circle of learning spreads," Hanafusa said.
(Feb. 27, 2013)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T130226004423.htm
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