BJT提分班How to Handle BJT Chart Questions — The Section Where Points Come Fastest
1. Why chart questions deserve your attention first
Of the four listening sections on the BJT, 資料聴読解 (shiryō chōdokkai) is the only one where you have something to look at.
Everywhere else you're carried by your ears alone; miss a line and it's gone. Chart questions are different — the chart sits in front of you, and even if the audio slips past, the visual can still narrow the answer down. This is the one part of the exam where technique alone produces reliable points.
The typical pattern looks like this: overall listening sits around J3, but chart-question accuracy runs above eighty percent. Conversely, if you're losing points here too, the problem usually isn't listening ability — it's how you're reading the chart.
2. Finish reading the chart before the audio starts
This is the single most important habit, and the one most test-takers get backwards.
The chart and the audio arrive together. The instinct is to listen first and hunt through the chart for whatever gets mentioned. That order is fatal — by the time you locate the number, the audio has moved two sentences on.
Read the chart's structure before the audio begins. Three things:
1. What are the axes — months or departments? Yen or units? Thousands or ten-thousands? 2. How many series are being compared — one line or three? Who does each represent? 3. Where are the maximum and minimum — mark them mentally so a mention lands instantly
There's very little information on the chart; ten seconds covers it. Spend those ten seconds and the entire audio becomes verification rather than search — a completely different level of difficulty.
3. The question never asks what the chart says
Nearly every trap lives here.
The chart shows Department A at 500 units and B at 300, so you expect "which department has the most." It won't be that. The BJT asks:
- 二番目に多いのはどれですか (nibanme ni ōi no wa dore desu ka) — which is second highest, not first
- 前年と比べて最も伸びたのはどれですか (zennen to kurabete mottomo nobita no wa dore desu ka) — largest growth, not largest value. The smallest base often shows the biggest increase.
- この後、どの部門に予算を回すことになりましたか (kono ato, dono bumon ni yosan o mawasu koto ni narimashita ka) — the decision, which lives in the dialogue. The chart is only background.
The chart supplies data; the question asks for a judgment. Take the most prominent number as your answer and you'll be wrong eight times out of ten.
4. Three signal words worth listening for
The dialogues follow fixed patterns. When these appear, the answer is nearby:
ただ (tada) / ですが (desu ga) / しかし (shikashi) — contrast. Whatever came before is usually setup about to be overturned; the real conclusion follows. This is the highest-frequency answer location on the section.
〜より (yori) / 〜に比べて (ni kurabete) — comparison. Their appearance means the question concerns a relationship, not an absolute figure. Lock onto the two items being compared.
まず (mazu) / 先に (saki ni) / その前に (sono mae ni) — sequence. These items ask what gets done first, and several tasks will be mentioned deliberately. Only the one carrying these markers is the answer.
5. You have more answering time than you think
A common complaint is that chart questions move too fast. That's a misreading of the format.
In the 聴読解 (chōdokkai) sections, an independent answering window follows the audio. For 資料聴読解 (shiryō chōdokkai) and 総合聴読解 (sōgō chōdokkai), that window is considerably longer than for short formats like 場面把握 (bamen haaku) — the exam expects you to go back and check the chart.
So the real problem isn't a shortage of time; it's time spent in the wrong place. Start hunting through the chart the moment the audio begins and a dozen seconds is nowhere near enough. Read the chart beforehand and there's room to check two candidates against each other twice.
6. Practice this section only with real charts
One practical warning: chart questions cannot be practiced from text-only material.
A fair number of BJT books are text-only — the chart items give you the audio script and the options, with either no chart at all or a generic placeholder. Practice that way and you're training reading comprehension, not visual listening, and none of it transfers on test day.
Three conditions are non-negotiable: a real chart, matching audio, and an explanation you can read the moment you finish. Miss any one and the value halves.
Take a scored diagnostic first and find out whether chart questions are where your points are going. If they are, this section improves faster than you'd expect.
Our mock exam system carries 100 items across 資料聴読解 (shiryō chōdokkai) and 総合聴読解 (sōgō chōdokkai), every one with a real chart and real audio, with four-language explanations the moment you answer.
—— BJT提分班