A grade 4 to 6 timeline: Waseda Academy's calendar and ONETES mock dates

Families often start a junior-high exam plan (中学受験, chūgaku juken) around grade 4. What follows is the calendar Waseda Academy prints for its grade-4 S course, and the mock-exam menu ONETES prints by grade. Both pages were opened on 9 October 2026. Another juku's week will look different. SAPIX, for example, also says grade 4 is twice a week, but its fee table is a different document.

Grade 3 winter, which Waseda calls the start of grade 4

Waseda's page says the grade-4 curriculum actually begins in February of grade 3. If you cannot join then, the page recommends the spring, summer or winter seasonal courses so the child meets units the class has already covered. It says a mid-year start is possible, and that the building will suggest how to catch up.

The regular grade-4 week, once you are in:

Item	What the page prints
Who	Grade 4, planning the junior-high exam
Days	Tuesday and Thursday, or Wednesday and Friday. The building chooses.
Hours	17:00–18:40 and 18:50–19:40
Subjects	Japanese and maths, 100 minutes once a week each. Science and social studies, 50 minutes once a week each.
Saturday	A curriculum test every other Saturday, 13:30–16:00
Monthly fee	¥33,300 for four subjects, tax included, plus ¥2,900 a month as the annual fee, plus materials and the curriculum-test fee

Waseda says a reasonable amount of home study in grade 4 is about 6.5 hours a week, and that two juku days plus that homework can sit beside other lessons. It also says later grades add days and harder work, and that grade 6 uses weekends for school-specific courses and mocks. Its advice is to thin out other lessons over time so grade 6 has room. If you are unsure, the page says to ask the teacher at the building.

When Waseda says to choose schools

The same FAQ answers families whose first-choice school is still blank.

受験校を確定するのは一般的に6年生の11月下旬から12月上旬です。

In Waseda's words, the usual time to fix the list of schools is late November to early December of grade 6. It says that before the grade-6 summer course you will want a picture of about half the schools, and that it helps to have a first choice by the end of grade 5. For grade 4, it says an unset first choice is fine, and it suggests going to school events and information sessions (学校説明会, gakkō setsumeikai) from grade 4 onward, with your child in the room. It tells parents not to settle the list from a deviation score and a university-results table alone, and not to decide from an adults-only visit. The child and the adults can leave with different impressions.

Waseda's own event list on that page, for the months after October 2026, includes a free grade-3 winter check on Saturday 9 January, a free grade-4 top-level mock on Sunday 6 December, and a grade-5 school-specific junior mock the same Sunday. Those are Waseda sittings. Confirm the year on the event page before you travel.

ONETES mocks by grade

ONETES is a test company, not a school. Its test menu lists subject mocks (合格ONEテスト) and earlier sittings (スタートONEテスト). The menu shows the month and day. Open the sitting before you pay, and read the fee there. This article does not have an ONETES fee.

Grade	合格ONEテスト on the menu	スタートONEテスト
3	—	20–21 June, 5–6 December
4	17 January	20–21 June, 5–6 December
5	12 July, 13 September, 12 October, 13 December, 17 January	20–21 June, 5–6 December
6	19 April, 12 July, 13 September, 12 October, 8 November, 13 December	—

Grade 6 also has an aptitude mock (適性ONEテスト) on 5 July, 23 September and 23 November, aimed at public combined schools. Grade 5 has one aptitude sitting on 23 November. A parents' meeting runs at many venues. ONETES labels the 2026 themes by month, from how to read the last exam (April) to how to spend the last weeks (December).

What goes wrong

Joining in September of grade 4, then discovering the building's course started in February, is the gap Waseda tells you to close with a seasonal course. Keeping every after-school lesson into grade 6 collides with the weekends Waseda says it uses for school-specific work. Fixing a school in grade 4 from a single mock, or leaving every school visit until December of grade 6, fights the pace the FAQ describes. A mock date above is a test company's menu. The school's application deadline is on that school's guidelines.

What to do now

• If grade 4 is about to start, ask Waseda which weekday pair your building uses, and what the materials and curriculum-test fees are on top of ¥33,300 plus ¥2,900.
• Put one school information session in the diary this term, and take your child. The association's guide to what happens in the room is a separate article; the point here is to start while the first choice can still move.
• Match the child's grade to the ONETES row and open that sitting's page for the fee and the year.
• Keep a one-page note per school. Waseda says the list is usually fixed in late November or early December of grade 6, so the notes have to exist before that month.