The Pro Exam

This section details skills and drills that will prepare you for the exam. To be specific, these sections are not to teach you how to play mahjong, but to refine those skills to the required speed and accuracy.

I, the editor of this site, specifically used these methods, and only these methods, and passed the 49th Saikouisen written exam. I wanted to prove that my teaching methods had merit, and I did not use any other wait-reading or scoring knowledge that I had picked up over my decades of play – I followed the methods below, step by step, every question, and passed. You can, too, if you commit yourself to practice and study.

This section exists as a standalone training resource. Use it at your own risk – If you don’t learn to use the methods correctly and completely, they aren’t going to work for you. If you feel like you would prefer personal training, you can contact me and we can set up coaching sessions for a small fee – I know everyone learns differently, and I can work with you step-by-step until you are ready to succeed on your own.

The first part of the Pro Exam has seven sections: Rules and Information, Scoring, Wait Determination, Tenpai Acceptance, One-Away Efficiency, Tenpai Expansion, and Placement Comparison. You have 50 minutes to complete approximately 56 questions, which is about 54 seconds per question.

The target score is 80 percent. If you perfectly complete the first four sections – Rules/Info, Scoring, Wait, and Acceptance – you will receive 80 percent exactly. That is what I will be focusing on. Then, you skip to the Comparison section – while only a few questions, the methods listed here can solve them relatively quickly, and you can use them as a “buffer” , as each one is worth the same as a Score/Wait/Acceptance question, so every Comparison one you get correct can save you from an earlier mistake. The two skipped sections, Efficiency and Expansion, take quite a bit of time per question for the same points as questions in the other various tile and scoring sections.

Should you have time remaining, you can continue on to those, but while a higher score will definitely help smooth over any bumps in the interview and in-person play exam sections, it is the 80 percent that you need to get. If you fall short, you’ll need to be above average or something special in the other areas of the exam to pass, and this prep guide is specifically written for “the rest of us” – players getting better through hard work and hours of study. We are all in this together.

Then, either 1-2 Essay Questions, which you are given another 50 minutes to answer, or those questions will be integrated into the practical exam below (your game is stopped and you are specifically asked to explain an action or recall a specific situation)

Subsequent parts of the exam involve:

• An interview, where you will be asked to answer various questions such as your motivation for becoming a professional mahjong player and what kind of activities you would like to do.
• A practical exam, checking etiquette for competitive mahjong and basic mahjong ability.

Regarding the first parts (collectively: “the written”):

First, strive for accuracy. When you are done answering a question, be confident that it is correct. You need to learn the mechanics so that you can get everything correct. Thankfully, the mechanics are exhaustive – if you perform the method properly, you will get the correct answer.

Second, increase your speed in answering. As you shave seconds off your average time to answer, you will get closer to being able to complete the entire written exam.

Third, equip yourself properly. Multiple pencils (5+, why not) in case they break or dull. Plenty of scratch paper, not just to write on, but as a pad to write on should the table be too hard or bumpy. Lastly, a simple analog watch, such as what nurses wear, set to start at 12:00 on the press of a button, so you can keep track of time, as they do not tell you or show you how much time is left, you only get “begin” and “time is up”, and there is no clock in the room.

You can take practice tests, available on the Saikouisen website: Pro Test. https://saikouisen.com/about/pro-test/ click on any listed test, they are numbered links. Scroll to the bottom of that test info and will show that last ten or so exams along with their answer sheets. As you go back in history of the numbered Pro Tests, the example tests will be earlier and earlier versions. An example link is here: the first link is the test, the second is the answer sheet.

Bonus for Coaching Students: As you complete and refine the lessons below, you can take sample tests at the following link. So as not to exhaust the available test questions, I suggest that you not just take it repeatedly for fun, and risk learning how to answer “these specific questions” over “questions in general”. Take it after periods of training to track your progress.

Individual sections are detailed below.

Sections in Detail