How to study for the Machine Maintenance Technician Grade 2 exam (mechanical): frequent topics from the past 3 years and a plan for the last 2 months

Exam date and the schedule leading up to it

What to bring: your admission ticket, an HB or B pencil (mechanical pencil OK), an eraser, a wristwatch (no smartphones or watches with communication functions) and photo ID^[2]. The exam fee is 20,000 yen for the written and practical tests together, and you need at least 2 years of machine maintenance work experience to take the exam^[3].

Pass rate: a step harder than Grade 3

About 80% of Grade 3 (mechanical) candidates passed in the same fiscal year^[7], so Grade 2 is a step harder. Even so, nearly half pass, and if you get the pattern of the past exams, it is well within reach.

Written test: more than half of the 50 questions are “Mechanical Maintenance Methods”

The 3 years of published exams (FY2023–2025) were counted by the subjects in the official “Examination Subjects and Their Scope”^[4] (the classification is Kezuriba's own).

What is most common within mechanical maintenance methods?

Themes that appear almost every year

The same themes appear near the same question numbers almost every year. The true/false questions, Q1–25, are concentrated in common subjects such as general maintenance, quality control and safety & health, and this is a source of points won by memorizing, so don't drop them.

Practical test: bearings, gears, fracture surfaces and seals for 3 years running

The practical test is a “judgment test”: you look at photos and diagrams and choose the name, cause, remedy, etc. of the damage on a mark sheet^[3][6]. The photos and diagrams are confidential test material (“kentei-hi”) and are not published^[5], so the quickest way is to practice with the color photos in commercial practical-test prep books^[12].

Learn “name, cause, remedy” as a set for the practical test. For bearings, for example, “flaking (spalling) → excessive load or poor lubrication → replace the bearing and remove the cause”: if you learn not just the name of the damage but also its cause and remedy together, you can handle any way the question is asked. For how damage looks, the tool damage diagrams in the Machining Troubleshooting Encyclopedia are also a useful reference.

How to structure your last 2 months of study

1. Solve the past 3 years once: On the official past-exam page, solve the written tests for FY2023–2025 and work out how many questions you got right in each subject^[5]. The pass mark is 65 points, so find out first where your weak fields are
2. Lock down mechanical maintenance methods field by field: Q26–50 (25 questions) are all from here. Start with the most frequent fields: hydraulics & pneumatics, machine elements, abnormalities, lubrication and mechanics. With a commercial workbook organized by field, solving questions on the same theme back to back makes the pattern visible^[11]
3. Win the common subjects by memorizing: the bathtub curve, MTBF, control charts, sampling inspection, fire classes and the like appear almost every year
4. Get your eyes used to the practical test with photos: give top priority to the 4 themes that appeared 3 years running (bearings, gears, fracture surfaces, seals), and learn name, cause and remedy as a set
5. In the last 2 weeks, solve full papers against the clock: 100 minutes for the written test, 10 minutes per task for the practical test. Review only the questions you got wrong

The administering association does not publish textbooks or run prep courses^[10]. Official past exams cover only 3 years, so if you want to go further back, use a commercial past-exam collection (one covering 5–8 years by field).

If you didn't apply this time: the next exam

Applications for the 2nd exam of FY2026 have already closed^[1]. If you want to take Grade 2, aim for the 2nd exam of the next fiscal year (the previous one was held in mid-December). If you learn the patterns by field from past exams now, you won't be rushed when applications open. The grades, eligibility requirements and exam format of the Machine Maintenance Skills Test are also summarized on the page Equipment maintenance: “Machine Maintenance Skills Test”.

FAQ

Which is harder, the written test or the practical test?

By pass rate over the last 3 years, the practical test (46–54%) is a little lower than the written test (50–63%)^[9][8][7]. On the practical test, the amount of practice judging from photos makes the difference.

Can I pass with past exams alone?

The same themes come up repeatedly, so field-by-field practice with past exams is the core. However, only 3 years are officially published, so it is safer to extend the number of years with a commercial past-exam collection.

What if I pass only one of the two?

You can also take just the written test or just the practical test (the fee is separate). Check the exam guide for how a test you passed is handled (conditions for exemption)^[3][2].