The only reason to go to cram school while in elementary school is to get into Namiki or Meikei. Those are integrated junior-senior high schools, both tier 1. (Namiki is public; Meikei is private.) Their students do not have to worry about cramming for senior high school entrance exams. Other than Namiki and Meikei, there are only two tier 1 public high schools in the area, Takezono and Tsuchiura 1. Cram schools are almost essential in getting into one of them. Unfortunately, in this area there is a big gap between tier 1 and tier 2 public high schools. (Ushiku Eishin and Tsuchura 2 are the two tier 2 schools in the area.)
[Added note: In American terminology, Takezono, Tsuchiura 1, Namiki and Meikei can be called exam schools (http://educationnext.org/exam-schools-from-the-inside). Meikei is private and makes its own entrance exams. The other three are run by Ibaraki Prefecture, which develops one exam each year for all prefectural high schools. These four high schools operate on the assumption that all students will go on to universities.]
The tier 1 high schools themselves are effectively cram schools. Like the jr high cram schools, they pack 3 years of materials into the first 2 years and spend the 3rd year on review and practice exams. (Takezono 3rd year students only have one new textbook.) Several of the practice exams are run by cram school chains, Kawai and Benesse. Results come back with ratings versus their selected target universities, plus quite detailed diagnostics. Other "short" tests are 10-min, 4-subject quizes with more than any student can handle - simply to get them accustomed to hitting the ground running.
We send our son, now a 3rd yr HS student at Takezono, to cram school for math starting late in his 2nd year Yatabe JHS. We've continued with cram school math in high school because there is an excellent instructor who specializes in Takezono HS math.
We are very pleased with the results. Our son went from hating math to loving it. A key seemed to be have friends-cum-rivals to team up with and compete with.
I have come to appreciate the system here, even though it is completely alien from my rural public schools in MN of 45 years ago.
