National High School Mock Exam: Too Many Failed Scores

A teacher at a high school in Ho Chi Minh City said that in the recent high school mock exam, out of nearly 400 12th grade students, 41% of them failed (below 1) in math. For literature, out of 25 exams, only about 1-2 students scored above average.

Difficult to pass graduation

This teacher analyzed the high school graduation exam questions of previous years (10-point scale), the level of ease of the questions was up to question number 8, only 2 difficult questions for good and excellent students, so students with average academic performance could also get a score of 5 or higher. But with the recent math mock exam in Ho Chi Minh City, by question 3, students had to bite their pens because there were only 2 easy questions. Only good students could get 6-8 points, but for average students, getting 4-5 points was difficult. "Let's assume that the rate of 41% of students failing the test was because they did not do their best, did not have time to review, but if we only count half of that number, that is, about 20% of students failing the test is very dangerous" - this teacher analyzed.

Students of Bui Thi Xuan High School take a mock national high school exam in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to Master Ha Huu Thach, Principal of Giong Ong To High School (District 2), the literature test in the recent mock test was quite similar to the school's second semester test, so students were able to do well on the test. However, in math, some students had not reviewed the test, so not many of them reached the good score range.

The vice principal in charge of professional matters at a high school in Cu Chi district also said that the average total score of 4 subjects required to graduate for students in the mock exam was less than 30%.

According to records, only high schools in the top group such as Nguyen Thi Minh Khai High School, Bui Thi Xuan High School... have a high number of students achieving above average scores. In some middle and bottom group schools, the number of students achieving a total score of 4 subjects for graduation is not much. Schools are worried about the situation of students failing graduation en masse if the level of difficulty of the upcoming real exam is equal to or more difficult than the mock exam.

How to make it suitable?

The principal of a high school in Phu Nhuan district said that it is very important to "balance" the questions to be suitable to differentiate students in the upcoming national high school exam. The exam questions and tests must reflect the assessment results in general education training, even if only a few percent of students get a failing score, it is a problem. The exam questions need to be considered so that students from specialized schools can do it, but students from the bottom schools do not have to bite their pens.

According to Dr. Vo The Quan, Principal of Dong Do High School (Hanoi), the most worrying thing for teachers, parents and students at present is the structure of the exam because this is an important factor that determines the exam results. Up to now, option 1 proposed by the Department of Testing and Education Quality Assessment - Ministry of Education and Training in Official Dispatch No. 374/KTKĐCLGD-KT dated March 31 is that the questions for high school graduation and university and college admissions are mixed together. This option has the advantage that the knowledge serving the two purposes is closely coordinated in a complete exam.

However, the disadvantage of this is that the test taker's concentration is distracted by the difficult and easy content when doing the test. For weak students, distinguishing between easy questions to do first and difficult questions to do later is very time-consuming, affecting the test mentality and test progress. Overall, students will have a hard time completing the test and thus will affect the graduation exam results and admissions.

The exam should be divided into two parts.

Dr. Vo The Quan believes that if the structure of the national high school exam is divided into two independent parts, it will be very convenient for candidates to do the test: Candidates who want to graduate from high school only need to focus on part 1; candidates who want to apply for university or college only need to focus on part 2. Candidates who want to both graduate from high school and apply for university or college must do both parts. Such a structure will create favorable psychological conditions, students will focus on doing the part that is right for their exam purpose. This also makes it easier to grade and process exam results.