The question "know how to listen" in the Nghe An province gifted student exam attracts students

Provincial excellent student exam in Literature, school year 2018 - 2019. Photo: Chu Thanh

On the afternoon of March 16, many candidates entered the final exam session of the Provincial Excellent Student Exam for the 2018-2019 school year with 3 subjects: Literature, Mathematics, and Civic Education. This year's Provincial Excellent Student Exam for Literature consists of 2 parts: Reading Comprehension (4 points) and Writing (16 points).

The Reading section is about a passage in the book “Seeds of the Soul and the Meaning of Life”. The Writing section has 2 questions: one about thinking with the sentence “When you know how to listen, you will realize many wonderful things”, and one about the article “The Voice of Literature and Arts” by author Nguyen Dinh Thi.

At the end of the 150-minute test, many candidates expressed interest in the open-ended question related to "knowing how to listen".

Dau Thi Thu Hien, a student of class 11C1, Kim Lien High School, Nam Dan, said that she felt that the essay topic was suitable for students. She personally liked the literary argumentative essay that analyzed to clarify “the hidden, silent thoughts that each author wanted to convey” through the passage in the article “The Voice of Literature and Art” by author Nguyen Dinh Thi.

Students review their answers after the provincial excellent student exam. Photo: Chu Thanh

Sharing the same opinion, Dang Thi Nghia Quyen, 11A8, Vinh University High School for the Gifted, added that this year's essay questions are divided into different levels of difficulty. However, the 10-point analysis of the essay "Voice of Literature" by author Nguyen Dinh Thi is a bit long. According to Quyen, if candidates do not read carefully, this year's essay questions can be fooled right from question 1. Among the questions, Quyen likes the open-ended question about "knowing how to listen" the most because she can freely write about her thoughts and express her own opinions.

Nguyen Xuan Phuc (right) said he did well in the Literature exam. Photo: Chu Thanh

Nguyen Xuan Phuc, a grade 11C1 student at Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted, said that this year’s exam was quite easy for students because the teachers had reviewed it thoroughly before the exam and he himself did well on the test. Among the questions, Phuc liked the social argumentation question about “knowing how to listen” the most and wrote it on 4 pages.

Tran Hong Thuong, a student at Nam Dan 2 High School, said that the reading comprehension and social commentary sections were relatively easy, but the literature commentary was a bit difficult. Like many other candidates, Thuong liked the social commentary questions.