The math exam is designed to differentiate candidates, causing many to worry.

(Baonghean.vn) - On the morning of June 24th, over 36,000 candidates in Nghe An completed the Mathematics exam - the final subject in the entrance exam for 10th grade in the 2013-2014 school year. Leaving the exam room, many candidates expressed anxiety about their performance and felt that the Math exam was relatively difficult and highly selective.

Candidates leave the exam site at Le Viet Thuat High School (Vinh City) after finishing the Mathematics exam.

In contrast to the torrential rain all day yesterday (April 23rd) due to the influence of typhoon number 2, this morning the atmosphere was quite cool and pleasant for the students entering the examination rooms, favorable for taking the exam. At the Le Viet Thuat High School examination center (Vinh City), near the end of the Math exam, a large number of parents stood in front of the school gate to pick up their children. Our observations showed that the atmosphere at this examination center was very serious; from outside the school gate, police officers and traffic police were deployed to ensure security and order.

Many parents waited anxiously for their children to finish their final exams. Ms. Nguyen Thi Duyen from Nghi Duc commune (Vinh City), whose child applied to Le Viet Thuat High School as their first choice, confided: "My child is worried, but I'm ten times more so. Yesterday, due to the impact of typhoon number 2, several acres of our family's peanut fields were flooded, but I still made an effort to pick up and drop off my child so that she could focus on her exams. She did reasonably well on the two exams yesterday, but I'm most worried about Math because she's only an average student."

Candidates are worried about their math exam results.

With only 10 minutes left in the exam, only a few candidates were seen discussing their answers on the benches. After the 120-minute math exam, candidates left the exam room feeling anxious because the math test was quite difficult. Some even burst into tears with their parents as soon as they left the school gate because they couldn't answer the questions. According to many candidates, this year's math test closely followed the curriculum and review materials, and had a high level of difficulty. Tran Manh Duc, a student from Ben Thuy Secondary School, shook his head while holding the exam paper and said: “The exam had 5 questions in total, including two geometry questions. I found the math test quite difficult and the 5th question, worth 1 point, had a high level of difficulty. I couldn't even answer part c of question 4, which was also geometry. Although I reviewed the curriculum thoroughly and practiced many exercises, I think I only scored around 6 or 7 points on this test.”

Students debated the exam questions with their friends. Many candidates commented that the Math exam had a high level of difficulty and was designed to differentiate between students' abilities.

Meanwhile, Phan Thi Thuy Linh, a student from Hung Dung Secondary School who applied to Le Viet Thuat High School as her first choice, was quite worried about her math exam. Linh said that she did well in the first two subjects yesterday, but the math exam was difficult to score points on. “I only managed to complete about 70% of the math exam; a few questions were too difficult for me, so I had to leave them unfinished. Many of my classmates in the exam room couldn't do the test either. I hope the cutoff score for admission to the school will be lower this year than last year,” Linh lamented.

Mr. Nguyen Trong Hoan, Deputy Chief of the Office of the Nghe An Department of Education and Training, stated that all 68 examination centers across the province conducted their exams safely, seriously, and in accordance with regulations, with no irregularities occurring. In this morning's Mathematics exam, two candidates were suspended for violating exam regulations. From June 26th, the Department of Education and Training will begin grading the exams and will soon announce the results to candidates and parents.

Doan Hoa