National High School Exam Scores: Got 9.5 in Literature, 10 in Math and Geography

In Hanoi, there were 10 points in Geography and 9.5 points in Literature. Meanwhile, in Ho Chi Minh City, there were 10 points in Math.

Currently, universities and the Department of Education and Training have graded 50%-70% of the exams, and some places have even finished 100% of the essay subjects. According to the schools' assessment, this year's exams are well differentiated. In Hanoi, there have been 10 points in Geography and 9.5 points in Literature. Meanwhile, in Ho Chi Minh City, there have been 10 points in Math.

According to Tien Phong newspaper, Mr. Nguyen Phong Dien, Head of Training Department, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, said that up to now, the school has graded 50% of the essay exams. Mr. Dien also said that the Literature subject has a score of 9.5, the highest score for History and Geography is 9.25 points.

At the University of Water Resources, Professor Nguyen Canh Thai, Vice Principal of the school, said that the History subject had been graded since July 9. The Math subject had been graded in two rounds and scored 70%, with a difference of 60%. The Literature subject had been graded in the second round and scored 70%, with a difference of 51%. The school plans to finish grading Literature and Math today, July 12. The Geography subject had been graded in two rounds and is currently finishing the difference.

There are Literature papers with different scores of up to 2.5 points.

This year, all three social science essay subjects are open-ended. Therefore, when grading the exam, the results depend partly on the subjectivity of the grader. Professor Nguyen Canh Thai said that out of over 12,000 Math papers, 53 were graded C, meaning a third person had to be used to grade the papers.

But in the Literature subject, there were over 11,000 papers, of which 264 were graded C differently; in the Geography subject, there were 4,834 papers, of which 12 were graded C differently; and in the History subject, there were 1,120 papers, of which 35 were graded C differently. “For the Literature subject alone, before grading, the Literature group discussed the answers from the Ministry of Education and Training all morning. However, because the exam was open, the grading was different. The teachers and group leaders of the 3 essay subjects all gave reasonable instructions and adjustments,” Professor Thai shared.

Regarding the Literature subject, Ms. Bui Minh Ngoc, head of the Literature marking team at the University of Water Resources, said: “The reason why there are many C deviations is because the exam has many open issues, and this is understandable. The head of the team assigned staff to re-mark the test and follow the regulations in the spirit of benefiting the candidates. Among the papers marked with C deviations, the highest deviation was 2.5 points.”

Assessing the quality of this year’s exam, Ms. Ngoc affirmed that the candidates’ papers were clearly classified. The highest score in Literature at the University of Water Resources was 8.5 points. “This year’s score distribution does not have many failing scores, but the scores are lower than in 2015,” Ms. Ngoc said.

Sharing more about the work of an exam marker, Ms. Ngoc said that she has been marking exams for many years. “Each exam season, the markers also have joys and sorrows when looking at the candidates’ papers. Some people like to mark thin papers, but others like to mark thick papers. Because thick papers mean that the candidates have “put in the effort” to invest in their writing. And that way, there will be good papers, creative papers” - Ms. Ngoc expressed.

On the other hand, with the recent open-ended exam format, examiners are often surprised by the creative ways candidates write. However, it is also difficult to avoid silly essays.

Candidates taking the 2016 National High School Exam

Geography has a score of 10

At the Water Resources University exam cluster, Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong, head of the Geography exam marking group, said that the score was 10. “This is a very good test. The presentation is complete and clear. In the open part, the candidate has made in-depth analysis. Unlike Literature, in Geography, even though it is an open part, the candidate still has to analyze based on geographical knowledge data,” Ms. Huong said.

According to Ms. Huong, this year's exam questions are more clearly differentiated than in 2015. "When receiving the exam questions, there are no tricky questions, it seems quite easy to "score". However, candidates can easily lose points in the ideas. Therefore, this year's scores will not be high" - Ms. Huong analyzed.

According to an examiner at a local exam cluster with a large number of candidates, the math exam scores in the first days were mostly below average, with some students failing.

“There are very few scores above 5, the highest score in Math at the moment is 7,” this examiner affirmed. According to this examiner, this year’s exam was very differentiated, besides the difficult questions for candidates to do to get university entrance scores, there were many easy questions to score. However, many candidates unfortunately lost points.

High cluster math, low local cluster math

Information from examiners at some national high school exam marking councils in Ho Chi Minh City shows that candidates' papers are highly differentiated.

According to Thanh Nien newspaper, a math examiner at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology's grading board said that this year's exam differentiated very clearly from easy to difficult questions, so the test results were different from last year. The common scores ranged from 5 to 5.75. Occasionally, there were still candidates who received zero points (1 or less) in each exam room, and scores below 5 were also quite high. According to some examiners, for difficult questions, in addition to the solution from the answer key, the examiner may give full marks to other solutions as long as they were convincing and correct.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Le Quan, Vice Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Sciences, said: "Out of nearly 30,000 math exams from the two exam clusters graded by the school, no exam has achieved a score of 10, many exams have a score of 6. The highest score in this subject is currently 9 points."

The situation is similar at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education exam cluster. According to preliminary statistics, the average score for math is around 5-6, with no exam scoring above 9.

Dr. Tran Dinh Ly, Head of Training Department of Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry, also said that through preliminary statistics, 45% of the exams scored between 4.25 and 7 points. As of yesterday, the highest score in math in this cluster was 9.25.

Mr. Kieu Xuan Thuc, Head of Training Department of Hanoi University of Industry, said that the examiners of the essay subjects in the exam cluster organized by the school assessed that this year the quality of the candidates' papers was higher than last year. This year's exam was well differentiated, so the score distribution was very wide. For example, in math, there were quite a few candidates who scored 9 - 9.5, but there were very few candidates who scored 9.75 or higher, and scores of 10 also appeared but were only obtained by a few candidates.

Meanwhile, an examiner at a local examination cluster in Hanoi said that although this year's exam had many easy questions, the test takers' results were still not bright. The common score was below 5, rarely 6-7, and there were still some candidates who failed. Mr. V., an examiner at another local examination cluster, said that the test takers' scores for this subject were generally very low. Not only did most candidates not "touch" the last 4 questions, but many candidates could not even do the first 5-6 questions (the easy part for candidates who only wanted to graduate).

Few unique articles

According to a teacher who participated in marking the exams at a university-sponsored exam cluster in the north, the candidates' papers this year were quite good. Most of the candidates were able to answer the basic questions. The average score was generally above average. With open-ended questions, the candidates were able to present their thoughts. In the literary essay question, because the work "The Beggar's Wife" was so familiar, the candidates' papers did not have the phenomenon of rambling "in the head of Ngo and the body of So" as in previous years when the exam asked about difficult works.

However, according to this teacher, although many papers are “clean”, the ideas all follow a common pattern, similar to the ideas in the grading scale of the Ministry of Education and Training. Therefore, up to now, the grading council has not encountered any unique or special papers. Currently, there is no paper that has received a score of 9.

In Ho Chi Minh City, a teacher who participated in marking the exam said that the weakness of candidates in the literature subject is their weak knowledge of Vietnamese, such as rhetorical devices, methods of expression... The most ridiculous mistake of candidates is in the recognition part of the reading comprehension question, when the answer only accepts one correct answer, some candidates answer up to 3, 4 options, by chance. Or in the social essay, many candidates write a paragraph. Some candidates even write 2 separate essays in the literary argumentation part, which is analyzing the situation and commenting on opinions. The common score for literature is around 5.5 - 6.5. Many examiners said that there is no failing score for this subject. Occasionally there are a few 9s, but there is still no 10.

However, the examiners' concern is the difference between the grading councils due to the open-ended essay answers. "If there is not a high level of consensus between the clusters, grading councils, and examiners, there will still be concerns about uneven scores and unfairness for candidates," said a literature examiner at the examination council of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry.

History of many good arguments

For history and geography, because the exam questions are open-ended and express the writer’s views and opinions, many of the papers were quite good, creative and had a personal stamp. At the marking council of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, there was a geography exam that received 9 points, while the highest score for literature and history was 8.5.

An examiner in Hanoi said that many candidates argued quite well, showing their historical aptitude. The open-ended question on the policy of national unity was answered quite well by all candidates. Examiners at the examination cluster chaired by Hanoi University of Industry said that this cluster only had nearly 900 candidates but they have now scored 9 points. The majority scored around 5-6 points.

Few candidates skip the English essay section

Compared to last year, according to the examiners, the English essay section is more positive. If last year more than half of the candidates did not get a score in this section, this year there were very few zeros. "Maybe because students are more familiar with it at school. Candidates only need to have a good grasp of grammar to get 0.3 - 0.5 points for the sentence conversion section," said an English examiner at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities. The clearest classification is in the essay section (140 words). Candidates who write well can easily get 1 - 1.5 points./.

According to VOV