Lowering Literature Exam Scores in Lang Son: Director of Department of Education and Training Gives Surprising Reason

According to the Director of the Department of Education and Training of Lang Son province, the "reduction in exam scores" of some candidates in the Literature subject has many reasons, including the examiners adding up the wrong scores.

Speaking to the press, Mr. Tran Quoc Tuan, Director of the Department of Education and Training of Lang Son province, said that the local High School Graduation Exam Steering Committee is currently focusing on tasks such as announcing the assessment scores for candidates, printing temporary graduation certificates, and exam result certificates for candidates with changed scores and delivering them to candidates in a timely manner.

Along with that, organize a review to learn from experience and clarify the responsibilities of related individuals towards the Literature Exam Scoring Team.

According to the test results, 8 candidates had their high school graduation exam scores reduced (in which the highest score reduction was 1.75 points).

Lang Son Provincial Examination Council seriously reviewed the limitations and shortcomings in the organization of the 2018 National High School Exam. Urgently implement the recommendations of the Working Group, complete the review and evaluation of the organization of the 2018 National High School Exam and report to the Provincial Party Committee, Provincial People's Committee, and Ministry of Education and Training before August 1, 2018.

Mr. Tuan further explained that the "reduction in exam scores" of candidates that the Ministry of Education and Training's Working Group concluded was due to the fact that the Literature subject has its own characteristics, diversity, and richness in understanding, perception, and explanation; the application of the Literature scoring instructions in an open direction means that the scoring can be affected by the perceptions of each examiner.

Although the marking instructions are detailed, the way students express themselves on the test and the actual feelings of teachers are sometimes not really consistent. On the other hand, the marking ability of some examiners is limited and uneven in terms of expertise. In addition, there is another reason that examiners add up the wrong points.