Mistakes to avoid when taking the 2016 National High School English Exam

"In the reading comprehension and fill-in-the-blank sections, limited vocabulary or a fear and aversion to this type of question led to many inaccurate answers," said Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong (hocmai.online center).

In the 2015 National High School Graduation Examination, English had the lowest average score (2.5 points), indicating that many students are still very uncertain about their English knowledge.

Therefore, with the 2016 National High School Graduation Examination approaching, many students feel anxious and confused, especially since the English exam includes an essay section with sentence rewriting and paragraph writing, making it even more challenging.

Regarding the above issue, our reporter had a conversation with Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong (teaching name Huong Fiona) – a teacher with many years of experience in preparing students for English exams.

- Excuse me, teacher, could you please tell me what are some common mistakes students make during the English exam?

In the multiple-choice section, candidates often make phonetic errors because they don't pay attention to pronunciation or stress when learning new words, or they don't understand the rules of word stress. As a result, candidates often fear this type of question or tend to guess randomly.

Additionally, there are errors in reading the instructions carefully in the synonym/antonym section, such as finding an answer that is close in meaning to the underlined word when the question is asking for an antonym.

Questions that require combined knowledge of two or three topics in English—for example, passive voice combined with subject-verb agreement, or passive voice combined with to V/Ving and verb conjugation—many students cannot solve all the required knowledge. Most students only address a part of the problem without considering all the factors, leading to incorrect answers.

In the reading comprehension and fill-in-the-blank sections, limited vocabulary or a feeling of fear and boredom with this type of question often leads to inaccurate answers.

Candidates should remember that what they understand is always more important than what they don't understand in the text, so stay calm to read and process the information as best as possible. The information asked for can be found through keywords and the logical flow and overall theme of the text.

For the essay writing section: While writing a paragraph, students often start writing without creating an outline, leading to errors in structure, lack of logic, and unconvincing development of ideas. Additionally, students often use incorrect sentence structures, word order, omit articles, use incorrect or missing tenses, and fail to ensure subject-verb harmony.

Additionally, in the Vocabulary section, common errors include: repetition (using the same word too many times) or using inappropriate or limited vocabulary.

- Given that the exam includes both essay and multiple-choice questions, how should candidates allocate their time effectively and efficiently?

If the candidate's goal is to score 5-6 points, they should spend 40 minutes completing the 34 multiple-choice questions (the easiest questions to score points on); 30 minutes on the two reading comprehension and fill-in-the-blank sections; and 20 minutes on the essay section.

If you aim for a score of 8-10, allocate 30 minutes (or a little more) for the 34 multiple-choice questions, 30 minutes for the two reading comprehension and fill-in-the-blank sections, and 30 minutes for the essay (for the essay, spend 3 minutes outlining and 3 minutes reviewing after completion).

In fact, English is not dry or scary at all; it's actually very colorful and enjoyable if you open your heart and learn it with love and passion. Currently, as Vietnam is gradually integrating into the global economy, not knowing English to communicate and work is no different from being illiterate.

To best prepare for the future, take advantage of this "immense pressure" to study English diligently, so you can do your best in this subject in the upcoming national high school graduation exam and then confidently travel the world without worrying about language barriers.

Thank you for sharing!

According to Infonet