Option... jump rope

(Baonghean) -This year, my family has several grandchildren who are all taking the university entrance exam. When I saw the news online about 5 proposed plans to replace the floor score, I rushed to announce it to the whole family. My grandmother eagerly asked: "What plans?" Only then did I read the article carefully, read it all at once until I was sweating, read it again for the 10th timetwo but still... don't understand anything. The whole family sat around like children waiting for their mother to finish the market...

After the whole family analyzed and dissected the article, the following conclusion was drawn: simply put, instead of giving a fixed floor score with a number, people will classify candidates into groups with different threshold scores. For example, the group of candidates with the highest score, above a certain threshold score, accounts for 25% of the candidates; the group with the second highest score, above a slightly lower threshold score, accounts for 50% of the candidates; and so on, the next group accounts for 75%, 80%,... Universities are only allowed to recruit students from the highest and second highest groups, while colleges have slightly lower quotas, and so on.

That's how my family understands it, but if you ask me to explain each option in detail, analyze the differences, advantages and disadvantages between this option and that option, I'm stumped! It's so complicated! The threshold score calculation by group, the threshold score calculation by exam block, the combination of both group and exam block, but how do I understand the differences? It seems easy to understand, but it's a bit "off-key" to divide candidates into groups by region, which means reducing the scope of competition from nationwide to regional competition. It sounds okay, but when I read the sentence "if the exam score is suitable, you can transfer from one region to another", I don't understand the whole story, because "suitable" here specifically means calculated according to what criteria, I don't see anyone say? The last option seems the most simple because everyone understands it, it's the official admission group and the reserve admission group, a kind of "waiting list" to be called for admission.

The article is short but it makes my head hurt to read, all percentages, numbers, as complicated as a thesis on some probability theory. Honestly, do I understand what those 5 options are and can I choose them? Of course... not. Surely only the Ministry's highly sophisticated education planners can understand the above calculation methods, but for parents and students, "Where the Ministry puts it, the people sit there". But what makes me worried is that there are less than 3 months left until the university entrance exam, but the discussion about the system, methods, and admission criteria has not yet been concluded. How can students orient themselves, decide on their choices and wishes, and how can they focus on studying? Furthermore, assuming that ministries, departments, branches and schools now agree on a plan to replace the floor score (probably not yet!), will there be enough time to prepare the personnel and necessary factors to apply this plan for the 2014 admission season?

Suddenly I thought of the jump rope game when I was in school. I don't know why, every time we started playing, we would argue "the rope is too tight", "the rope is too tight",... it took 5 minutes of arguing and adjusting the rope. Now let's play! Hey, where was this rule? Why is level 1 so high? You have to stand with your legs wide apart? In short, we argued loudly about the rules of the game, it took another 5 minutes, plus the time it took to get in and out of class, which meant that out of the 15 minutes of recess, we didn't get to play at all, it was so boring! Looking at my 12th grade nephews now, they are just like me when I was a kid, struggling to hit the high rope, getting caught in the low rope, hearing one side say it's against the rules, the other side say it's not, I don't know what to do! But unfortunately, this is not a playground for elementary school students, and even less a frivolous recess, but a martial arts school, dear lawmakers! If you want to debate, please debate early, instead of making the children and their parents sit around waiting until their legs are sore right before the exam, okay?

Hai Trieu

(Email from Paris)