How are the national high school graduation exams graded?

On the afternoon of June 27th, immediately after the three-day national high school graduation exam concluded, the examination boards began assigning codes to the exam papers. Except for Literature, which was essay-based, the remaining subjects were multiple-choice and graded by machine.

The Literature exam is graded in two independent rounds and a review round.

The Literature exam papers must be marked and coded before being handed over to the grading committee; the code numbers are kept strictly confidential. At the meeting concluding the 2018 National High School Graduation Examination, Mr. Mai Van Trinh, Director of Quality Management (Ministry of Education and Training), stated that there are two methods of code marking: one round or two independent rounds.

"The Chairman of the Examination Council will make the decision, but whichever method is used, it must be ensured that the staff responsible for marking the exam papers are completely isolated, just like those involved in printing and copying the exam papers," Mr. Trinh said.speak.

After the grading process is complete, the grading committee will begin its work. Mr. Trinh informed that the essay-based exam must be graded in two independent rounds, each in a separate room.

Before assigning the completed two-round grading to the two examiners for a final score, the scores on the score sheets of both examiners must be compared. If a difference of 0.5 points or more is found, the head examiner must request an investigation to determine the cause and reach a consensus on the handling of the discrepancy between the two examiners, in order to prevent errors and violations of examination regulations.

Examiners are not allowed to change scores on the grading sheet, score record sheet, or on the exam paper during the score reconciliation process.

For exams where the official score is the average of three grading sessions, the average must be converted to a 10-point scale and rounded to two decimal places.

Besides the two independent rounds of grading, the grading committee must also conduct a review of at least 5% of the essay exams concurrently with the first and second rounds of grading. According to Mr. Trinh, this is to check whether the examiners have been consistent in their work and to make timely adjustments if any discrepancies are found.

The verification process involves the head of the Examination Board randomly selecting a number of papers or choosing papers with questionable content and assigning them to a verification team. Members of this team work directly with the relevant examination teams as directed by the head of the Examination Board.

How multiple-choice tests are graded

The scoring of multiple-choice tests is done by machine. The process of scanning, processing, scoring, and reporting the results must be closely monitored.

After scanning, all multiple-choice answer sheets and exam submission forms are sealed, stored, and secured at the unit. The original scanned exam data files (including registration numbers, unverified, uncorrected, and ungraded) exported from the software, ensuring the structure and requirements as stipulated by the Ministry of Education and Training, are recorded onto two identical CDs, sealed, and signed by the supervisory department; one CD is given to the Chairman of the Examination Council for safekeeping, and the other is sent by express mail to the Department of Quality Management under the Ministry, no later than July 4th.

After CD1 is sealed, the units are then allowed to unseal the data files for grading sent by the Quality Management Department. The test processing team proceeds with processing the test papers and conducting the official grading.

The score for the combined exam is the average of the scores for the individual subjects, converted to a 10-point scale and rounded to two decimal places. The scores for the independent exams and the scores for each individual subject within the combined exam are also converted to a 10-point scale and rounded to two decimal places.

Director of Quality Management Mai Van Trinh affirmed that the exam scoring machine has been completed, tested since the beginning of May, and is ready to score exams from now on. The scoring process is closed and rigorous, with supervision from inspectors and the PA83 (Internal Political Security) force at the time of scoring to ensure objectivity.

"From 2015 to the present, in all the multiple-choice tests for which a review was requested, there has not been a single case of score change. This shows that machine-based scoring ensures high accuracy," Mr. Trinh said.

The results of the national high school graduation exam will be announced on July 11th. After receiving the results, candidates can submit an appeal if they believe their scores are not accurate, no later than July 20th.

Duong Tam