National High School Exam 2017: Controversy over multiple-choice math test

According to teachers, applying multiple-choice math exams in 2017 is not appropriate and needs a roadmap.

Continuing to contribute ideas to the Draft National High School Exam Plan 2017, many parents and teachers said that the Ministry of Education and Training needs to carefully study when applying the multiple-choice test method for each subject, not all subjects are multiple-choice, especially Math.

Because if the test is multiple choice, it can easily lead to students learning mechanically, learning by rote, practicing with multiple choice test banks... thereby reducing creativity and logical thinking to solve problems.

Many opinions disagree with the multiple choice test format for Math (Illustration photo)

According to the Draft of the 2017 National High School Exam, announced by the Ministry of Education and Training, the Math exam will be in the form of multiple choice questions, not in the form of essay questions as in previous years. Each multiple choice question is created by a computer from a question bank.

The Math exam will have 50 questions, so it will test more knowledge than the essay test, which trains students' ability to do the test quickly. Organizing the exam in this multiple-choice format will save costs and time for organizing and marking the exam, ensuring fairness when marking by machine, avoiding cheating in exams... This exam method is based on the plan implemented over the past three years at Hanoi National University.

However, many parents and teachers are still wondering about the feasibility of implementing the test plan based on the Hanoi National University's competency assessment test. This test has only been applied in one school and has not been piloted widely and there has not been an assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of this test.

Ms. Nguyen Bich Ngoc, in Hai Ba Trung district, Hanoi, said: “In fact, Hanoi National University has only piloted it in its member schools, not yet widely applied. Now, to apply it widely, there needs to be a roadmap or a pilot. If there is a roadmap from the beginning to prepare children starting high school, then it will be possible next year.”

According to teacher Tran Manh Tung, a math teacher at Luong The Vinh High School, Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi: In addition to the obvious advantages of implementing multiple-choice math exams, such as being compact and reducing cheating, the 100% multiple-choice math exam still has limitations such as reducing the ability to classify students; many poor students will have the opportunity to guess the answer and get higher scores than students with real knowledge; students will learn mechanically and learn by rote; it takes a lot of time to build a question bank.

Meanwhile, for many years now, Math has been taught to high school students using the method of thinking, logic, and the ability to apply knowledge to solve problems. Therefore, applying multiple choice tests in Math will go against the current teaching goals in schools. Therefore, applying multiple choice tests in Math in 2017 is not appropriate and needs a roadmap.

Teacher Tran Manh Tung analyzed: “Multiple-choice testing will be implemented when we have switched to the new curriculum, new textbooks; new teaching methods, new testing and assessment methods. We still apply both in one, both essay and multiple-choice, so that each method can promote its own strengths, not doing it in a leveling way like the 2017 exam plan, which only has completely multiple-choice tests. I think that is unreasonable.”

Besides the concern that the multiple choice test format for Math can easily lead to students learning mechanically, learning by rote, and practicing with the test bank, many opinions are also concerned about the quality of the test. The questions will not be able to assess the actual learning results of the students. The test will no longer have good questions, questions with in-depth knowledge that can only be answered with real knowledge.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Toan, Vice Principal of Chuong My A High School, Chuong My District (Hanoi) said: "I do not oppose the Math exam in the form of multiple choice tests, but the fact is that multiple choice tests will reduce the depth of difficult problems. With 90 minutes and 50 questions, how can there be any difficult questions?"

Many parents, teachers and education experts hope that the Ministry of Education and Training will listen, accept and maintain the same format of the Math essay test as last year. The Math multiple-choice test needs to be further studied and implemented in harmony with the essay test, after implementing the textbook program after 2018, so that the exam preparation of teachers and students is more suitable, not causing confusion and difficulties for teachers and students.

According to VOV