2018 National High School Exam: Many new points in distributing and collecting test papers

2018 National High School Exam scores are rounded to 2 decimal places. Illustrative photo

Candidates notenew points

Mr. Nam Nhat Minh - Deputy Head of the Examination and Admissions Management Department (Ministry of Education and Training) said that nationwide, 2,144 examination sites are arranged mainly at high schools and secondary schools. Examination sites are arranged in districts, so it is very convenient for candidates to travel. Examination room conditions have been checked for tables, chairs, electricity, and fans. Localities are printing copies of examination papers so that they can be completed before the examination date and sent to examination sites with the support of security forces.

Mr. Minh informed that this year's exam has many new points added to ensure a serious and objective exam. Specifically, this year each exam room is required to have one invigilator who is a university or college staff or lecturer and one invigilator who is a high school teacher.

The time interval between the component subjects in the combined exam is 10 minutes instead of 20 minutes like last year. In particular, this year, the design department of the exam distribution scheme avoids the case where the exam supervisor can take a certain exam for a certain candidate.

This year’s multiple-choice answer sheets are also packaged in sealed envelopes and only enough sheets are printed for the number of candidates in the examination room. In case a candidate tears, creases or damages the answer sheet and wants to exchange it, a spare sheet will be given to the head of the examination site and a record of the return of the old sheet must be made.

A new point in this year's exam that candidates should note is that the invigilator will collect the exam scrap paper, exam questions, materials, and documents that candidates have recorded related to the exam questions of the previous component exam. Candidates who have registered to take the two combined exams of Natural Sciences and Social Sciences must take both exams to be considered for high school graduation. The exam scores are rounded to two decimal places.

Inspectors of ministries and departments are stationed at each examination site.

Mr. Nguyen Huy Bang, Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Education and Training, said that the exam has many goals, but the first thing to do is to ensure seriousness, fairness, and objectivity. The Ministry has identified inspection as the core, so more than 4,000 inspectors have been stationed at exam sites.

Answering the question, how did the Ministry resolve this issue when a teacher in charge of the 10th grade entrance exam in Hanoi leaked the exam questions, which greatly affected the exam? Mr. Bang said that before the exam, the Ministry required the departments to thoroughly train the exam invigilators on the regulations.

In addition, the ministry also issued regulations that each examination room has 2 invigilators, one of whom is in a position looking down from above, and one of whom is below looking up. In the hallway, there are mobile inspectors deployed and 2 inspectors from the ministry and the department stationed independently at the examination site. The ministry inspectors alone have full authority to inspect all examination sites and have the right to inspect from the chairman of the examination board down.

Mr. Bang believes that to avoid negative issues, the human factor is key, so first of all, supervisors must act seriously, fully, and in accordance with regulations. “Through the incident at the Hanoi Department of Education and Training, it can be seen that candidates can cheat, and supervisors can also cheat. Therefore, if one supervisor in the exam room is not serious, the other supervisor will see it right away,” Mr. Bang said.

Mr. Bang also noted the importance of high-tech devices that candidates may use. Because at the present time, it is impossible to determine how many types of devices there are, and how sophisticated they are. Last year, a candidate in Quang Nam inserted a small listening device the size of a bean into his ear and had to use a magnet to remove it. To detect these problems, Mr. Bang affirmed that the role of the invigilator is number 1 because candidates who commit cheating acts will show strange signs and can be detected by just paying close attention.

Explaining the concerns of some people about the grading of exams between localities, some places will be loose, some will be strict, making the exam scores between candidates unfair and objective. The leader of the Ministry of Education and Training said that during the exam, the inspection force is not allowed to enter the exam room, but when grading the exam, the exam papers are already checked, so the inspection force will inspect strictly, ensuring seriousness.

In addition, the exam regulations clearly state that 10 exams must be graded together first, discussed, and then graded in two independent rounds. The inspection force only needs to withdraw the exams for comparison to see whether the grading ensures seriousness and objectivity.

The 2018 National High School Exam had 925,792 candidates registered to take the exam, of which 237,326 candidates took the exam only for graduation and 642,379 (accounting for 74.3%) candidates registered to take both graduation and university and college entrance exams. Of these, 37% of candidates registered to take the Natural Science combination exam and 48% of candidates registered to take the Social Science combination exam (in 2017, it was 43%). 7% of candidates registered to take both combination exams.