National High School Exam 2017: Worry about multiple choice questions in the combination test

Many experts and school leaders are concerned about the multiple choice questions of subjects in the Social Science exam...

After the Ministry of Education and Training officially announced the plan to organize the 2017 national high school exam, a number of experts and universities, colleges, and high schools expressed their agreement with this exam plan. However, there are still concerns and worries about the quality of the increase in questions in the combined exam of Natural Sciences and Social Sciences.

The official plan for organizing the 2017 national high school exam announced by the Ministry of Education and Training on September 28 was assessed by some experts, universities and colleges as having taken into account the opinions of experts, schools and society. The plan to organize exam clusters in all provinces and cities will create conditions for candidates not to have to travel too far, the exam time is only 2 days, which will reduce costs and pressure for candidates.

Candidates taking the 2016 National High School Exam.

Professor Dao Trong Thi, former Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture, Education, Youth, Adolescents and Children, assessed that the Ministry of Education and Training's exam plan with the organization of 5 exams closely followed the direction of innovation, aiming at the educational goal of comprehensively developing learners' abilities and qualities. The exam content is limited to the general education program, mainly grade 12 knowledge, which is also consistent with the roadmap for changing exam formats.

Professor Dao Trong Thi said: “Taking combined exams also has its advantages. It is true that students do not study one-sidedly, they have to study all the subjects. Those who are preparing for the traditional exam block, in fact, only have to study one more subject.

Instead of Math, Physics, Chemistry, we now have to learn Biology; instead of Math, Chemistry, Biology, we have to learn Physics. But that is necessary because we are educating comprehensively, developing comprehensively the capacity and qualities of students. Therefore, students have to learn an extra subject, but we get a bigger thing: they do not study lopsidedly, they are educated comprehensively.

Technical changes in the exam organization compared to the draft such as: increasing the number of questions in each component subject of the combined exam of Natural Sciences and Social Sciences, increasing the time to do the test... are assessed by many universities as ensuring knowledge testing, meeting the requirements for both graduation and university and college admission.

Mr. Tran Khac Thac, Deputy Head of Training Department, Thuyloi University, said that clearly defining the time and process for each component subject in the combined exam will reduce the situation where candidates focus all their time on the component subject that they plan to use for university admission.

On the side of the schools, they also consider admission based on the combined exam scores, or the scores of each component subject without difficulty: Increasing the number of questions will help to better assess the students' abilities. The Ministry still organizes the combined exam according to the modules of the traditional subject, which will be convenient for the candidates, helping them not to be too confused. Second, it will help the schools in the admission work, that is, they can still recruit according to the traditional exam block. Any school that wants to use the combined results, will consider admission according to the normal block.

Mr. Le Vinh, Principal of Le Quy Don High School for the Gifted, Da Nang City, said that the multiple choice test method for Math and Social Sciences will assess students' abilities. However, what Mr. Le Vinh is concerned about is that the combined Social Sciences and Natural Sciences exam has too many questions that can make candidates feel tired and not do well on the test.

“The natural and social subjects group, the draft is 60 questions in each group, now the Ministry of Education has increased it to 120 questions per group. If 120 questions per group like that are done within 150 minutes, I think it will be pressured for high school students, afraid that physiologically they will not be able to bear it.

Because there are 120 questions to read, with 4 options for each question, if the options given are longer, students will do the first few paragraphs effectively, but in the later paragraphs, because their thinking starts to get tired, I think the quality of the following questions will not be high.

One issue that many experts and school leaders are concerned about is how the multiple choice questions of the subjects in the Social Science exam will be so that they can evaluate students, but not make them memorize, learn by heart, or memorize mechanically.

Professor Phan Huy Le, Chairman of the Vietnam Historical Science Association, said that History can be tested in multiple-choice, but how to create test questions needs to be calculated and considered: The most important issue is how to test multiple-choice, with a system of questions so that History does not become a subject that only measures knowledge.

The questions are to assess the students' actual level of understanding, that is, historical thinking, and in this respect, multiple choice questions are extremely difficult. What I am waiting for is for the Ministry to soon provide some examples and principles on how to create multiple choice questions.

After the Ministry of Education and Training announced the official exam plan, universities, colleges, high schools and students hoped that the Ministry would soon issue guidance documents and exam regulations so that schools and candidates have time to get used to the new exam method, and universities can develop appropriate enrollment plans.

Up to this point, most universities will use the results of the national high school exam for admission, not to mention organizing separate exams and admissions to reduce the burden on candidates./.

According to VOV