High School Graduation Exam 2015: Controversy over 20-point grading scale

The change from a 10-point scale to a 20-point scale is the latest point that has just been announced by the Ministry of Education and Training in the Draft Regulations for the 2015 High School Graduation Exam. This immediately became a hot issue that many students and parents are interested in these days.

Candidates taking the 2014 university entrance exam. Illustration photo: Vietnam+

Strange with the new scale

According to many teachers and students at schools, the change from a 10-point scale to a 20-point scale is quite strange to them.

Hoang Tuan, a student at Bac Kien Xuong High School (Kien Xuong, Thai Binh) said that during more than 10 years of schooling, he was only familiar with the 10-point scale, and teachers had never graded on a 20-point scale.

“Therefore, I am not sure if the 20-point scale is much different from the 10-point scale. To get a high score on the 20-point scale, what do we need to pay attention to?” Tuan shared.

Tuan's concern is also the common thought of many high school students.

Not all students understand the 20-point scale correctly. Some students at Tran Nhan Tong High School (Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi) mistakenly thought that 20 points was the total score of four compulsory subjects in the graduation exam, each subject worth a maximum of 5 points.

According to Mr. Mai Van Trinh, Director of the Department of Testing and Educational Quality Assessment, Ministry of Education and Training, candidates need to understand correctly that the 20-point scale means that each subject has a maximum score of 20 points, instead of 10 points as at present.

Regarding students' concerns about the new grading system, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Binh, Principal of Viet Duc High School, said that students do not need to worry too much. Schools will have instructions to help students get used to the new grading method, especially how to do the test step by step, each operation so that students can get the maximum score.

In addition, from now until the end of the school year, teachers can familiarize students with the new grading scale through tests or many schools also have mock exams.

With the new scoring scale, candidates will be able to recover points for each small idea. Illustration photo: Vietnam+

"Eat" maximum points on a 20-point scale

With a 20-point scale, there will be a detailed answer with a more specific score scale than the current 10-point scale. University and college leaders believe that this will be more convenient for students and schools.

According to Associate Professor Nguyen Huu Tu, Vice Principal of Hanoi Medical University, with a 20-point scale, the scores will be much more detailed. Specifically, when grading answers, the minimum component score will be 0.25/20 points.

Mr. Tu believes that with such details, candidates will be able to “earn” points for each smaller idea during the test. The assessment of candidates will be more accurate, and the classification of candidates will be higher. The school will have more advantages in determining reasonable admission scores.

This is also shared by Mr. Nguyen Van Hanh, Head of Training Department, Hanoi University.

Sharing this view, Associate Professor Nguyen Van Minh, Principal of Hanoi Pedagogical University, gave an example: in the 2014 admission season, with the standard score of the Mathematics department being 25 points, the department was short of 20 targets, however the school did not dare to lower it to 24.5 points because there were 100 candidates reaching this level.

According to Mr. Minh, with a 20-point scale, the answers and scoring scale will have to be twice as detailed as with a 10-point scale. “This will make the test-making and answer-making teams work harder, but it is very beneficial for candidates, as they will receive points for each part they complete,” said Mr. Minh.

From another perspective, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Binh, Principal of Viet Duc High School, said that, looking at it realistically and objectively, it can be seen that, in some aspects, students will be disadvantaged.

In a more specific analysis, Mr. Binh said that with a 20-point scale, the scoring scale will be more detailed for each step and each sub-item of quantitative knowledge in the test, especially the essay test. However, students have not paid attention to this issue and are used to only focusing on the final result without paying attention to the process, so it is easy to lose points.

“However, I still support the policy of changing the scale to 20 points because this easy loss of points will make students have to be more careful in the process of doing the test, thereby gradually overcoming carelessness and sloppiness,” Mr. Binh shared.

Looking at the issue more broadly, the principal of Viet Duc High School believes that this also has significance in helping to shape students' personalities with patience, meticulousness, and knowing how to value details and plans in their action and work roadmap. "We often do not value details. That is also the reason why we are always late and miss plans while in foreign countries they have detailed plans down to every second and every minute for each activity," said Mr. Binh.

According to Mr. Mai Van Trinh, the Ministry of Education and Training is still collecting public opinions on this draft innovation before officially issuing it with the view of creating the most favorable conditions and ensuring maximum benefits for students.

According to Vietnam+