Deputy Minister of Education and Training "reveals" about university entrance exam questions

In just three days, more than one million candidates will officially take the 2014 university and college entrance exams. This year, the exam has many important new features compared to previous years. Vietnam+ reporters had an interview with Deputy Minister of Education and Training Bui Van Ga about these issues.

Deputy Minister Bui Van Ga

- Mr. Deputy Minister, in just a few days, the university and college entrance exams will officially begin. Could you tell us how the preparations for the exams have been carried out so far?

Deputy Minister Bui Van Ga:Up to this moment, the direction work for the 2014 university and college entrance exams has been completed. This year, the Ministry issued the direction documents very early, so universities and localities have proactively deployed the preparation work for the exam.

The Ministry's working delegations have come to work with localities where there are inter-school examination clusters (Hai Phong, Vinh, Quy Nhon and Can Tho) to discuss coordination in organizing the exam. The localities are very ready, directing departments, branches, and mass organizations to participate in supporting candidates and their families, and are ready to handle situations such as storms, floods, traffic jams, food safety, etc. Unforeseen incidents such as flooded roads requiring the use of amphibious vehicles to take candidates to the exam site in Thai Nguyen last year have also been calculated by the localities and have timely handling plans to ensure the exam takes place safely.

In general, up to this point, all activities are going according to plan, and the examination councils are ready to welcome candidates to take the first round of exams in the next few days.

- As the exam date approaches, the issue that candidates are most concerned about is the exam, especially after the high school graduation exam, when the exam has many new points. What can the Deputy Minister "reveal" about this issue?

Deputy Minister Bui Van Ga:In general, this year's exam will follow the innovative direction that has been evaluated by candidates and public opinion as good in recent years' university entrance exams and especially in the recent high school graduation exam.

The exam will not require candidates to memorize many details mechanically, not to learn by heart according to a pre-existing pattern, but will increase testing of their ability, thinking ability, and ability to apply learned knowledge to real life.

The knowledge in the exam is within the general education curriculum. The foreign language exam only has multiple choice questions like last year, without the writing part like this year's high school graduation exam.

Candidates taking university entrance exams. Photo: VNA

- This year is the first year since the implementation of the "three common" exam plan, universities and colleges will have separate admissions. Can the Deputy Minister elaborate on this issue?

Deputy Minister Bui Van Ga:The training majors at university level are very rich and diverse, and each major has its own requirements. Therefore, schools need to have appropriate enrollment plans to select the right candidates with the capacity required by the training major.

Implementing the Law on Higher Education, since this year, the Ministry of Education and Training has amended the regulations, allowing schools with suitable enrollment plans to conduct their own enrollment. Currently, there are 62 schools whose plans have been approved by the Ministry to ensure this requirement and conduct their own enrollment.

Since this is the first year of separate enrollment, all schools have reserved a portion of their enrollment quotas for the common exam organized by the Ministry and the remainder for their own enrollment plans. Some schools have reserved their own enrollment quotas for specific training majors, majors that are difficult to enroll but have a social demand such as agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, etc.

Schools that recruit students separately are all based on academic results and high school graduation with reasonable admission thresholds to ensure input quality. According to preliminary reports, the number of applications for admission under the separate recruitment plan of some schools is higher than expected.

Separate admissions depend on the schools' plans. If many schools propose to enroll twice a year, the Ministry will consider regulating specific times for centralized separate admissions. This year, schools with separate admissions will consider multiple admissions but will end at the end of October according to the Ministry's general admission schedule.

Thus, on the one hand, admission innovations help schools recruit candidates with suitable abilities and on the other hand, help candidates have more opportunities to choose schools, majors and even choose examination methods suitable to their strengths.

- It can be said that this year's exam has many new points, from the question making, the organization of admissions to the consideration of entrance scores. Because it is a new point, candidates are quite worried. Do you have any message for them?

Deputy Minister Bui Van Ga:All innovations in admissions are in the direction of benefiting candidates, for example, dividing admission scores into many levels to stratify quality, helping students admitted to schools with high admission scores have more opportunities to find jobs later.

Regulations on multiplying the coefficient of the main exam subjects help candidates with good ability in the subjects that the training sector requires to have more chances to be admitted; allow schools to recruit students separately to diversify the methods of testing candidates' abilities...

The test questions are also innovated in a way that does not force students to memorize many details mechanically but instead demonstrates their ability through thinking, applying learned knowledge into practice... which will create conditions for students to do better on the test.

The exam day is approaching, you should focus on reviewing and systematizing the knowledge you have learned, you should not participate in exam preparation which is time-consuming and affects your health. Staying calm, confident and taking the exam with a relaxed spirit will definitely help you do well on the exam.

You should read the exam regulations carefully to know what items are allowed in the exam room and pay special attention to the items that are prohibited from being brought into the exam room. Every year, many candidates are suspended from the exam because they bring mobile phones. When bringing a phone into the exam room, whether intentionally or unintentionally, whether the phone is turned off or on, the candidate will be suspended from the exam immediately. This is something that you must pay close attention to.

Thank you, Deputy Minister!

According to Vietnam+