Deputy Minister of Education: 'Just review the textbooks to do well on the test'

"The national high school exam questions are based on the general education program, mainly grade 12, not riddles, not mechanical memorization", Deputy Minister of Education and Training Bui Van Ga reassured candidates before the national high school exam day (July 1-4).

- Deputy Minister, this year each province and city has an exam cluster chaired by a university. What obstacles do disadvantaged localities encounter in organizing the exam?

- Recently, the Ministry's leaders were assigned to inspect the exam preparation work in difficult areas to see if there were any problems so that they could be promptly handled. Through the inspection, we found that there was very good coordination between the locality and the host university.

For provinces with only university entrance exam clusters, candidates who live far from exam locations and have difficulty traveling, the Ministry reminds localities to thoroughly implement Prime Minister's Directive 15, which is to take students to the exam location by all means, and not let any student be unable to take the exam due to difficult conditions.

Some provinces have called on benefactors to help candidates by providing free accommodation and meals. Some provinces support travel expenses for candidates, such as Binh Duong providing one million VND for each candidate from far away, and Binh Phuoc supporting travel expenses for each candidate with 300,000 VND.

Up to this point, the localities have been very active. All provinces and cities are very excited because the exam cluster is held right in their locality, students do not have to travel far. Therefore, every place is trying to promptly handle any problems.

Deputy Minister Bui Van Ga.

- With 70 university entrance exam clusters and 50 exam clusters chaired by the Department of Education, how are exam questions secured?

- From the afternoon of June 29, the exam papers have been transported to the printing facilities and the printing work has been completed. Tomorrow, the testing locations that are the furthest away from the printing facilities and have difficulty traveling will receive the exam papers of all subjects and organize their safekeeping. There is a security department on duty 24/7 to ensure the absolute safety of the exam papers.

This year, there is an exam site on the island of Phu Quoc hosted by Kien Giang University. This exam site is organized to ensure the safety of students, helping them not to have to leave the island for the mainland because it is the storm season. Kien Giang has chartered a plane to transport the exam to the location and is protected by security agencies.

The Ministry is currently in contact with all examination clusters. On the afternoon of June 29, all examination clusters reported that they had fully prepared conditions to welcome candidates to complete examination procedures.

- Compared to 2015, how has this year's exam changed, sir?

- This year's exam will have the same structure as 2015 (60% basic knowledge, 40% difficult to classify) so the Ministry will not provide sample exam questions. Candidates can refer to last year's exam questions to get familiar with the format of the questions, so they will not be confused when taking the test.

In general, the questions are from the general education program, mainly grade 12, not tricky, not requiring students to memorize mechanically, but candidates must grasp and apply knowledge in practice. Students only need to review the textbook to have enough knowledge to do well on the test.

- How does the Ministry plan to announce the scores this year to avoid network congestion like last year?

- This year, the exam marking work for big cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Thai Nguyen... will be convenient because there are many universities in charge. Exam papers from some localities will also be sent to big cities for marking, so the Ministry reminds schools to carefully contract with teachers and examiners to ensure progress.

After the results are available, the Ministry will assign the clusters to announce the exam results. The Ministry has reminded the clusters to prepare transmission lines, servers, technical infrastructure, and information technology to ensure that the network is not congested when announcing. This year, the announcement of exam scores will be dispersed among 70 exam clusters hosted by universities and 50 exam clusters hosted by the Department, so there will be no difficulty in accessing them.

What can I bring into the exam room? Graphics: Tien Thanh - Hoang Thuy

- What is the Deputy Minister's advice for candidates?

- This is a "two-in-one" exam, the results are used for both graduation and university and college admission, so the exam is not too difficult. Students just need to be confident and have a solid grasp of the knowledge they have learned to do well on the test.

Last year, despite being reminded many times not to bring mobile phones into the exam room, hundreds of candidates still made this mistake and were suspended. You should remember that you are only allowed to bring items permitted by the Ministry such as pens, rulers, geography atlases, calculators with simple functions... You should leave your phones at the counter with the volunteers, absolutely do not bring them into the exam room, because even if you bring them in but do not use them, you will still be suspended from the exam./.

According to VNE