VietNamNet Bridge – The first semester of the 2010-2011 academic year is finishing, and it is now the right time for people founded high schools to start gearing up for preparing students’ for their final exams.
In principle, the school year will only finish in May 2011, andthe Ministry of Education and Training will only declare the exam subjects in April. However, all high schools have been rushing to fulfill the curriculum by March at the latest. The remaining time of the academic year, from March to May 2011, will be spent only to prepare students for the final exams.

In general, there are six exam subjects, including three fixed subjects (literature, mathematics and foreign languages) and the other three subjects decided annually by the Ministry of Education and Training.

Nearly all high schools in HCM City have started their programmes to prepare students for final exams. Nguyen Hoang Viet, Headmaster of Phu Nhuan High School said that the lessons of physical exercises, informatics and national defense have been scheduled for afternoons, while all the mornings have been reserved for important subjects.

Viet said that his school has kicked off an intensive programme to prepare students for finals, but he said that the school will give time for self-study at home, believing that it would be not good requiring students to spend all their time at school.

Pham Van Tien, Headmaster of Tan Phong High School, said that right after the first semester’s exams finished, the school has made the list of students who need extra-class help based on the exams’ results. These students could fai the exams, unless they attend extra classes.

“In the immediate time, we will teach extra classes on three most important subjects, mathematics, literature and foreign languages, three hours a week,” Tien said.

The Ta Quang Buu High School is also reportedly checking the first semester’s exam results of 500 12th graders in order to find out who needs extra lessons.

“It is now the time to review three subjects mathematics, literature and foreign languages. Meanwhile, the reviewing of three other subjects will be carried out in late March, after the Ministry of Education and Training declare the exam subjects. If we do not start right now, it will be too late,” said Nguyen Minh Son, Headmaster of Ta Quang Buu School.

Meanwhile, non-state owned schools began preparing students for the finals right at the beginning of the new academic year. Headmaster of a people founded school admitted that students of people founded schools have lower learning capability than students of state owned schools, therefore, people founded schools always have to make great efforts to train their students.

At Thanh Binh people founded school, the management board announced the plan to review for the final exams to 11th graders. Meanwhile, 12th graders are put in different groups which receive different levels of intensive training, depending on their learning capability. Every month, students have to do a test to inform them about their current level. Based on that, teachers, set up review plans for them. Especially, good students can sit the classes set up for preparing for university entrance exams. The classes have been gathered since September 2010.

Le Van Linh, Headmaster of Thanh Binh School, said that boarder students have to review lessons until 9:30 pm every day, while day-boarder students can stay at school to review lessons if they cannot study themselves at home. “The preparation for the finals should be started right now. If students only begin preparing for the exams from March 2011, it will be too late,” he said.

Source: Tien phong