VietNamNet Bridge - The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has been criticized for including difficult questions on this year’s high school final exams, in contrast to last year when it faced criticism for easy questions. 

MOET has been criticized for difficult exam questions

Doan Thuy Nga, a biology teacher at Bui Thi Xuan High School in HCMC, said this year’s questions are much more difficult than those of last year.

“There are many questions, and many difficult questions. To solve them, students need a lot of time,” she said.

The teacher said that her students all complained they were very tired after solving physics and chemistry questions and did not have enough energy for the biology questions.

With such difficult questions, she believes that good and excellent students would receive a 7.5-8 score, while there will be few 9 and 10 marks.

As for chemistry questions, Doanh Thanh Trung from HCMC University of Natural Sciences said they were more difficult than last year’s questions, which required broader knowledge. Some teachers could not solve all the questions within 50 minutes.

“Solving 40 questions within 50 minutes is beyond students’ capacity,” Trung said.

In addition, the time limit of 120 minutes was not enough for students to solve literature questions. 

Truong Thi Bich Thuy, headmaster of the Trung Vuong High School in HCMC, a teacher with 24 years of experience, said she was confused when reading the questions.

Trinh Van Quynh, a literature teacher at Luong The Vinh High Nam in Nam Dinh City, said the questions were ‘too hard’, and students had only 120 minutes to answer the questions.

Tran Nam Dung from the HCMC University of Natural Sciences, a member school of HCMC National University, said he was disappointed as the test compilers did not have a consistent philosophy and strategy for creating questions.

“Last year the questions were too easy and there were too many 10 marks, which prevented the most excellent students from being chosen for universities. This year’s questions are too difficult. This still cannot satisfy the public,” he commented. 

Le Duc Vinh, a former lecturer at the Agriculture University, said that MOET just listens to public opinion to regulate exams.

Vinh, who formed university entrance exam questions during his 20 years of work, said even teachers had found it difficult to solve all the 40 questions of the math exam within 50 minutes.

Once again, doubts have been raised about the feasibility of a 2-in-1 exam, i.e. one exam that serves two purposes – finding students good enough to finish high school and selecting the best students for universities.

Tien Phong commented that MOET still cannot find a proper solution to the 2-in-1 exam scheme. 

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