"As the forms of examinations are changing very often, I just feel pity for students, their parents and for myself because we have to turn around and around to keep up with these changes,” said a young teacher about examinations in Vietnam. And I think that this is the common thought of many teachers.

However, education is a kind of science, so changes and testing are normal. It is important that the test on the back of children must be carried out very carefully, with the opinion of many people, particularly experts, not just an idea raised by some officials.

In the morning, when an official points to the east, the whole educational sector moves to the east and in the afternoon, when another official points to the west, the education sector runs to the west. This is the situation in Vietnam.

Since the policy of combining two exams into one, many teachers have pointed out the shortcomings of this model, simply because the two exams are different in nature.

If the test is defined as "rating capacity" (understood as the qualification to enter college), which is similar to the American model of SAT, it is inconsistent with students who only want to graduate from high school, ie to be rated as "completing the program." In fact the national high-school exams 2016 showed that nearly 70% of students did not wish to enter college.

The shortcomings were seen right on an exam. For example, to assess the qualification to enter college, the reading exercise should have questions to assess critical, analytical and synthetic ability, which is essential for the university. People who just need to graduate from high school only find simple information.

When the same examination serves two different purposes, inadequacies will happen as it has already occurred in recent exams. 

Each evaluation form has different strengths. We should not have an extreme view. But before the "new", we should be calm and especially should not think in the usual way. The United States, where objective tests are common, is the country that wins the highest number of Nobel awards so the objective test should have something that we need to consider.

Based on comments made by teachers on the draft plan of the national high school examination 2017, we can see that many of them do not understand thoroughly about the form of objective tests. In fact, this form is not new.

As they do not have good understanding of objective tests, some said that students “could solve at least 25% of the questions even though they don’t know anything" and "don’t need to think if you only need to choose A, B, C or D". 

But if students do not solve the problems and don’t think, how can they know which answer is right to pick? If the exam questions can be solved by the students who even know nothing, then those who create the questions should be abandoned.

Some teachers complained that they had taught students in another method and now they have to change to fit with the objective tests. It is ridiculous. That statement shows that so far many teachers have mainly taught their students tricks to solve exam questions rather than give them knowledge and skills. If it is true, it is a disaster for our children.

Someone who wants to truly understand the objective tests should remain calm to learn more about this form. In this regard, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Bui Van Ga was right to say it is just a change of form of measurement.

However, in addition to technical reasons or not having full understanding, a few people reject objective tests because of “sensitive” reasons that everyone knows.