VietNamNet Bridge - Reports from 63 local education departments show there are thousands of 10/10 scores at the high school finals, an ‘abnormally’ high number compared with 68 exam papers which had a 10/10 score last year.

Before the reports were made public, Deputy Minister of Education Bui Van Ga predicted there would not be many exam papers which received a 10/10 score because of difficult exam questions which could be solved only by excellent students.

However, contrary to the prediction, more than 4,000 exam papers were 10 out of 10.

In HCMC, 70 percent of 71,500 examinees got marks above average in mathematics, 85 percent in literature, 58 percent in chemistry, 44.5 percent in biology and 66.3 percent in foreign languages.

Other localities also reported high percentage of students getting 5 marks and higher for different exam subjects. As many as 46 exam papers in Khanh Hoa province got a perfect 10/10 score and 36 in Lam Dong.

Deputy headmaster of a high school in HCMC said ‘there is something wrong’ in such a high number of students who got the perfect 10/10 score.

Reports from 63 local education departments show there are thousands of 10/10 scores at the high school finals, an ‘abnormally’ high number compared with 68 exam papers which had a 10/10 score last year.

“I know many teachers said that exam questions are ‘safe’ with few difficult questions, so it is difficult to find excellent students,” he said.

Sai Cong Hong, a senior official of MOET, denied that exam questions were too easy for students, saying that while many students got 10, many others got zero. In mathematics, for example, 278 examinees got 10, but 762 scored zero and 49.2 percent of students got below average (5) in the exam subject.

Truong Tien Si, a lecturer of the HCMC Banking University, said there were about 500 students getting the 10/10 score in Hanoi and 500 in HCMC, while each of other cities/provinces has 70-80 exam papers marked out of 10. 

Therefore, he predicted that universities would require very high minimum marks on students who apply for the schools.

The Hanoi University of Foreign Trade, HCMC branch of the University of Foreign Trade, Hanoi Medical University and HCMC Medical University set the highest mark requirements on students. 

It is expected that students must have no fewer than 30 for three exam subjects to be eligible to apply for the schools (Students applying for medical schools, for example, will have exams in math, chemistry and biology).

In general, the minimum score that students must have to apply for schools this year is 3-5 scores higher than that of last year.

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