From the second semester of the 2024-2025 school year, the matrix of periodic tests for subjects assessed by scores will include 2 parts: objective and essay tests. The innovation in testing and assessment for junior high and high school levels that the Ministry of Education and Training has just issued will make it more difficult for students and teachers...
More pressure when increasing essay
According to the guidance of the Ministry of Education and Training, from the second semester of this school year, the matrix for periodic tests of subjects assessed by scores will include 2 parts: objective multiple choice (accounting for 7 on a 10-point scale) and essay (accounting for 3 on a 10-point scale).
In the objective test (7 points), students must solve the following types of questions: multiple choice test (3 points); true/false test (2 points) and short answer (2 points).
Notably, the objective test section, in addition to multiple choice questions, also includes true/false and short answer questions. For true/false questions, each question consists of 4 sub-questions, each requiring students to choose the answer “True” or “False”. For short answer questions, if the subject does not use this question format, all points will be transferred to true/false questions.
This change does not make Tran Gia Linh (grade 12 student, Tran Hung Dao High School, Nam Dinh city) too worried. Gia Linh said that in the multiple choice test, many students feel most worried about the True/False test.
“There are 4 ideas in a question. If you answer all 4 ideas correctly, you will get 1 point. But if you answer only 1 idea incorrectly, you will be deducted 0.5 points. Thus, it is very likely that students will lose 50% of their total points for each question. This scoring method is disadvantageous and unfair to students.
I support the test with essay questions. Because essay questions are a fair assessment for students. Students will be graded based on how well they do their essays, unlike the grading system in the True/False test,” Gia Linh said.
For many students who previously only studied and did 100% multiple choice tests, the change in test questions to “reduce multiple choice and increase essay” makes them feel more pressured. Khanh Ly (grade 12, May High School, Hanoi) said: Increasing essay questions makes us have to change the way we study.
Because the essay questions have an application part, we have to increase the amount of knowledge and skills. This puts a lot of pressure on us - grade 12 students who are working very hard, studying day and night to prepare for the upcoming important high school graduation exam.
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Teachers and students speed up together
Before the guidelines for innovation in testing and assessment for junior high and high school levels recently issued by the Ministry of Education and Training, Ms. Tran Thi Thuy Mui, Vice Principal of Tran Hung Dao High School, Nam Dinh City, said that teachers and students of the school did not feel surprised because the school still let students study and take tests in multiple choice and essay formats.
However, Ms. Thuy Mui said that this school year is the first year of students studying under the new General Education Program, so teachers and students face many difficulties in teaching and learning.
“Teachers face the challenge of designing lessons that fit the new exam structure. Teachers have to do a lot of research to create question banks, especially those that are related to real life.
For practical questions on interdisciplinary subjects such as Math related to Physics, teachers must be very careful, reviewing knowledge of related subjects to ensure the questions are standard, closely following the requirements of the program. Teachers must improve their skills in creating questions, designing questions to both test knowledge and stimulate students' thinking ability," Ms. Thuy Mui shared.
What worries many parents and students is that the innovation in testing and student assessment is taking place in the middle of the school year, and should have been announced at the beginning of the school year so that students can stabilize their learning methods and avoid being passive.
“The innovation in test and assessment questions changes both the way students teach and their test-taking skills. Teachers must adjust their teaching methods, focusing on helping students gain a deeper understanding of knowledge and develop their analytical and synthesis skills rather than simply providing information.
This change is too sudden, especially for grade 12 students, causing both teachers and students to accelerate. The change without a roadmap has more or less affected the psychology of both students and teachers. We hope to provide detailed instructions and enough preparation time for teachers and students before implementing major changes.
In particular, we hope to increase the organization of training sessions and supporting materials to help teachers and students get familiar with the new exam structure. Grade 12 students do not have much time to practice test-taking skills according to the new exam structure, which will affect their test and assessment results, thereby affecting their graduation results.
Faced with this change, teachers and students can only try, speed up, and make more efforts to meet the requirements of this innovation," Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Toan, Principal of Dong Trieu High School (Quang Ninh), shared.
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