Do not use 10th grade test questions as illustrations for graduation exams
In December 2023 and last March, the Ministry of Education and Training used the 10th grade exam questions for the first semester to make the illustrative exam questions for the 2025 high school graduation literature subject.
According to the explanation of the Ministry of Education and Training, the reason for using the 10th grade test to illustrate the 2025 high school graduation literature exam is because "at this time, the 2018 general education program has only been implemented up to grade 11, so the knowledge content used in the illustrative questions mainly belongs to grades 10 and 11".
Dr. Trinh Thu Tuyet, former literature teacher, Chu Van An High School, Hanoi (Photo: NVCC).
This explanation is difficult to convince because first, the test does not use materials from textbooks. Second, reading, writing, speaking and listening skills, Vietnamese language and literature knowledge are provided according to the concentric structure of the entire program, so it is completely possible to prepare an independent illustrative test for high school graduation exams from 2025 without being limited by the program's progress.
The second issue is the concern about whether the publication of sample questions is a default or not? And when the exam questions are encouraged to be "open", will the construction and completion of the structure, format, and test matrix continue to be "open" for the contribution of opinions from teachers, students, etc., nationwide?
Pressure for 120 minutes
The test still takes 120 minutes, and the structure of the two parts Reading and Writing is still the same, but in fact, the high school graduation exam from 2025 has created great pressure on the suitability and continuity for students when performing the requirements of the exam...
For exam questions from 2024 and earlier, the social argumentative essay (NLXH) requires discussion of an issue raised in reading comprehension material; the literary argumentative essay requires discussion of a work in a textbook.
Thus, when writing a social science paragraph, students can inherit the thinking flow from the reading comprehension material; when writing a literary essay, they have a foundation in familiar works in the program.
However, this is also the cause of the boredom of teaching and learning according to model texts for a long time. Change is inevitable but needs to have a suitable roadmap and most importantly, it must ensure the continuity of thinking, and be suitable for students to carry out the requirements.
Candidates taking the 2024 high school graduation exam (Photo: Hai Long).
According to the illustrative topic, students must read to understand, discuss, and analyze two new texts; and when the discussion topic is not necessarily related to the content of the reading comprehension section, there will be discussion questions about an independent issue, and their thinking will be broken between three parts: Reading comprehension - Social discussion - Literary discussion.
Reading out the layers of meaning in two new texts (with a total length of up to 1,300 words) is difficult; but understanding, analyzing, and commenting thoroughly and deeply according to the requirements of the topic is much more difficult.
With the Reading Comprehension materials, answering questions according to cognitive levels, testing knowledge of Vietnamese, literature and reading comprehension skills that have been reviewed according to the concentric program will not be too difficult for students, but overwhelm still appears when the number of questions increases.
With literary argumentation questions, the materials are works outside of textbooks that students may have never read, so the problem arises in choosing the text length and argumentation requirements to suit both their psychology and ability to perform. The text should not be too long to overwhelm students, making it difficult to grasp and develop argumentation content; nor should it be too short to prevent candidates from defining the argumentation content.
Two proposals for the 2025 high school graduation literature exam
Firstly, the use of texts outside of textbooks as reading and discussion materials is inevitable to eliminate the situation of teaching and learning according to model texts, but when our reading culture is not high, the structure and format of the exam questions need a suitable roadmap, ensuring the appropriateness, integration, inheritance, and continuity of thinking, etc., both reducing pressure on students and increasing scientificity, creating organic connections between elements in a whole exam question.
Second, according to the structure and format of the sample questions published since December 2023, there are currently two types of social argumentative questions: argumentative questions about an independent social issue and argumentative questions about a social issue raised in a reading comprehension text. To reduce pressure on students, create continuity in thinking, and coherence of elements in a whole of the test, we would like to propose an immediate solution: Should require discussion of an issue raised in a reading comprehension text.
Dr. Trinh Thu Tuyet
Former Literature Teacher, Chu Van An High School, Hanoi
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/hai-de-xuat-sat-suon-voi-de-thi-ngu-van-tot-nghiep-thpt-2025-20240731174847819.htm
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