10th grade students burst into tears at the school gate and the exam questions caused controversy

(Dan Tri) - Students taking the 10th grade entrance exam in Ho Chi Minh City burst into tears because of the "strange" math exam, the essay about the lifestyle of a street vendor, the association of the writing profession with a "brick maker"... are exam questions that caused heated debate last year.

10th grade students in Ho Chi Minh City burst into tears over math questions

Right after the math exam in the 2024 Ho Chi Minh City 10th grade entrance exam, many candidates cried on the shoulders of their friends and parents because the math exam had "strange" questions. Many students, even those who were good students, could not complete the exam.

The 10th grade math exam in Ho Chi Minh City has attracted conflicting opinions and heated debates. Not only students, parents, and teachers, but many experts are also interested and expressing their opinions about this exam.

Many opinions said that the exam was innovative, highly applicable, and required many abilities from students. On the contrary, many people said that the exam was inappropriate and challenged students.

Students taking the 10th grade entrance exam in 2024 in Ho Chi Minh City burst into tears right after the math exam because of the "strange" questions (Photo: Hoai Nam).

Mr. Vu Khac Ngoc, an expert from Hoc Mai Education System, expressed his opinion that the math exam for grade 10 in Ho Chi Minh City is designed in a "non-standard" direction to help assess students' comprehensive abilities, from reading and comprehension skills, the ability to think about modeling situations to problem solving.

The questions do not "give me an equation and solve it" or give me a math problem that is exactly like a mold and then "substitute numbers in" - which have been the problems for many years that have caused Vietnamese students to solve math problems loudly but "not be good at math". The questions are based on very diverse contexts in life, so students cannot memorize them.

This person assessed that the math exam of Ho Chi Minh City is a typical exam for the spirit of educational innovation.

Meanwhile, after a detailed analysis of the 10th grade math exam in Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Nguyen Khac Minh, a teacher who has led many generations of Vietnamese students to compete in the International Math Olympiad, said that this exam has many issues that need to be seriously considered.

According to Mr. Minh, the exam is too long and full of words, which can have a negative impact on the candidates' psychology; the exam does not meet some of the minimum, principled requirements for an exam; many problems with practical elements in the exam cause negative reactions to the application of mathematics in practice...

Regarding the scene of students crying right in front of the exam gate, Mr. Minh sympathized: "If I saw this exam, I would cry too."

According to him, students will be very disappointed when they cannot show their full potential in an exam. Exam questions that make candidates not calm enough to do the test can lead to undesirable results, so it is normal for students to cry.

According to the leader of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, the 10th grade exam is not a graduation exam but an entrance exam, the purpose of which is to recruit students, not to assess knowledge. The general spirit of the exam is to differentiate in order to recruit students according to their abilities.

Essay on youth lifestyle

This essay topic is extremely short with only one sentence: "Write an essay discussing the current youth lifestyle" is the mid-term exam for the first semester of the 2024-2025 school year of a 10th grader at Mac Dinh Chi High School, Ho Chi Minh City.

The essay topic about "canvas lifestyle" has attracted many controversial opinions (Photo: TL).

This exam question sparked two opinions, one side expressed love and excitement and the other side was extremely surprised and disagreed with the way this question was formulated.

Many opinions expressed that the essay topic was short but interesting, current and impressive, with a spirit of innovation to test and evaluate based on ability, not bound by the curriculum.

On the contrary, the opposite opinion is that "tarpaulin" is a slang word, and the curriculum does not mention this term, so it cannot be affirmed that all students understand and grasp the trend.

Exams in schools need to be suggestive if it is a social concept that is not required for everyone to know, and it cannot be assumed that everyone understands what the word "canvas" is. And literature is also a science, it must be precise and principled.

The professional team of Mac Dinh Chi High School explained that before that, students were instructed to recognize the requirements of a social argumentative essay on a social issue; and were instructed to practice applying argumentative operations in writing appropriate to the required time.

Regarding knowledge content, teachers guide students to state the practical significance of social issues that they are oriented to choose, including "canvas lifestyle".

Essay for grade 10 about brick making

The argumentative question in the 2024 grade 10 Literature exam of Hanoi High School for Social Sciences and Humanities caused controversy when it asked students to associate the process of creating a literary work of a writer with the work of a bricklayer.

This exam caused a stir because of the illogical and tactless way the question was posed. Immediately after the exam, many opinions expressed the view that associating the writer's literary creation process with the work of a "brick maker" was extremely lame.

The essay topic associates the writer's process of creating literary works with the work of a bricklayer (Photo: Screenshot).

According to many opinions, associating the process of creating a literary work with the skillful molding and molding to produce uniform pink bricks is too dry, mechanical, stereotyped, inappropriate and tactless.

Along with that is the concern that the exam questions may lead to a return to model writing, losing students' emotions, especially those who want to major in literature.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/hoc-sinh-thi-lop-10-oa-khoc-giua-cong-truong-va-nhung-de-thi-gay-tranh-cai-20250103055405506.htm