Change to fit

Go Vap District (HCMC) awarded certificates of merit and commended students who won the city-level excellent student award for grade 9 in the 2023-2024 school year. Photo: Phan Ny.

The exam consists of two parts: compulsory and optional.

Immediately after the opening ceremony, the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City issued instructions on organizing the city-level exam for excellent students in grades 9 and 12 for the 2024-2025 school year. Accordingly, the city-level exam for excellent students in grades 9 includes the following subjects: Literature, History and Geography, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Information Technology, English, French, Chinese, Japanese, Technology (industrial orientation), Technology (agricultural orientation). The exam time is 120 minutes. Exam date: March 14, 2025.

Natural Science has 2 parts: Compulsory part (accounting for 30% of the score) general knowledge; Elective part (accounting for 70% of the score) students can choose 1 of the following 3 content streams: Matter and change of matter, earth and sky; Energy and change, earth and sky; Living things, earth and sky. History and Geography students can choose 1 of 2 sub-subjects: History, Geography. In Information Technology, the test is computer programming. Foreign language subjects have a listening skill test.

Regarding the rate of students winning prizes, Ho Chi Minh City stipulates that no more than 60% of the students taking the exam (in which the first prize winner is no more than 5% of the prize-winning students) and the prize ranking condition is from 10 points or more.

For Khanh Hoa province, the exam for excellent students at secondary level has 7 subjects including: Math, Natural Science, Literature, English, French, Information Technology, History and Geography. In which, for integrated subjects, the exam will be designed to include knowledge of each sub-subject with an appropriate number of questions. There will be 2 parts including the compulsory part (accounting for 60% of the total score) and the optional part (accounting for 40% of the total score)...

Early information to be proactive

Talking to Dai Doan Ket Newspaper reporter, Mr. Ha Xuan Nham - Head of Secondary Education Department (Hanoi Department of Education and Training) informed that the Department is currently developing a plan for the 9th grade excellent student exam, which will be announced soon so that schools can be proactive in teaching and reviewing. The number of exam subjects will be based on the subjects in the 2018 General Education Program.

Regarding the structure of the integrated subject exam, which includes a general part and an optional part as announced by some Departments of Education and Training, Mr. Ha Xuan Nham said that when announcing the exam plan, the exam structure will be announced in detail. The exam content is in the 2018 General Education Program, which is oriented towards assessing students' thinking and practical application abilities, as set out in the Program's goals. Schools will use this as a basis to organize review and teaching, organize assessment tests, and select excellent students to take the exam.

Thus, unlike previous years' provincial and municipal exams for excellent students at the secondary school level, which only tested a single subject, this year, 9th graders have been studying according to the new General Education Program issued in 2018 with integrated subjects, so many localities have decided to organize integrated subject exams. This affects the way schools choose excellent students and test questions, and the way schools choose excellent students. While waiting for the Department of Education and Training to guide on how to organize the 9th grade excellent student exam, many schools have begun to select excellent students for training.

The difficulty for integrated subjects is that how should the survey be conducted to form the team? Students will take the exam in the direction of single subjects or integrated subjects because each method has its advantages and disadvantages. For example, if the exam is single subjects, there will be a basis to determine the strengths of each student, but if the official exam at the provincial or city level is an integrated exam, this method is not suitable. On the contrary, if the integrated exam is organized, including the optional part, it is also difficult to clearly see the strengths of each student to focus on nurturing.

Mr. Huynh Duy Linh - Principal of Nguyen Luong Bang Secondary School (Lien Chieu District, Da Nang City) said that the Natural Science textbooks are organized according to linear topics. Therefore, looking at the curriculum structure, schools will be proactive in developing plans to train excellent students of the 2018 General Education Program. To ensure review knowledge, the school plans to have 3 single-subject teachers for Natural Science. Similarly, History and Geography are taught by 2 teachers.

This is also the method that many schools are currently implementing in the context that integrated subject teaching in secondary schools is still undertaken by 2 or 3 teachers. Although training and development have been carried out, it still cannot fill the gap in previous single-subject training. More time is needed for teachers to get acquainted and self-study and supplement their knowledge.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Xuan Thanh - Head of the Department of Secondary Education (Ministry of Education and Training), the Ministry of Education and Training currently only regulates the examination for gifted students at the high school level, there are no regulations for the secondary school level. The subjects to be tested, time, location, invigilation, grading... according to the decentralization are the authority of the provinces, the Ministry does not interfere. If organizing the examination for gifted students, the Departments just organize the examination according to the subjects in the program. Thus, with the 2018 program, the examination for gifted students in integrated subjects can see the overall capacity of students.

Source: https://daidoanket.vn/thi-hoc-sinh-gioi-cap-thcs-thay-doi-de-phu-hop-10290919.html