Candidates complain about losing 20 minutes on literature test because supervisor signed wrongly, what does the Department say?

On June 30, reflecting to Dan Tri reporter, Minh Dang ( * name has been changed ) took the exam in room 2,500, Nguyen Du High School (District 10, Ho Chi Minh City) exam site, said he was very upset about the incident that happened in the literature exam on the morning of June 27, the 2024 high school graduation exam.

Dang said that about 15-20 minutes into the literature exam, the invigilator gave the entire exam room a new test paper and asked them to copy the answers from the old test paper. The reason was that invigilator 1 mistakenly signed in the marker's box on the test paper.

"I was very surprised and upset by this incident. At that time, I did the test on the third side of the paper. The teacher and exam supervisor asked the candidates to copy quickly onto a new sheet of paper and the candidates were not allowed to make up extra time for the test," Minh Dang said.

According to this male student, including the time spent doing the test on the old paper, the time spent distributing new paper, and copying the test... it took the candidate about 20-30 minutes.

"In particular, many students were psychologically affected because this year's literature test was very long. They might not have finished it in 120 minutes, let alone spending time changing test papers and copying them. In the exam room at that time, many students started crying," Dang recounted.

According to this male student, after distributing new exam papers to all candidates in the room, the exam supervisor urged the candidates to copy the answers onto new papers. The teacher went down to ask the exam council for permission to make up for 20 more minutes of exam time. But then, the candidate received a notice that the extra time was not allowed because it was the exam supervisor's fault, not the exam council's fault.

The exam paper had a part mistakenly signed by the exam supervisor and was taken home by the candidate (Photo: Provided by the parent).

Sharing the same sentiment, candidate Mai Anh ( * ) said she was very upset and cried the entire time she was taking the exam until the afternoon.

"Literature is the subject I expected the most to get a high score for university admission. However, I could not complete the literature essay completely due to the invigilator's mistake. I am still sad today. Why was the exam invigilator not given extra time because it was the invigilator's fault?", Mai Anh asked.

Mai Anh said that she was informed of the incident after she had finished reading the comprehension section. At that time, she burst into tears because she felt helpless and scared.

Ms. Thanh Hoa ( * ), parent of a candidate in this room, said her child cried a lot and until today has not regained a good mood.

"After the literature exam, my child came out of the exam gate with swollen eyes and still crying. I asked him but he just cried and couldn't say anything. Knowing that something had happened to him, I took him home and helped him calm down. Only then did he tell me about the incident of signing the wrong exam notice but not being allowed to make up the time," Ms. Hoa recounted.

She said her child insisted on keeping the original exam paper, even though the exam supervisor repeatedly asked him to return it. The mother was upset that the incident had psychologically affected her child, causing him to not do as well as expected in subsequent subjects.

This parent added that in the afternoon, the family went to the exam site to complain, but because they were preparing for another exam, they were not allowed in.

"An officer at the exam site came to the school gate and told me that he would report the incident to the head of the exam site and give us an appropriate solution. However, our family has been waiting until today and we have not heard anything. My child and I hoped to take the make-up exam on June 29 but have not received any notice. We have lost hope," Ms. Hoa confided.

Responding to Dan Tri reporters on the morning of June 30, Mr. Le Hoai Nam, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, confirmed that there was an incident where the supervisor mistakenly signed on a candidate's Literature test paper at the Nguyen Du High School exam site.

"The invigilator just signed the wrong box on the exam paper, it did not affect the candidate's test. Initially, the invigilator asked the candidate to copy it to a new exam paper, but later the head of the exam center still allowed the candidate to do it on the old exam paper," Mr. Nam affirmed.

Hearing the above information, the candidates said they did not understand this information discrepancy.

"I confirm 100% that candidates in the exam room were required to write on new paper and were not given extra time. There is no way they were still allowed to write on old paper," Minh Dang shared.

Literature is the only essay subject in the 2024 high school graduation exam. The test lasts 120 minutes and consists of two parts: Reading comprehension (3 points) and writing (social essay - 2 points, literary essay - 5 points).

The exam sites began marking exams on June 29. The graduation exam scores were announced by the Ministry of Education and Training at 8:00 a.m. on July 17.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/thi-sinh-to-mat-20-phut-lam-bai-mon-van-do-giam-thi-ky-nham-so-noi-gi-20240630102705373.htm