Consequences of differentiation
Exams with high levels of differentiation are creating strong movements in teaching and learning methods in high schools. Teachers are forced to equip students with self-study skills and problem-solving thinking. In addition, how to organize review sessions to reduce the economic burden on parents and maintain motivation for teachers is also a problem for the education sector when entering the new school year.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Hang, a Foreign Language teacher at Ham Rong High School (Thanh Hoa) shared that regardless of the exam questions, entering the new school year, the spirit of the school and teachers always strives to have higher teaching results next year than the previous year. Every year, teachers closely follow the program, requirements to be achieved as well as the sample questions of the Ministry of Education and Training to review and classify students into groups for the most effective training.
Exams with high levels of differentiation are creating strong movements in teaching and learning methods.
With the exam questions having a significantly higher level of difficulty than the sample questions, teachers must innovate their teaching methods. Ms. Hang plans to study this year's graduation exam questions to refine the knowledge and have appropriate teaching methods for each group of students.
Another foreign language teacher in Hanoi said that last year's graduation exam required teachers and 12th graders this year to accelerate for the new school year. In addition to basic knowledge, students who want to take the foreign language exam must study to improve their proficiency to C1, C2, read many reference materials, and expand their vocabulary...
The more difficult the exam, the more worried students will be, so they will go to extra classes and test preparation centers at high costs, putting the burden on parents.
In addition, she also hopes that next year, the Ministry of Education and Training will issue official exam questions with a difficulty level similar to the sample exam questions so that teachers and schools can develop teaching plans and review knowledge for students, avoiding the situation of difficulty difference like this year's exam questions. Like last year, although she taught at a higher level, students were somewhat subjective, thinking that these were far-fetched knowledge that could not be included in the graduation exam.
Forming self-study capacity
Mr. Tran Manh Tung, a math teacher in Hanoi, said that math will still be a compulsory subject for all students in the next year's exam. Therefore, teachers need to change their teaching methods, shifting from the "practice questions, solve math problems" teaching style to equipping students with basic knowledge, training self-study skills to help them think logically and apply problem solving. With the previous teaching method of practicing each type of question, when encountering new types of questions, students will be confused and even unable to do it.
Associate Professor, Dr. Dang Quoc Thong, Chairman of the Board of Doan Thi Diem School (Hanoi) shared that with the graduation exam like in 2025, teachers are required to innovate teaching methods to form students' capacity and thinking. Teachers cannot just stick to teaching according to textbooks anymore, but need to teach students how to learn and expand their knowledge effectively. The advantage now is that there are many sample questions online, many teachers, classmates, and students can learn from.
“For example, with this learning topic, teachers guide students to read and learn knowledge by themselves before discussing in class, thereby suggesting and taking care of each student according to their ability. Weak students are assigned homework and guided to improve, and good students are encouraged and motivated to do better,” said Associate Professor Thong.
The race for extra classes is back
In this year’s high school graduation exam, the Math exam is considered a “typical” example of innovation. The exam uses 3 types of multiple choice questions (multiple choice questions, true/false multiple choice questions, short answer multiple choice questions) with many practical problems. A Math teacher in Hanoi affirmed that with the current way of making Math graduation exam questions, if students do not take extra classes, they cannot get high scores.
With the current amount of time in class, even good teachers can hardly convey all the required content of the program. Meanwhile, students with average and weak abilities will face more and more difficulties. The teacher said that with this year's exam, the Ministry of Education and Training must answer the question of what is the purpose of the exam? If it is for university admission, the exam meets the requirements because of differentiation. But if it is used for graduation, the way the exam is designed is going in the wrong direction.
According to Tien Phong reporter's investigation, many teachers are worried, and parents are really confused. After the high school graduation exam, since the beginning of July, many extra classes at centers have been bustling again for 11th and 12th graders.
Mr. NHA, a tutor at a cultural training center in Hoan Kiem Ward, Hanoi, said that normally, parents only start to pay attention to their children's tutoring schedule in early August before the new school year begins. This year, many parents have urged him to reopen classes since late June.
“It can be seen that the information about this year’s high school graduation exam has had a significant impact on parents’ psychology,” said Mr. HA. In fact, when teaching again, some students in the class have not yet restarted their learning spirit. Currently, the class maintains 2 sessions per week, but after 8 sessions, some students are almost unable to complete their homework, forcing the teacher to issue an “ultimatum”: Parents need to find another class for their children because studying is ineffective, leading to a waste of time for teachers, students, and the family’s finances.
It can be seen that the way the high school graduation exam is made with difficult questions will “open the door” to increasing the demand for extra study, which will have the opposite effect to the goal set by the 2018 education program. This will also create a two-tier education: formal study in school and real study at centers for exams.
Great pressure on students in difficult areas
According to experts and teachers, this year's English exam focuses on reading comprehension skills, with difficult materials, long contexts and high requirements for vocabulary and structure. For candidates in disadvantaged areas, this is a completely new approach, surpassing the knowledge taught in textbooks. This makes many students who choose to take the English graduation exam feel confused and discouraged. If this trend continues, it will create a mentality of being afraid to study and avoid English exams, going against the goal of making this subject a second language in schools.
Another major drawback for students is the lack of consistency between textbook content and exam questions. According to the new program, textbooks are only one of many sources of learning materials and exam questions cannot use any textbook materials. However, for students in rural and mountainous areas, textbooks are the main, or even the only, learning materials. Therefore, when many questions in this year's graduation exam far exceed the level of knowledge in textbooks, students, despite studying correctly and sufficiently, still cannot do the test.
An expert said that this year’s high school graduation exam has clearly revealed a large gap between the reform goals and the accessibility of the majority of students. In many subjects, especially Math and English, the exam was assessed as too difficult, with a high density of application questions, lacking a basic question system to help average students do the test.
This has been proven by the score distribution of Math, where over 56% of students scored below 5 and English, where it was over 38%. Notably, this year, the number of students with a score below 1 in Math increased 10 times compared to last year. For this subject alone, the number of students failing the graduation exam this year increased 10 times compared to 2024.
Educators believe that educational innovation should not only be based on exam questions but must go hand in hand with actual teaching and learning conditions. A good but unsuitable exam is still a failed exam. Innovation must be done so that teachers, parents, and students do not feel “exhausted” before the exam.
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Source: https://tienphong.vn/ky-thi-hai-trong-mot-day-ganh-nang-len-vai-hoc-sinh-post1765106.tpo
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