It’s impossible to find the answer to the question when considering the results of the two latest important national exams--the high school final exams and university entrance exams.

The Ministry of Education and Training in early August was glad to inform that more than 90 percent of Vietnamese students have passed the finals. Even remote or mountainous areas have also reported the high percentages of students passing the exams.

The figures obviously show that Vietnamese students have good learning ability.

However, the same conclusion would not be made if reviewing the university entrance exams. Thousands of university entrance exam papers were given zero mark just for history exam alone. Especially, the public has been stunned by the information that the students, who got high marks from the high school finals, received five marks only for three university entrance exam subjects.

Universities have also reported that thousands of zero marks have been given to the examinees, who showed that they even did not have basic knowledge about the subjects.

Who to believe?

The Ministry of Education and Training many times affirmed before the exams took place that the questions would not be too difficult. In other words, the students, who finish the high school curriculum, would never get zero or one marks.

However, more than 1000 examinees out of the 2600 examinees to the Vinh City University of Technique Education got zero or one for mathematics. The number of students getting zero or one mark from the history exams to the Hanoi University of Education reportedly accounted for ¼ of the total examinees.

800 students attending the exams to the school got either zero or one, while 180 got zero. Meanwhile, nearly 1800 students got three or lower marks for history.

The Hanoi University for Social Sciences and Humanity has reported that 600 students got zero or one for history out of the 3900 examinees.

200 out of the 1000 examinees, who attended the exams to the Nam Dinh-based University of Technique Education, got 10 marks or higher for three subjects. Meanwhile, Nam Dinh always tops the list of the provinces with high percentages of students passing final exams.

Professor Do Thanh Binh from the History Faculty of the Hanoi University Education said that the exam questions had different difficulty levels. 

He believes that with the 2012’s history exam questions, the students with just basic knowledge, not excellent ones, should get at least five marks. Meanwhile, those who got one or two might even did not have basic knowledge.

Meanwhile, Dang Quang Minh, a lecturer of the same school, has affirmed that the 2012 history exam questions were the easiest in the last five years

As for mathematics, teachers believe that the students with average level would be able to solve at least two questions. They said that if students got zero or one mark for mathematics, they could not have passed the high school finals.

In Vietnam, the national university entrance exam is considered the most serious exam which can truly reflect the actual ability of students. Meanwhile, problems have been existing in many other exams, especially the finals. The strict regulations that need to be applied for exams have not been respected at the finals, thus allowing students to cheat at the exams, and leading to unreliable results about students’ ability.

Professor Van Nhu Cuong, a well-known educator, has commented that the zero marks show the big gaps in the students’ knowledge. 

Cuong believes that it would be better to remove the high school final exam, if the exam cannot truly reflect the real ability of students, while it is always very costly to organize the exams.

Source: VNN