VietNamNet Bridge – As the marking of exam papers is two-thirds finished, experts now can say for sure that university entrance exam marks will be lower this year than last year. But what is the reason? Tough exam questions or the poor capability of students?

At the Hanoi University of Natural Sciences under the Hanoi National University, Bui Vu Anh, a lecturer of Mathematics Faculty, said that no examinee of either A or B groups has got 10 marks for mathematics so far.

Anh predicts that the examinee who gets a 5.5 or 6 for mathematics can cherish the hope of passing the exam to enter the university.

According to Le Huu Lap, Deputy Director of the Post & Telecommunications Institute and Technology, over 4,000 mathematics exam papers have been marked, while papers that scored 3-4 account for the biggest proportion.

The Hanoi University of Industry said that it has finished marking group-A’s exam papers, while its president Hoang Van Dien said that most examinees got low marks. There are only six or seven examinees who got 6-7s among every 40 examinees. The university last year required students to get 17-20 marks to be enrolled into the university.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Si Khanh, Deputy Head of the Training Division under the Vietnam Trade Union University, said that low marks have also been seen on history exam papers.

My Giang Son from Saigon University has also reported the bad quality of history exam papers, saying that the low result of mathematics and history exam papers may lead to lower required marks this year. According to Son, there are not many above average marks in history and no examinee has got a 10.

More satisfactory results for geography and physics

While universities have reported low marks for mathematics and history, they have reported more satisfactory results for geography and physics.

Khanh from the Trade Union University said that in history, there are many 8-9s, but there is no 10 mark.

The required marks for students to get into the Hanoi University of Natural Sciences are expected to be 0.5-1 marks lower than last year.

The Hanoi Foreign Trade University expects to keep the required marks at the same level as last year or only a bit lower, because many examinees have got high marks for literature at 7.0-7.5

The Banking Academy has reported 20 percent of examinees getting 9s and 10s for physics, while only four percent of examinees have got 9-10s for chemistry.

Who to blame? Questions or examinees?

A mathematics expert said that A and D group exam questions this year proved to be very long. This, he said, has resulted in the low marks for mathematics.

Moreover, he said, the question about inequality was really very tough; therefore, there will be not many 10 marks for mathematics.

The literature questions for C group have also been thought as ‘having problems’.

A teacher said that the literature question was considered ‘interesting’ and ‘open’, but the answers given by the Ministry of Education and Training were not ‘open’. The given answers have listed a lot of issues students needed to mention in the essay. The ministry told exam paper markers to accept essays which are creative and do not follow the given answers. However, a teacher said that no one would dare accept such essays.

VietNamNet/TP