The first semester of the 2010-2011 academic year is
finishing, and it is now the right time for people founded high schools to start
gearing up for preparing students’ for their final exams.

In principle, the school year will only finish in May 2011, andthe Ministry of
Education and Training will only declare the exam subjects in April. However,
all high schools have been rushing to fulfill the curriculum by March at the
latest. The remaining time of the academic year, from March to May 2011, will be
spent only to prepare students for the final exams.

In general, there are six exam subjects, including three fixed subjects
(literature, mathematics and foreign languages) and the other three subjects
decided annually by the Ministry of Education and Training.

Nearly all high schools in HCM City have started their programmes to prepare
students for final exams. Nguyen Hoang Viet, Headmaster of Phu Nhuan High School
said that the lessons of physical exercises, informatics and national defense
have been scheduled for afternoons, while all the mornings have been reserved
for important subjects.

Viet said that his school has kicked off an intensive programme to prepare
students for finals, but he said that the school will give time for self-study
at home, believing that it would be not good requiring students to spend all
their time at school.

Pham Van Tien, Headmaster of Tan Phong High School, said that right after the
first semester’s exams finished, the school has made the list of students who
need extra-class help based on the exams’ results. These students could fai the
exams, unless they attend extra classes.

“In the immediate time, we will teach extra classes on three most important
subjects, mathematics, literature and foreign languages, three hours a week,”
Tien said.

The Ta Quang Buu High School is also reportedly checking the first semester’s
exam results of 500 12th graders in order to find out who needs extra lessons.

“It is now the time to review three subjects mathematics, literature and foreign
languages. Meanwhile, the reviewing of three other subjects will be carried out
in late March, after the Ministry of Education and Training declare the exam
subjects. If we do not start right now, it will be too late,” said Nguyen Minh
Son, Headmaster of Ta Quang Buu School.

Meanwhile, non-state owned schools began preparing students for the finals right
at the beginning of the new academic year. Headmaster of a people founded school
admitted that students of people founded schools have lower learning capability
than students of state owned schools, therefore, people founded schools always
have to make great efforts to train their students.

At Thanh Binh people founded school, the management board announced the plan to
review for the final exams to 11th graders. Meanwhile, 12th graders are put in
different groups which receive different levels of intensive training, depending
on their learning capability. Every month, students have to do a test to inform
them about their current level. Based on that, teachers, set up review plans for
them. Especially, good students can sit the classes set up for preparing for
university entrance exams. The classes have been gathered since September 2010.

Le Van Linh, Headmaster of Thanh Binh School, said that boarder students have to
review lessons until 9:30 pm every day, while day-boarder students can stay at
school to review lessons if they cannot study themselves at home. “The
preparation for the finals should be started right now. If students only begin
preparing for the exams from March 2011, it will be too late,” he said.

Source: Tien phong