Marking in special contexts: What is the marking process?

TP - Localities will start grading exams immediately after the end of the 2025 high school graduation exam (starting from June 28). The grading work takes place in a special context, merging administrative boundaries from 63 provinces and cities to 34 provinces and cities, which means there will only be 34 grading councils.

Special context

Mr. Vo Hoan Hai, Director of Khanh Hoa Department of Education and Training, shared that the locality organized the exam marking from June 28. The implementation steps were in accordance with the requirements of the regulations. From July 1, Ninh Thuan merged with Khanh Hoa, Mr. Hai said, at that time the Exam Marking Steering Committee changed, the exam marking committees of Khanh Hoa, or Ninh Thuan remained the same as before the merger.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Hong, Director of the Nam Dinh Department of Education and Training, also said that the Department has implemented marking after the end of the exam. From today, the exam marking steering committee is the Ninh Binh Department of Education and Training (Nam Dinh and Ha Nam provinces merged into Ninh Binh). However, the exam marking work is still taking place normally according to regulations.

Candidates for the 2025 high school graduation exam Photo: DUY PHAM

According to regulations, examiners are absolutely not allowed to bring information transmission and reception devices, copy documents, personal papers, erasers, pencils and other types of pens not specified by the examination board when entering and leaving the examination area.

According to the reporter's records, after the high school graduation exam, some leaders of the provincial Department of Education and Training merged and changed their positions. This change was confirmed to not affect the progress and results of the exam, but it still caused public concern and anxiety. In reality, the responsibility for maintaining order, discipline, stability, and not cheating on exams rests on the shoulders of the invigilators, who are the least responsible people in the exam scoring ecosystem.

Prof. Dr. Huynh Van Chuong, Director of the Department of Quality Management ( Ministry of Education and Training ), said that the Ministry has established inspection teams from the National Examination Steering Committee and sent officials to directly supervise all examination councils nationwide. The contents to be inspected and supervised include: marking, comparing test score data, announcing results, processing appeals, considering graduation recognition and serving university admissions. Mr. Chuong affirmed that the working teams will closely follow the marking process to ensure fairness, objectivity and avoid errors in any stage.

When reporters asked about concerns that the merger of administrative boundaries might affect the quality of exam marking, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Pham Ngoc Thuong said that the Ministry of Education and Training had anticipated that there would be concerns, so it issued directives and guidance on professional matters for localities to take note of. Regarding professional matters, according to regulations, this year, at each exam marking session, the Ministry requires an immediate summary to promptly detect unusual issues (such as many high scores, many low scores, etc.).

The Ministry of Education and Training requires localities to strictly implement the exam marking process in accordance with regulations, especially the marking of essay and multiple-choice tests and the review process. Regarding the merger of administrative boundaries, Mr. Chuong informed that the Ministry has closely coordinated with localities to proactively plan the implementation.

What is the grading process like?

According to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, when localities start grading the exams, the Ministry will announce the exam questions and answers for all subjects. Currently, the grading committee is operating, and grading will begin this week. The Literature essay exam is graded according to the grading instructions, answers, and grading scale of the Ministry of Education and Training on a 10-point scale; the odd points of the total score of the entire exam are rounded to two decimal places. Each exam is graded in two independent rounds by two examiners from two different grading teams. After two grading rounds, if the total score or component scores differ by more than 1.5 points (except in cases of mistakenly adding up points), a third grading will be required directly on the candidate's exam to unify the score.

When the grading is completed, the scoring team enters the essay test scores in two independent rounds, each round performed by a different team on the Exam Scoring Support software. Then, the score is returned, which means the test scores are combined with the candidate information. This is done by software, however, at least 20% of random tests are manually returned. And the checking team checks at least 5% of the essay tests that have been previously graded.

For multiple-choice tests, all candidates' papers (answer sheets) must be graded by machine with the same specialized software provided by the Ministry of Education and Training, from the time the image is scanned until the results of each candidate are available. During that process, the Examination Board will check and correct errors in the candidates' information (registration number, exam code, etc.). At the same time, check and correct errors in the candidates' test results, specifically correcting errors in the answers to questions where the software does not recognize the candidates' choices. This correction must be recorded in a report and signed by the relevant people.

After scanning the form is completed, the Test Scoring Team will load the test answer data into the test scoring software and perform the scoring function on the software, exporting the results to two CDs. When the scoring is completed, the score data will be saved to two CDs to be sent to the Ministry of Education and Training and kept at the Examination Council for score entry and comparison, and only when completed will the test score results be announced.

NGHIEM HUE

Source: https://tienphong.vn/cham-thi-trong-boi-canh-dac-biet-quy-trinh-cham-the-nao-post1756241.tpo