Should the '2-in-1' exam be maintained?

This is the first year of the high school graduation exam under the 2018 General Education Program. The expectations for educational reform to open up many opportunities for students to develop their abilities have not been met as expected due to the way the exam questions were formulated.

Students taking the 2025 high school graduation exam in Dong Nai - Photo: A Loc

After the exams concluded, the candidates were astonished by the difficulty of the math and English test papers.

When the knowledge in textbooks is insufficient to equip students to "cope" with exam questions, tutoring and extra classes become an inevitable need.

I believe that to reduce the pressure of extra tutoring, the Ministry of Education and Training needs to eliminate trick questions in the high school graduation exam and discontinue the "two-in-one" approach of using graduation exam results for university admissions. Increasing the differentiation in the exam requires using highly difficult questions, sometimes even questions from provincial-level gifted student competitions, leading to unfairness among candidates.

The 2025 high school graduation exam will reduce the number of subjects to two compulsory and two elective subjects. This means that candidates will have fewer options to register for their preferred majors. In addition, universities are offering a wide variety of admission combinations, both to create more opportunities for candidates and to overwhelm them, making it difficult to choose the best option.

It's time for the 2-in-1 exam to fulfill its "mission" and restore the high school graduation exam to its proper role and function. This will help the 2018 General Education Program stay on track and ensure that the graduation exam can assess the quality of education, helping students orient their future careers instead of regretting the "trick" exam questions.

The education sector needs to re-examine its approach, which places excessive emphasis on grades and judges a child's success based on their ability to find the right answers and solutions to questions posed by others, while lacking the capacity to question themselves.

Do the "extremely difficult" questions and "brain-teasing" problems in English or math exams offer students any insights into life's challenges, or do they hurt children by making them feel inadequate?

We are not demanding leniency in assessment or exam design, but rather a balance between learning and testing.

Back to the topic

LAM VU CONG CHINH (TEACHER IN HO CHI MINH CITY)

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/co-nen-duy-tri-ky-thi-2-trong-1-20250702093521634.htm