Students worry about 'difficult' 10th grade Literature exam, teacher reveals how to get high score

Nguyen Tran Bao Nam, a 9th grade student at a middle school in Hanoi , shared that he had a long enough journey to prepare for the 10th grade entrance exam, but as the exam nears, he cannot help but feel anxious.

This year, I aim to take the exam to get into Hanoi Amsterdam High School for the Gifted; High School for the Gifted and my first choice is Phan Dinh Phung High School. The competition for the gifted exam is high, and all the candidates are good, so I decided to take extra classes from grade 7 to prepare myself with a solid knowledge base. Before the exam, I spent a lot of time practicing questions, practicing my test-taking skills as well as my mentality in the exam room.

According to the male student, of the 3 subjects this year, he is most worried about Literature because although the grading scale is arbitrary, candidates are required to write with emotion, creativity, and connection to reality to get high scores.

In addition, this year is also the first year of taking the exam according to the innovative program, the exam questions are outside the textbook, I have to be mentally prepared to receive an unfamiliar text. During the course, the teacher taught and trained Nam and his friends in the skills of doing exercises and at the same time required students to read more books and newspapers to find evidence to enrich their writing.

The 10th grade entrance exam in Hanoi will take place on June 6-7.

According to the male student, in the past, students only needed to memorize the knowledge taught by the teacher and when taking the test, they could "put it" into their notes to get a score. However, with the new learning method, students are required to actively think and read more books.

“The old way of learning can be forgotten after the exam, but the new way of learning helps develop literary skills, which is more useful for later life. And that is also what makes me feel more interested in the subject,” Nam said.

In addition to studying at school, I also take 1-2 extra classes at the center for each subject. In addition, I often stay up until 12 o'clock at home to do homework and practice questions. For each new question, I usually time it exactly like the exam time to do the test, then self-grade and learn from my experience.

"At first, students may not have the skills, so they write too much and cannot balance their time. Gradually, students will learn to divide each part and each question reasonably, ensuring that they finish the test about 5 minutes early to review the entire test and detect mistakes," Nam said.

Review and spend time practicing

Ms. Bui Thi Thanh Huong, a teacher of the Literature - History - Geography - CivicEducation group at Giang Vo Secondary School (Hanoi) said that this year's 10th grade entrance exam is special because this is the first year of 10th grade admission according to the 2018 General Education Program. Most notably, the Literature subject, according to the sample questions previously announced by the Hanoi Department of Education and Training, will have candidates take a completely new test that is not included in the textbooks.

"The purpose of creating test questions outside of textbooks is to test students' reading comprehension and writing skills, avoiding memorization, cramming, and following sample essays," said Ms. Huong.

According to Ms. Huong, there are only a few days left until the exam, at this time students need to review their knowledge, characteristics of the genre, and methods for doing each type of question. From there, determine, when holding the questions in hand, how to apply them to the test most effectively.

The teacher also pointed out to students the mistakes that they might make before and during the Literature exam. Some students rush to do the test without reading the questions carefully, not determining the correct type of question, discussion requirements, and discussion scope, leading to incorrect answers and getting off track. There are also cases where candidates make mistakes in expression such as presenting the essay in an incorrect structure, making spelling and grammar mistakes, using silly, non-representative evidence, and not analyzing both content and art. In addition, students should note that a clean and neat presentation is also a plus point for this subject's writing.

To get the highest score, Ms. Huong reminds students to systematize subject knowledge according to a mind map.

In the reading comprehension section, when doing the test, there will be small questions, you need to answer briefly and to the point.

In the section on writing literary argumentative paragraphs and social argumentative essays, from now until the exam, students need to clearly identify the types of essays and writing methods, paying special attention to the types of essays on poetry and stories. The questions may have different requirements such as analyzing the content of the topic, analyzing the unique artistic features, analyzing the characters, analyzing the details of a special story... or discussing a social issue, a problem that needs to be solved.

After reading the topic carefully and determining the direction of the essay, students should pay attention to the correct structure of the essay, develop the essay tightly, have connections, and make vivid connections to reality to achieve high scores. In the process of expression, the vocabulary used also partly evaluates the student's literary ability. Obviously, students who use sentence types and artistic techniques will have more attractive writing than those with only simple sentences.

Ms. Huong advised students that there is still a lot of time for them to have a reasonable review plan for all three subjects. In particular, for Literature, students need to diligently practice the questions to gain experience in dividing their time for the test, and to supplement and consolidate any knowledge they are not sure of.

In addition, Ms. Huong also said that when entering the exam room, candidates need to maintain a stable mentality to do the test effectively. In reality, there are still students who, due to too much pressure and anxiety, forget all the knowledge they have learned, which is very disadvantageous.

This year, the Literature subject is no longer doubled like previous years. The scores of the 3 exams are calculated with a coefficient of 1, ensuring fairness between subjects and not putting pressure on candidates who unfortunately do not do well in a certain subject.

The Hanoi 10th grade entrance exam will take place on June 6-7. Candidates will take 3 exams: Math, Literature and Foreign Language to get the results of the 10th grade entrance exam. Candidates taking the exam for specialized high schools will take an additional exam for specialized subjects.

Ha Linh

Source: https://tienphong.vn/hoc-sinh-lo-de-thi-ngu-van-lop-10-kho-nhan-giao-vien-bat-mi-cach-lam-bai-dat-diem-cao-post1745270.tpo