Marie Curie High School, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City. Grade 10 students at this school reported that the essay was too long and difficult – Photo: school website
On the morning of April 25, some students at Marie Curie High School (District 3, Ho Chi Minh City) reported that the exam questions at the end of the second semester of grade 10 were too long.
“Just reading the question took us 30 minutes. In particular, the text of the reading – comprehension section was 2 A4 pages long, excerpted from the work Mustard flower season by the river by author Nguyen Quang Thieu. To answer the questions in the reading-comprehension section, we have to read and re-read the text many times, which is very time-consuming and leaves no time for writing.
Not to mention the writing section’s questions are also very difficult. This section accounts for 5 points and is set out as follows: Please write an essay to persuade others to abandon the notion that “Individualism is more important than anything else.”” – said a student.
Not only that, the above student’s parents also added: “Marie Curie High School is a middle-class school in Ho Chi Minh City. Yet the literature test at the end of the second semester is as difficult as a specialized high school.
I consulted the topics of the top high schools and found that the topics were all of moderate length, the content was close to the student’s age, and not as difficult as at Marie Curie High School.”
Exchange with Tuoi Tre OnlineMr. Nguyen Van Yen, principal of Marie Curie High School, shared: “I have received information about grade 10 students reflecting on the topic on the morning of April 25. According to the literature team’s explanation, grade 10 students are writing learning about the short story genre, so I chose such material. Particularly, the questions in the reading-comprehension section are moderate and closely follow the text.”
Mr. Yen also admitted: “The material for the reading-comprehension part of the essay is too long. Looking at the format of the essay, it is easy to get “overwhelmed” due to too much text. Students doing this essay are quite miserable because they have to read so much. I have asked the writing team to seriously learn from this experience.”
On the other hand, Mr. Yen also added: “In the 2018 general education program, there is a skimming section. Students have learned this content and also reviewed it before taking the test. The school organized Tested 5 papers and found the results to be quite positive, none of them were below the average score.”
According to Mr. Yen, the difficulty for teachers when setting essay topics is that they cannot take the language from the textbook. Therefore, when choosing texts for the reading-comprehension section, the teacher may not have experience with this.
The essay makes students complain that it is too long and too difficult
