Commenting on the structure and sample exam questions for Literature, teacher Vo Kim Bao - Literature teacher, Nguyen Du Secondary School, District 1 - said that 2025 will be the first year students will take the exam according to the 2018 General Education Program, therefore, the exam structure issue is of concern to teachers and students.
With the exam structure and sample exam announced by the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, it can be seen that the exam ensures the spirit of the 2018 General Education Program - Developing learners' qualities and abilities.
The structure of the test is quite reasonable in each part, 50% of the score is for reading and understanding literary texts and 50% is for reading and understanding other types of texts. In which, the Literary Essay section accounts for 20% of the score with the requirement to write a paragraph of about 200 words.
This shows the careful consideration of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training in designing the exam structure.
"When studying Literature, students are taught many issues, not just Literary Argumentation. In particular, Literary Argumentation requires more or less talent as well as experience (life experience, literary experience).
If Literary Essays account for too high a proportion, the exam will lose its scientific nature and will not ensure the teaching orientation towards developing learners' qualities and abilities," commented teacher Vo Kim Bao.
However, teacher Vo Kim Bao is also worried and concerned about the grading of exams. According to him, the current situation is that the teaching of writing methods (writing section) in the 3 sets of textbooks is not consistent with each other. Each set of textbooks has its own implementation method for each type of exercise. This makes many teachers very worried about which direction to teach as well as how to grade the exams.
"Teachers understand that textbooks are learning materials, teachers must use the 2018 General Education Program as a basis for teaching students. However, the differences in the 3 sets of books also lead to certain concerns. From there, I hope the Department will announce the grading orientation for the sample exam so that teachers can research, learn, and plan a good education for the first batch of students graduating from junior high school according to the 2018 General Education Program," said teacher Vo Kim Bao.
Regarding the structure of the Math exam, Ms. Nguyen Tien Thuy - Math teacher at Ha Huy Tap Secondary School (Binh Thanh District) - said that the structure of the exam has not changed much. The first adjustment is that the number of questions has been reduced from 8 to 7 compared to previous years.
In addition, the statistics and probability problems are somewhat newer than previous years. The remaining content is consistent with the content of the 2018 Education Program.
"In general, the structure of the exam and the reference exam are relatively clear and consistent. In particular, reducing one question in the exam will help students have more time to do the test. Last year, 8 questions required candidates to do in 120 minutes. In 2025, it will also be 120 minutes but there will only be 7 questions," said Ms. Thuy.
For the English subject, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training said that the exam will have two new questions on writing appropriate phrases based on the given information. This question tests the ability to read notes in a dictionary to find linguistic information and apply knowledge.
