Dieu Mai, a student at Trung Van High School, said she would easily pass the recent national high school exam.

“The exam questions were so easy that nearly everyone can solve them,” she said.

“I just don’t know if my exam results are good enough to be able to enroll in universities,” she added. 

“Passing the exam to finish high school is not my purpose. I am striving for higher education,” she explained. “And so are my friends.”

Mai went on to say that she does not find it necessary to organize 2-in-1 national exam. 

“Why do we have to attend the exam if we know for sure we all will pass it?” she asked. “Why does MOET insist on organizing such an insignificant exam though it is very costly?”

Le Viet Tuan, a parent in Thai Binh province, said MOET was wrong when thinking that the new exam can help save society’s and parents’ money. 

Tuan, a farmer, complained that he had to suspend his work for four days to accompany his son to Thai Binh City where he took the national exam.

Under the new exam, students and their parents do not have to go to Hanoi and large cities and stay there for several days to attend the exam. 

However, Tuan and his son this year still had to travel 40 kilometers to reach Thai Binh City.

“I know many parents had to go to Thai Binh City from Hung Yen province, 60 kilometers away. It is very difficult to find guest rooms to stay in Thai Binh, a small city,” he said.

Tuan believes that it would be better to organize only one national exam – the university entrance exam – to find the best students for higher education. 

Thu Thao, a student at Hung Vuong High School for the Gifted in Phu Tho province, said before the exam, that with the current marking scheme, she just needs to get 1.25 marks for every exam subject to be “safe”, i.e. to pass the high school finals.

When asked about the exam question structure, Thao noted that the geography questions were so easy that average students would get six to seven scores.

“I don’t know how universities will select students if examinees all get nearly the same marks,” she said.

The years 2007 was the only one year when the number of students passing high school finals was low, at over 50 percent. In other years, more than 95 percent of students passed the finals.

Tien Phong