Entrance exam for grade 6 at top schools in Hanoi: No practice, hard to pass

It's hard to have a complete dinner.

Ms. Tran Thi Nhung, whose child is studying in grade 5 at an elementary school in Dong Da district ( Hanoi ), shared that because the goal from the beginning was to have her child take the entrance exam to grade 6 at Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, since the beginning of grade 4, the family has searched all over Hanoi to find a tutoring center.

Regardless of the distance, as long as she was introduced to a place with good teachers, she immediately enrolled her child. Initially, Duc Minh (Ms. Nhung's son) studied 3 sessions a week, one session for each subject, but when he was in 5th grade, the center required him to accelerate his English and Math by 2 sessions. Thus, Duc Minh's extra class schedule was almost full all week.

“There are days when I arrange my work to pick up my child from school and then go straight to the extra class. The extra class is usually held from 6 to 8 pm, so for over a year, my family has hardly had a full dinner. I know it is hard, but for the greater goal, I have to endure it,” said Ms. Nhung.

Students go to a test preparation center in Hanoi. (Photo: Ha Linh)

Ms. Nhung affirmed that her first son's experience showed that although he was good in class and school, he did not practice for the exams using the exam formats of top schools, and even if he practiced slowly, he still failed.

This is also advised by some primary school teachers that parents should be patient and "follow" if they have a goal. On the forums "Accompanying children to review for entrance exams to high-quality schools", parents enthusiastically share their experiences in preparing for exams and places to study extra.

Ms. TTM, a teacher at a primary school in Hanoi, who has been a teaching assistant for a test preparation center for many years, explains that the reason why students with good abilities but do not practice for the test have difficulty getting into top schools is because the knowledge that teachers teach students in class is only basic, within the curriculum, without advanced sections.

Meanwhile, the entrance exam for secondary schools has difficult questions that require students to think deeply. “Not to mention, there are many questions and the time to solve them is short. If students do not practice and develop their skills, it will be very difficult for them to complete the test,” said Ms. M.

“In the past, I also taught at centers, but in fact, only a few good students learned effectively, the rest had difficulty. Every day, children have 8 hours of study in class. If at the end of the day, parents take their children to 1-2 extra classes outside until 8-9 pm, without time to rest, the children will not be able to absorb the knowledge taught by the teachers,” said Associate Professor, Dr. Dang Quoc Thong.

Parents should not follow suit

For many years now, the Hanoi Department of Education and Training has allowed Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, high-quality secondary schools and schools with a number of applications exceeding the enrollment quota to consider admission and organize capacity assessment tests to enroll students for grade 6.

In the non-public school sector, the number of schools that organize admission by combining application review and testing and assessing students' abilities is very large, including: Ngoi Sao Inter-level System, Archimedes Secondary School, Luong The Vinh Secondary & High School, Ngoai Ngu Secondary School, Nguyen Tat Thanh Secondary & High School, Doan Thi Diem Secondary School...

Associate Professor Dr. Dang Quoc Thong - Chairman of the Doan Thi Diem School Board said that in order to recruit quality students, it is necessary to organize an entrance exam to test students' knowledge.

However, parents must be aware that for specialized schools that are only for students with special abilities, they should not follow the trend of early exam preparation to "force the unripe fruit to ripen early".

This year, Doan Thi Diem Secondary School plans to enroll students early, divided into many rounds to enroll students in 6th grade advanced courses in Math, Math, English, etc. However, this school does not encourage students to practice for the exam outside, instead, they participate in the 6th grade preparation club organized by the school to get familiar with the types of questions in the admission test.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Khang - Principal of Marie Curie School Hanoi also said that if families do not "invest" in students, it will be difficult for them to get the passing score to enter top schools. Because in addition to schools that recruit students based on their enrollment route, quality schools want to recruit students with guaranteed quality, from which they have other teaching plans and goals.

Mr. Khang said that every year, the school's math exam for grade 6 consists of 40 multiple choice questions, which students must complete in 60 minutes. The knowledge is mainly from the grade 5 program with 3 levels: recognition, understanding and application, without high application. Therefore, for this subject, students do not need to study extra or practice for the exam, they only need to study well in elementary school to be able to do the test.

However, for the English subject, the test consists of 60 questions, which students have to do in 60 minutes, in which the knowledge goes from easy to difficult. “If students do not receive intensive training, they will only be able to do about 20 questions. Every year, the number of students applying to grade 6 at the school is 3 times higher than the target and the number of students who fail is many times higher than the number of students who pass,” said Mr. Khang.

Therefore, Mr. Khang believes that the entrance exam method has a great impact on students' learning. In the current context, schools only test math and English. Some schools combine the consideration of application documents, transcripts and entrance exams in 3 subjects: Math, Vietnamese and English.

(Source: tienphong.vn)

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