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Bro, why are you sleeping here?
I am not sleeping
I am doing some math homework
You have studied for so long
Eat first. Do it later
No, thanks. I would grab fastfood later
I will have extra tutoring section in 30 minutes
Graduate exam is coming. I am so worried
Stop kidding
Who has ever failed that kind of exam:)?
Summer almost starts
It has been almost 5 years since my high school graduation
Summer always reminds me of fascinating memories in high school
Such a dramatic memory is the graduate examination
That Graduation exam is like an unknown variable to me
Because I could not understand why
that graduate exam has been existed for so long
While there are many insiders and outsiders
they all think that exam does not work
but everyone has to do it and it is costly
Why says that graduation exam does not work
Because very few actually fail
You have to be extra special to fail that exam
as rare as near-extinct animals
Evidently, the pass rates have always been really high
from 97% to 98% pass
it means that among 100 students who take exams
only about 2 students fail
At some high schools, no one fails
On the contrary, Harvard, a top university
its admission rate is 6%
So, anytime you read news about
super excellent students such as
Name: ML, TOEFL score: Asian level
SAT score: super Asian level
Other achievements: *****ing Asian level
He has received full scholarship from Harvard this Fall
Excellent
That student is awesome
but he is not special enough to be on the news
the next is much more special
Name: LM
He has outperformed thousands of intelligent students
to fail this year's high school graduation exam
Super Special
Another ridiculous point is
every school set high goal of passing rate for that exam
It is like: the higher that passing rate
the better quality of education that schools provide students
Principal #1: I would like to annouce that
Principal #1: our school has passing rate of 70%
70 percent? This school sucks
Principal #2: I am happy to annouce that
Principal #2: our school has passing rate of 95%
95%, ok...
our school is as good as
any other schools at poor and rural areas
Principal #3: I am super happy today
Principal #3: a really good news
Principal #3: we have passing rate of 99.5 percent
Very well said, Principal!
Principal #4: our school is always the best
Principal #4: we still keep passing rate of 100%
but if there is no graduate exam
how could students be motivated to study literature or history?
I have a question for you all
How many of you have taken graduation exam?
and that exam has literature and history sections
Is it the case that before taking exam
you set a high goal that
you would study literature and history so well
so that when you take exam
you could write so much
and what you write is good stuff, not just B.S.
Or you might actually think
since there are literature and history sections
you would just study enough to pass the exam
Why would you have to try so hard?
Nowadays, you can choose which sections to take
Some schools have no student who takes history section
So the original purpose to motivate students is no longer valid
Have you ever met foreign students
after several years they have lived in Vietnam
Those foreign students could speak good Vietnamese
They could sing emotionally
the sad stories are history
you find happiness again
Whenever you are happy
Show me your lovely smile
Smile all the time
so that you can enjor happiness forever
Some even wrote books in Vietnamese
Some know local history better than native people
Many foreigners know Vietnamese and its history so well
Is it because the graduation exams motivate them?
The answer is NO
Those foreigners know Vietnamese and its history so well
Because they have a desire
to learn how Vietnamese is spoken
as well as to discover
any valuable traditions
that Vietnamese created during a course of over 4000 years history
Alright, alright
no one dares to change the exam
plus, it does not matter
very few students fail anyway
and the exam is just once a year
According to recent investigation
the cost per student is 200,000VND
if a regular 12-grade class has 50 students
each 12-grade class spend 10million VND a year
if a high school has fifteen 12-grade classes
each high school spends 150 million VND a year
Does the exam work? I have mentioned earlier
But 150 MILLION VND
For One Year
For One high school
For One Exam
How many high school across the nation?
And 150 million VND is just minimal estimation
I have not counted other higher expenses
such as private tuition
Have you ever complained that
studying computer science at school is boring
While technology has advanced so much
School's computer lab is so inadequate
no popular softwares' current versions are available
even if you want to study
the curriculum is very poor
There are not enough computers for every student to work on
Have you ever visited your school's library?
to read books for learning and for fun
Of course, school library has a lot of books
but they are advanced maths books
advanced physics, chemistry books
advance-everything books
no books about scial skills
no famous novels
not many books in foreign languages
if there is any of those, VERY MINIMUM
Do you want to hand on more experiments
when you study natural science subjects?
Is that much more fun to study science when
you don't just read text book
you can carry on actual experiments
and observe experiments' effects
150 million VND for a school for a year is a lot
That money can be used to upgrade computer labs
or to buy better books for school libraries
or to buy equipments for science classes
Those are better ways to improve quality of education
Not by a superficial and useless graduation exam