Today, June 19, the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City will announce the 10th grade exam scores for 2024, one day earlier than expected.

According to preliminary statistics, 49 candidates scored 10 points in math out of more than 98,000 candidates. In addition, 31 candidates scored 9.75 points; 132 candidates scored 9.5 points; 123 candidates scored 9.25 points. The number of candidates scoring 8 to 9 points is quite large, about 2,000 candidates. The 5 point level is the score that most candidates achieved with more than 7,000 exams.

However, the below average score (below 5) is dominant. Initial data estimates that about 56% of the exams have a score from 0 to below 5, about 43% of the exams have a score of 5 or higher. This score partly reflects the differentiation and the level of the exam which is considered quite unique and somewhat difficult for many candidates.

In 2022 and 2023, the number of math tests below average was only about 45%, the number of tests above average was 55%. In the 5 years from 2018 to 2023, about 45-52% of 10th grade math tests in Ho Chi Minh City were below average. The highest was in 2018 when about 52% of the tests scored below 5 points.

Explaining the opinion that the math questions were difficult, Mr. Le Hoai Nam, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, said that the 10th grade exam is an entrance exam, with the spirit of creating exam questions that demonstrate high differentiation to select students for each suitable school.

According to Mr. Nam, there are currently many schools with different levels, so it is impossible to evaluate whether the exam is easy or difficult, but rather how many percent of good students and how many percent of good students can be selected through the exam...

"Difficulties are common difficulties so they do not affect the candidates' choice of wishes," Mr. Nam expressed.

Mr. Ho Tan Minh, Chief of Office of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, shared that over the years, the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City has always set questions in the direction of increasing application and problem solving each year.

This year is the final year of the old program and the transfer of the 2018 General Education program, so the level of difficulty may be higher, requiring candidates to apply their abilities to solve more problems.

The math exam for grade 10 in Ho Chi Minh City also received mixed opinions, but many people admitted that this was a good exam, highly practical and could be difficult if students only studied mechanically.

Master Pham Phuc Thinh, math teacher and former principal of a high school in Ho Chi Minh City, shared that in recent years, Ho Chi Minh City has issued very good math questions that are practical and highly capable of developing abilities.

Mr. Thinh assessed that this exam is in line with the orientation of learning math to solve real-life problems, not to solve purely theoretical problems from books.

This type of question will also limit teachers from practicing "question types" and solving techniques, instead of teaching children mathematical thinking.

Also satisfied with this exam, Mr. Vu Khac Ngoc, an expert of Hoc Mai Education System, said that the way the math exam was created in Ho Chi Minh City was in line with the educational spirit of the new 2018 general education program. That is, students must have the ability to synthesize knowledge in solving practical problems in life.

Previously, with the way the exam questions were given, students did math like machines. Students were given very specific instructions on the types of problems, how to do them, what step one was, what step two was, and they just applied or replaced the formula to get the result.

Meanwhile, Mr. Nguyen Khac Minh, a teacher with nearly 30 years of experience leading students to compete in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), said: "If I had this exam question, I would cry too!"

Mr. Nguyen Khac Minh said that creating some situations in the 10th grade math exam of Ho Chi Minh City is no different than sticking a stick into a bucket of clear water, stirring it up until it becomes muddy, and then forcing students to make it clear again.

This is completely against the spirit of mathematics, against the nature of mathematics. The spirit of mathematics is to untangle; the nature of mathematics is to find the simple core in the complex.

After detailed analysis and evaluation, Mr. Minh affirmed that a 9th grade student with a correct and healthy understanding of math, within the scope of the 2006 Secondary School Math Education Program, certainly cannot do this problem.

Currently, the math exam of Ho Chi Minh City is still receiving heated discussion from the community.