MSc. Nguyen Quang Lieu - History lecturer, University of Social Sciences and Humanities - shares his thoughts on this year's university entrance exam for History and predicts the score distribution of this subject.
- Sir, what do you think about this year's university entrance exam in History?- I have some general comments as follows about this year's university entrance exam for History: First, the exam was correct and closely followed the knowledge content taught in the general education textbook program. Second, the person who created the exam focused on both the knowledge content of world history and Vietnamese history. In particular, the knowledge content of Vietnamese history in the exam is spread out and covers each period and throughout the history of the development of the Vietnamese revolution from 1930 to 1975. Therefore, candidates who memorize cannot get high scores on this exam. Third, the exam has a very high classification of candidates. If they only memorize without understanding the lesson, do not grasp the historical periods systematically, do not have the skills to do the exam, that is, do not identify the basic and important content of the exam, then candidates will not be able to get more than an average score. The exam requires analysis and commentary on historical issues, thus helping to select good candidates for admission to the school.
- Can you give specific comments on the difficulty and interestingness of each sentence?-
Question I: Present the basic content of the US global strategy from after World War II to 1973 and the implementation of that strategy in Western Europe in the years 1947-1949.. This is a difficult question because when teaching, teachers often present this content in the content of knowledge about Vietnamese history. Therefore, candidates will be subjective about this knowledge and will find it difficult to separate the content related to the basic global strategy of the US to fully answer this question, especially the part about implementing the global strategy in Western Europe, this part accounts for half of the total score of question I. I also rate this as the question that is most difficult to achieve a high score.
Question II: State and comment on the tasks and revolutionary forces identified in the first Political Platform of the Communist Party of Vietnam.. With this question, candidates can easily state the tasks and revolutionary forces set out in the Platform, but the comment section is a challenge. To comment correctly and score points according to the Ministry's answer, candidates need to be able to have a general view of the problem based on a clear understanding of the main contents of the Platform. However, I think this is the clearest and easiest question among the 5 questions on the exam. Therefore, this is also the question that candidates can easily score points on.
Question III: Using selected historical events from 1941 to 1945, clarify the role of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh in the victory of the August Revolution of 1945.. This is also a difficult question that requires students to understand and grasp the problem systematically, using historical events to demonstrate Uncle Ho's role in the victory of the August Revolution in all aspects: being the one who determined the revolutionary path and method; founding the Viet Minh Front with "national salvation associations", building the great national unity bloc; building armed forces and revolutionary bases; accurately assessing opportunities, resolutely launching and leading the entire people to rise up in a general uprising to win. With this question, if candidates do not know the general problem but only learn by rote, they will not know how to answer correctly and fully, especially with the last two ideas.
Question IVa: What was the first major proactive offensive campaign of our main force in the resistance war against French colonialism (1945-1954)? Summarize the historical context, our policy and the significance of that campaign.. This question is both easy and difficult. It will be easy for candidates to correctly identify and point out the name of the campaign, which is the Autumn-Winter Border Campaign of 1950, and then the presentation of the content of the campaign is too simple. But it will be difficult if candidates incorrectly identify the name of the campaign that the question wants to refer to. Here, candidates can easily confuse it with the Autumn-Winter Campaign of 1947 and the Dien Bien Phu Campaign of 1954. So there are two possibilities, one is that candidates will not get any points because they do not correctly identify the name of the campaign and two is that if they understand the question, they will get a high score. If they are good students, they can complete this question well, but average and weak students may not be able to do anything or if they can do it, it is only by luck.
Question IVb: Which strategic offensive of our army and people in the South forced the US to declare the return of the "Americanization" of the war of aggression against Vietnam? Summarize the historical context, developments and results of that offensive?This question also has the nature of classifying candidates very clearly like question IVa. The question refers to the 1972 strategic offensive of our army and people in the South. If the candidate understands the question, he will be able to answer it, but if he does not understand which strategic offensive the question is referring to, it means that he will not get any points for this question. However, with the presentation of the historical context of the 1972 strategic offensive, candidates are very likely to make the mistake of not presenting enough ideas, especially the developments and results of the 1972 offensive.
- Can you predict the score distribution of History subject this year?- Based on my many years of experience in marking exams, I predict that: the common History scores will fall into the range of 1 to 3 points, mainly for average and poor students; for average and good students, the range will be from 4 to 5 points; for good and excellent students, they can get 7 points or more, but this number is certainly not very high. I think that with the structure and content of the exam as above, it will be difficult for candidates to get high scores in History. But I also believe that, for candidates who take the entrance exam and are qualified to be admitted to our school, they are all good students, capable of passing this type of exam.
- From this year's exam, what suggestions do you have for building university history exams in the following years?- I would like to give a few small comments to those who set the questions as follows: First, when teaching History, teachers are very interested in integrating knowledge of world history into Vietnamese history to create interest for learners, helping them gain specific knowledge of Vietnamese history but placed in a close relationship with the development of world history. Questions about world history should not be too clearly separated without placing them in connection with events of Vietnamese history. For example, the question can be: "The process of gaining independence of peoples in Africa under the impact of the Dien Bien Phu victory in Vietnam"? or "The relationship between Vietnam and Laos and the resistance war against French colonialism in the period of 1946-1954". Such a way of asking helps learners grasp both specific and general knowledge, and also makes them interested in answering. The essay will certainly be more creative and better. Second, in a question, the comment requirement should be structured with less points than the event presentation, because this is always a difficult requirement for high school students. The comment section is usually the part that helps classify good students. Third, I also agree with the way the exam questions are asked, not asking based on memorization but asking based on the candidate's understanding of the lesson, grasping the problem and ability to systematize knowledge. For candidates who understand the lesson, it is easy to get high scores, but for candidates who are used to rote learning, this type of exam is a challenge. I think in the following years, the exam should keep this type of question format and asking style.
- From this year's university entrance exam in History, what do you think about the current way of teaching and learning History?- I think that History is always a fear for many candidates every year because they do not have the right learning method and are not taught test-taking skills. Learning History by rote, studying widely, taking on too much without a system, not identifying the highlights in each historical period will never get high scores. For history teachers, in the teaching process, teachers should arrange and systematize events according to the timeline so that students can grasp the problem both specifically and generally. Teachers need to know how to "emphasize" important events in each historical period, turning-point victories, victories of historical significance and of great significance... Regarding test-taking skills, teachers should teach students how to identify the focus of the question, how to answer fully and accurately without rambling. When you have both well-systemized knowledge and test-taking skills, no matter how the test questions are asked, you will know how to apply your knowledge to answer the questions well.
Thank you!
