Good must be difficult

Lecturer Bui Viet Thang (Faculty of Literature) shares his thoughts on this year's university entrance exam for Literature for groups C and D as well as how to teach and learn Literature for high school students. -How do you evaluate the literature exam for groups C and D this year?- In the past three years, the difficulty level of the university entrance exam for Literature has increased significantly. I also read the press and saw that public opinion said that this year's Literature university entrance exam was good but difficult. But in my opinion, nothing good is easy, and good things always go hand in hand with difficulty. Therefore, if we praise it but complain that it is difficult, that is illogical. Previously, public opinion often thought that the Literature university entrance exam for group D was easier than the Literature exam for group C. However, this year, neither the Literature university entrance exam for group C nor the Literature exam for group D was easier. This is also the policy of the Ministry of Education and Training. The actual marking of the exams also shows that candidates for group D often have higher Literature scores than candidates for group C. Because candidates for group D are usually from the city, they have a better chance of studying. The Literature exams with the highest scores each year often belong to candidates for group D. -This year's exam is considered good, but the essay questions are difficult compared to the candidates' understanding. What is your opinion on this assessment?- Some people say that the essay questions of both tests are good but difficult compared to the understanding of candidates when they are only 17 or 18 years old. I do not agree with this point of view.

The argumentative question deals with the issue of irresponsibility and hypocrisy - two problems of today's society. Problems do not spare anyone and affect all individuals in society, including students. Two years ago, the Minister of Education and Training launched the "two no's" movement to say no to negativity and the disease of achievement in schools, targeting students only. So why is it said that these two problems are too big for students to understand? With the general level of education as well as the level of awareness and social understanding of students today, it is not a cause for concern when the exam questions deal with such big social issues. I think that the content of the questions does not cause overload or exceed the understanding of candidates. Especially in a strongly developing information society like today, students have many opportunities to grasp information and participate in many major social issues of the country. -Unlike previous years, this year's exam requires candidates to analyze and perceive the problem through specific details in the work. What is your opinion on this type of exam?- Up to now, when teaching Literature, we often focus on general issues such as ideas, themes, character analysis... but neglect helping students enhance their aesthetic ability, that is, the ability to perceive beauty in literature and life. And to perceive beauty through a work, we must go through each detail and specific image. If any candidate can answer these types of questions, they have overcome the rote learning and memorization. This trend of setting questions has been applied since 2008 and I think it is very welcome. Setting questions like this will lead to Literature having to change its old teaching and learning methods, thereby enhancing students' ability to perceive works and problems in connection with vivid social reality. -How do you evaluate the candidates' ability to do these two essay topics?- As I said above, this year the difficulty level of the university entrance exam for Literature in groups C and D is similar. However, in the separate part, candidates are allowed to choose questions according to the standard program or the advanced program. I think candidates will tend to prefer questions about poetry rather than about details in prose works. We tested the exam papers of a school for one day and found that the number of candidates choosing question 3B - the question about prose - only accounted for 10% to 15%, while the remaining 85% chose to comment on verses. Perhaps it is because the beauty and goodness displayed in poetry are easier to perceive and see, while the beauty and goodness in prose are related to details that require more memorization. -What do you predict about the score distribution of Literature subject this year?- Because the test is interesting and difficult as mentioned above, I think that with the exams that score 5 or higher, the score range from 5-7 will account for 70% and the score range from 8-9 is 30%. If we look at it in general, the exams from 1-5 points will account for 40%, from 5-7 points will account for 40%, and 20% of the exams will score above 7. It will be very difficult to get a perfect score for Literature, but I hope that the Examination Council of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities will have 1 to 2 exams that score 9.5. -Do you have any thoughts on building university literature exams in the following years?

- From 2008 to now, the direction of the university Literature exam has had many clear changes in the direction of making students and teachers at the high school level avoid rote learning and memorization. This way of setting questions stimulates the dynamism of candidates, especially clearly shown in social argument questions. The exam requires candidates to analyze and compare specific details in different works, requiring candidates to have subtle feelings, to compare and contrast between works, forcing candidates to study evenly. The direction of the exam in the following years should be promoted in this direction. The more difficult the exam, the better it is and the more it will make the study of Literature at the high school level change in a more positive direction. -From this year's university entrance exam in Literature, what do you think about the current way of teaching and learning literature at high school level?- One difficulty in teaching Literature in high school is that it is strictly controlled by the curriculum and time. Teachers must go through all the content in the lesson plan, from the author's biography, the context of the work, and then analyze the work. I also know that teaching Literature in high school has started to use electronic lesson plans. It is not said about other subjects, but if Literature is abused too much on projections and machines, it will limit the transfer of knowledge and students' perception of the work. In teaching Literature, the most important thing is the communication between teachers and students. Moreover, textbooks include too many issues that, after all, are not very useful for students. Anything that is included too much is easily redundant and saturated. This is a systemic error, that is, the error of our education system when building an unreasonable program. We are confused about how to build a Literature program suitable for high school level. In other words, we are confused because we have not yet determined the philosophy of teaching and learning Literature. We are forcing students to memorize too much knowledge, while neglecting the need to impart aesthetic ability to students. -There is also a proposal that the university entrance exam for Literature will gradually move away from the general high school textbooks, meaning that it will require appreciation of literary works outside the high school curriculum. What do you think about this proposal?- Textbooks should only be a place to provide the minimum knowledge to train students' ability to perceive literature. Students can completely apply their knowledge and ability to perceive to perceive, analyze a work outside of textbooks or solve current social problems. Many other countries have also applied this way of teaching and learning Literature. But in Vietnam, to do so, there must be a roadmap, there must be time to change, which in my opinion will take at least 5 more years. In particular, we must have psychological preparation for students, teachers and public opinion. -Thank you!