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EXAM TIME: SCHOOL GRADUATES IN ARMENIA SCORE LOWER IN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE TESTS THAN LAST YEAR
EDUCATION | 10.06.13 | 16:53
Photolure
By Gohar Abrahamian
ArmeniaNow reporter
The average grade scored by school graduates for the common test in
Armenian language and literature taken last week in Armenia is lower
than last year's, so is the number of students with the highest score.
This year there are a total of around 15,000 applicants for common
(graduation and university entrance) tests, 8,975 had applied to take
the Armenian language and literature test and 8,648 actually took it.
While last year the total number of applicants was 18,105, and
11,419 applicants out of the 11,795 took the Armenian language and
literature test.
On Monday the Evaluation and Testing Center (ATC) published the test
results, by which the average score is 13.25 versus last year's 13.9
(the highest score is 20).
ATC told ArmeniaNow that this year 788 students failed to pass the
test, which makes nine percent of the total, while last year it was
only 5.6 percent.
Only 80 applicants have scored the highest 20 versus last year's
200 applicants.
Among the common tests the one for the Armenian language and literature
is the most controversial with parents, applicants and returning
applicants (who failed to pass it before) complaining that the tests
remind complicated puzzles and there is mismatch with the sample
tests in the practice books serving as the exam preparation guidelines.
On the day of the test Education and Science Minister Armen Ashotyan
said that a number of controversial tasks had been removed from the
practice books and that the test authors had given assurances on the
absence of tasks implying ambiguous or two possible answers.
Philologist David Gyurjinyan says the testing system has been distorted
in Armenia - initially good ideas have been lost and the accepted
test building principles violated.
"For years now ATC relies on the same people and these tests are
a disgrace to both our schools and Armenian language teaching,
they evoke disgust among the applicants, hundreds of mistakes and
shortcomings have been pointed out, the mistakes get corrected,
but the test-makers do not get replaced," he says.
Earlier this month 1,139 students took the Russian language test with
an average score of 11.8, and only 15 percent failed to pass.
EDUCATION | 10.06.13 | 16:53
Photolure
By Gohar Abrahamian
ArmeniaNow reporter
The average grade scored by school graduates for the common test in
Armenian language and literature taken last week in Armenia is lower
than last year's, so is the number of students with the highest score.
This year there are a total of around 15,000 applicants for common
(graduation and university entrance) tests, 8,975 had applied to take
the Armenian language and literature test and 8,648 actually took it.
While last year the total number of applicants was 18,105, and
11,419 applicants out of the 11,795 took the Armenian language and
literature test.
On Monday the Evaluation and Testing Center (ATC) published the test
results, by which the average score is 13.25 versus last year's 13.9
(the highest score is 20).
ATC told ArmeniaNow that this year 788 students failed to pass the
test, which makes nine percent of the total, while last year it was
only 5.6 percent.
Only 80 applicants have scored the highest 20 versus last year's
200 applicants.
Among the common tests the one for the Armenian language and literature
is the most controversial with parents, applicants and returning
applicants (who failed to pass it before) complaining that the tests
remind complicated puzzles and there is mismatch with the sample
tests in the practice books serving as the exam preparation guidelines.
On the day of the test Education and Science Minister Armen Ashotyan
said that a number of controversial tasks had been removed from the
practice books and that the test authors had given assurances on the
absence of tasks implying ambiguous or two possible answers.
Philologist David Gyurjinyan says the testing system has been distorted
in Armenia - initially good ideas have been lost and the accepted
test building principles violated.
"For years now ATC relies on the same people and these tests are
a disgrace to both our schools and Armenian language teaching,
they evoke disgust among the applicants, hundreds of mistakes and
shortcomings have been pointed out, the mistakes get corrected,
but the test-makers do not get replaced," he says.
Earlier this month 1,139 students took the Russian language test with
an average score of 11.8, and only 15 percent failed to pass.