As you can see from the title itself, the topic itself is named 'Recent Hot Topic'. Well, why did I intentionally write this post? A few days ago, I came across a news article from the Star Online and I was found shock. Let me show you. This is an article I screenshot from the Star Online. I do not own any copyright for this.
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This article is written by SAMUEL YESUIAH from Seremban. In his article, he mentioned that 'there is a criterion that stipulates that the topic should be consistently relevant.' and he was giving comments that 'Good students are able to meet these challenges and overcome them and achieve excellence.'
I actually agree with what he stipulates. Many a times, students should be very careful with the questions during examinations. From the day we started going to school, we have already learn to read the questions with extra care before we start answering. When I was studying, I even got scolded because I did not read the questions carefully and made some silly mistakes. Well, those mistakes costs me dearly. But some of you may wonder, why is this thing being so 'hot' now in Malaysia?
Let me tell you the whole story. Right after the SPM paper for English, some of the students felt that they are in jeopardy. The question specifically asked that "IF you had the opportunity to move to another part of Malaysia, where would you choose to live? Explain your choice." Students were confused by the question above. I was like WHAT THE HECK? when I first heard of this. The question itself is so very clear and there is no part in the question where it is confusing to anyone.
So, one fine day after the exam itself, a very protective parent, from Penang, wrote to the Star Newspaper and let's see what she wrote.
ARTICLE FROM THE STAR ONLINE STARTS HERE!!!!
"THE English SPM 2017 Paper 1 was conducted on Tuesday. In the continuous writing section, which is worth 50 precious points, students were given five options to choose from. The first option reads: “If you had the opportunity to move to another part of Malaysia, where would you choose to live? Explain your choice.”
As an adult who read this question for the first time, I did not realise it was asking about a place to live within Malaysia. Likewise, many excellent SPM 2017 students who sat for this paper didn’t realise an inclusion criterion set by the question. Some wrote about living in Korea, Britain, Bali, Switzerland, Mecca, Madina, and etc.
SPM is an important examination for students in our country as it will decide the paths they will follow. For excellent kids who wrote about living outside of Malaysia, they have made a mistake in one of the most important examinations in their lives.
These kids have been in turmoil since they realised this horrendous mistake. Those who were aiming for an A+ in English are in extreme shock about this.
I agree that some sort of points deduction could be made to be fair to those who answered the question as intended. For example, deducting a maximum of three points for not keeping within the boundary of the question could be made while recognising that the students still wrote essays that captured the same intended themes – moving to another place and reasons for the choice. This, hopefully, would be taken into consideration by the Examinations Syndicate.
It would be truly horrible for kids with excellent English to be penalized severely and given Cs and Ds because of a mistake made under immense examination pressure. They spent 11 long years learning English; please do not punish them for a mistake committed in a single exam. Many students with excellent English will be deprived of their bright futures because of an error they made in SPM. Please be kind and just to these kids. After all, to err is human.
A WORRIED MALAYSIAN
Penang"
ARTICLE GOTTEN FROM THE STAR ONLINE ENDS HERE!!!
I mean, there are a few things to be argued from the letter. First off. You as an adult, when you saw the question, you got confused? I mean. Pftttt. Till what level you studied your English? Where did you study anyway? I won't send my kids to the school you studied. The question specifically said IN MALAYSIA and yet, you still said that you didn't realize the criterion? I'm confused.
Second, you've said it yourself. SPM is an important exam and will decide the path that they will follow. In this case, why don't you ask your child to focus more on the exam? Well, during MY days when I was taking up SPM, we always thought that English is quite an easy paper and it is one of the MUST GET A subject. In fact, I got A for my English as well. Maybe, this is one of the reason behind why your child made such a silly mistake. Maybe you should advice your child that the future does not care much on how many A's you got for your SPM. The future is a realistic world. How many A's one got does not determine anything except for that time when you are applying for University and applying for a scholarship.
Third, you gave an example of deducting only 3 marks for the silly mistakes that they made. Well, what I have to say, is that it is the student's own fault to make such silly mistakes and it is their own responsibility to be ready that their marks will be horrible. As parents', what you should be doing is to comfort them and tell that it is part of life and make sure that they move on and instead, you are wasting time in complaining to the newspaper, trying to persuade the Exam board to go as you wish. I don't think that anyone in the exam board will bother about what you are saying. So, stop wasting your time and energy on complaining and start to really plan on how to help your child.
Well, that's the end of the post. I hope you guys agree to what I say. If you don't, leave a comment~
Signing off,
Cheerios.
YiXin Ching
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