The vast majority of this year’s applicants along with their parents were both angry and surprised with their low marks at the Armenian language and literature exams. During the exams almost everybody found out that the tests were more difficult than they had expected. The first week of exams has shown that a higher percentage of Armenian applicants get higher marks in foreign languages than in their mother tongue.

The exams started on June 2 and will finish on June 23, during which about 19,000 applicants will take part in joint entrance exams.

The results of the Armenian language and literature joint exams showed that only 12 applicants out of 12,000 got 20 points (the highest grade). Sixty-five percent (7,800 applicants) got 7.5-13.25 points. In comparison with the Armenian language 100 applicants out of 8,000 taking English exam got the highest mark.

The newly appointed Minister of Education and Science Armen Ashotyan shares the concerns of applicants.

“Yes they (tests) were difficult for everybody,” says the minister. “So all the applicants taking exams were under common conditions, but while considering the number of unsatisfactory marks, it can be noticed that the majority of performed successfully. The competitive field was kept for all of them; it was simply transferred into a field with lower marks.”

Ashotyan, who also chairs the State Admission Commission, says that the reason why the marks for foreign languages are higher is that their tests are much easier.

“Besides, there is information that cribs (‘cheat sheets’) were being circulated in some exam centers,” the minister said. “More than a dozen of cribs are confiscated; they have different forms and are written by different handwritings.” (Under examination rules, those who get caught using a crib are ordered out of the room and reprimanded. Generally, offending students are allowed to continue to sit the exam.)

Angela Sargsyan, who got 13.75 in Armenian language and literature, says that there were such questions included in the test that cannot be found in the textbooks of neither the Armenian language nor the literature. They could not be found in the guide-tests designed for applicants, either.

“It was extremely difficult. During my preparations for the tests I got 17-20 points, whereas now my mark shocks me, I did not expect that to happen, I did not expect the test to be so hard,” says Angela, 16.

Joint entrance exams in Armenia are held since 2007. As part of an overhaul of the educational system three years ago the Ministry of Education and Science decided to hold centralized exams along with graduation exams rather than holding them in universities over the whole summer. The objective is to make the entry process easier, while also reducing corruption risks.

Still many believes that the new system only makes things worse.

Arega Ohanyan, principal of Yerevan secondary school N. 100, says that 32 out of 50 graduates from her school took joint entrance exams in the Armenian language.

“After those exams our students returned very disappointed, rather broken,” says Ohanyan.

The principal questions the objectives of those who created the tests.

“Why do they want to oppress children? The aim of (lower) schools is not providing students with absolute knowledge, is it? Otherwise what do they get from their education at higher educational institutions? And those tests demand absolute knowledge from children. There are such questions involved in the tests that are vaguely presented in texts-books, lets say by one or two sentences. And in the tests those questions are asked to be answered in detail,” Ohanyan says.

The Armenian language and literature teacher of the same school Astghik Papyan says this year tests were 3-4 times harder than last year. Papyan with her 15 years of experience of teaching says she could hardly get 18 from the test.

“The test was difficult even for me,” says Papyan. “You have to have an absolute memory in order to remember very small details in literature questions. They also changed the questions for Armenian language. If previous years the request was to find the wrong word, sentence and etc., now they had to count how many mistakes there are.

Let’s say, the student should count and find wrong words among 16 words. If the student miscounts even one word, he/she will lose the points from that question. Let’s not forget that these are 16-year-old students, they are nervous during the exam and may confuse the number s they have counted. It is not possible to count so much in 3 hours.”

The minister agrees that there are still many things to be done in the improvement and development of the new examination system, since the phase of reforms has not been finished yet.