Students to be given access to electronic bank of past exam

[rooster59]

Students to be given access to electronic bank of past exam

By The Sunday Nation

 

 

AN ELECTRONIC bank of past O-NET (Ordinary National Educational Test) exam papers and answers in all subjects is to be created so students and teachers can access them for practice.

 

“This will be a true education reform measure that can boost students’ O-NET scores visibly in five years,” Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin said yesterday, adding that the idea would also be developed into a smartphone application in future.

 

He said the Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) had been instructed to create the E-Testing Bank.

 

Full story: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30305706

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-02-05

[Scott]

And this is a very basic problem of education in Thailand.   The purpose of going to school is not have a comprehensive knowledge of a subject, it is to pass the test.   

 

I only hope that all students will remember from Health Education that if you feel sexually aroused, you should go play football.

[optad]

12 minutes ago, Scott said:

And this is a very basic problem of education in Thailand.   The purpose of going to school is not have a comprehensive knowledge of a subject, it is to pass the test.   

True but worse, it encourages teachers to delimit topics and "teach to the test". A fundamentally a bad educational outcome. Zero pedagogical development and keeps teacher training in the 1950's.

 

Broader skills such as critical thinking, international mindedness just do not factor into these low horizon targets.

[arthurboy]

Every time I read about any improvement - and this is not - to education in Thailand, I just see a budget for someone to misappropriate and a project that will never to be heard of again.

[futsukayoi]

"Samphan said the O-NET test for Prathom 6 level was held yesterday at 186 exam centres covering 4,182 exam sites and 807,087 applicants. The O-NET test for Mathayom 3 level was held yesterday and today at 227 exam centres covering 4,329 exam sites and 688,979 applicants. The O-NET test for Mathayom 6 level will be held on February 18 and 19 at 18 exam centres covering 405 exam sites and 394,343 applicants."

 

If I understand this correctly this means that only about half of kids sitting primary school exams get as far as sitting the exam to complete high school.  No idea what proportion pass.  I don't know what the equivalent would be in other countries but to me that seems very scary and sad.

[Wilsonandson]

O-NET (Ordinary National Educational Test) developed into a smart phone app in the future.

[the donger]

5 hours ago, Scott said:

And this is a very basic problem of education in Thailand.   The purpose of going to school is not have a comprehensive knowledge of a subject, it is to pass the test.   

 

I only hope that all students will remember from Health Education that if you feel sexually aroused, you should go play football.

I don't disagree with you, but the same problem can be said of lots of countries. In the UK high school is purely about exam preparation now.   

 

As for the news, it's good for individual students, but what is the net effect? If everyone is getting higher scores then the threshold for university entry will simply rise. And it's not like students actually learn anything from these exams (other than how to pass an exam). So the result will be inflated test results with no benefit. 

Edited February 5, 2017 by the donger

[rkidlad]

I've seen some O-Net exam papers. Riddled with grammatical errors and questions that make no sense or could be more than one possible answer. 

 

The irony of testing a child's knowledge of English with poor English. The O-Nets were just a very very poor man's TOEIC exam. 

[jaltsc]

"AN ELECTRONIC bank of past O-NET (Ordinary National Educational Test) exam papers and answers in all subjects is to be created so students and teachers can access them for practice."

 

More memorization with no understanding. They give the correct answer and then when asked what it means..The #1 answer in Thailand to any question that involves deductive reasoning... (With the requisite shoulder shrug)... "Mai Loo". 

 

 

[CWMcMurray]

7 hours ago, Scott said:

And this is a very basic problem of education in Thailand.   The purpose of going to school is not have a comprehensive knowledge of a subject, it is to pass the test.   

 

I only hope that all students will remember from Health Education that if you feel sexually aroused, you should go play football.

 And don't talk to your parents about... that is the wrong answer

 

Also guess if disabled, you should just roll around on the ground pretending to play football

 

Also if you don't like football and prefer other sports.. too bad.. you must play football

[Jeremy50]

The ONET paper is a joke. It is littered with mistakes in the questioning, and the answers are often ambiguous. Instructions can sometimes not be understood.  On one page alone I found 7 mistakes.  It must be written by some Thai who has been doing it for years, no one wants to tell him it contains incomprehensible 'English' unless the poor fellow loses face. Nearly everyone fails it, but that's hardly surprising. 

[LongTimeLurker]

2 hours ago, the donger said:

I don't disagree with you, but the same problem can be said of lots of countries. In the UK high school is purely about exam preparation now.   

Not just now, but also when I was at school 40+ years ago.

[JAG]

 

2 hours ago, rkidlad said:

I've seen some O-Net exam papers. Riddled with grammatical errors and questions that make no sense or could be more than one possible answer. 

 

The irony of testing a child's knowledge of English with poor English. The O-Nets were just a very very poor man's TOEIC exam. 

 

12 minutes ago, Jeremy50 said:

The ONET paper is a joke. It is littered with mistakes in the questioning, and the answers are often ambiguous. Instructions can sometimes not be understood.  On one page alone I found 7 mistakes.  It must be written by some Thai who has been doing it for years, no one wants to tell him it contains incomprehensible 'English' unless the poor fellow loses face. Nearly everyone fails it, but that's hardly surprising. 

 

I too have seen some O-NET past papers, and I agree with what both of you say. Mind you, much the same can be said of some of the textbooks which I have seen, including some with "western" names among the authors and editors!

 

O-NET papers are set to test the pupils knowledge of the syllabus which is set nationally. I've been involved in preparing 3 P6 classes for O-NET in the last months. Two of these classes I have been teaching for two years, and one I acquired after a reshuffle at the beginning of this semester (October). The classes I have been teaching for a while have both performed fairly well in the 2 '"mocks" they have done (using past papers), the third not so well. They sat the O-NET yesterday, I suppose that we will know shortly...

 

Now I don't claim to be an fantastic teacher - I am just one of those often despised "TEFLers", although I do try to use some imagination and inject some fun into my classes - it's a really tedious way of earning a not very good living otherwise. I try to teach to the syllabus, not to the test. I try to get the children to think through what they are doing and produce language independently - it's been a struggle but after two years most are starting to do so. Some of my Thai colleagues understand what I am doing, and encourage me and the children, some ( the older ones) regard me with an expression like a bulldog chewing a wasp!

 

I suppose my point is that if the children are capable of thinking through what is often a fairly simple question, and coming up with a reasonable answer, then the examination (at P6 level, I don't know about M3 or M6) is adequate for establishing a standard. There are other and I think better ways, all "multiple choice" is as the military would say "idle". Personally I would like to see a simple comprehension exercise requiring written answers included, that would be a better test;  and the cats whiskers would be a short oral exam (I remember French Oral at O Level - how we sniggered!) . Perhaps something like talking about the weather, or giving simple directions from a sketch map, (both topics in the syllabus). That idea might founder when it hits the rocks of the "spoken English level" of many Thai teachers!

 

A bank of "past papers" cannot do any harm as a tool for allowing teachers and pupils to understand the standard expected, and for pupils to practice and understand exam technique, but alone it will not raise the standard. What I find depressing is that the "men from the ministry" seem to have no real interest in raising that standard...

[scorecard]

9 hours ago, optad said:

True but worse, it encourages teachers to delimit topics and "teach to the test". A fundamentally a bad educational outcome. Zero pedagogical development and keeps teacher training in the 1950's.

 

Broader skills such as critical thinking, international mindedness just do not factor into these low horizon targets.

 

In other words, just remember the correct answer, never mind knowing why it's the correct answer.

 

Goes right back to the fundamental serious flaws in Thai education.

[DrTuner]

The O-Net is completely useless anyway, questions are ambiguous and "right" answers often blatantly wrong. Scrap the whole thing. 

[Scott]

There is no problem with practice tests.  It helps students to have an idea of what they do or don't know, but it is not a good method of teaching.  Unfortunately, I have seen endless testing with very little substance to the teaching.  

 

In one case, students weren't even asked to read the material, just told where to find the answers to the practice exams.   

[thhMan]

Eating the cake is not the same as knowing about the ingredients, how they go together and predicting the outcome