The two-day National Center Test for University Admissions, the last of its kind, starts Saturday. From next year, the center test will become the Common Test for University Admissions.
It is imperative to make a fresh start in promoting entrance exam reforms, which continued to wander around, based on the achievements and challenges of the past 31 years.
The National Center Test, which succeeded the Joint First-stage Achievement Test for national and public universities in 1990, is characterized by the fact that it opened up doors for private universities to participate. The number of participating universities has increased year after year, totaling 858 this year.
The number of test sites has increased to expand the range of options for where the exam can be taken, a point that can be praised in terms of enhanced convenience for test-takers.
The center test has played a certain role in gauging the levels of knowledge acquired by high school students as it eliminated puzzling and tricky questions, containing reasonable questions. A listening section was introduced for the English test in fiscal 2006. This most likely served as an opportunity to make listening instruction more prominent in high schools.
On the other hand, negative effects brought about by the enlargement of the center test have become conspicuous. With the number of test-takers swelling to about 550,000, the range of scholastic abilities to be measured has widened. Questions take all test-takers into consideration. As a result, the center test has been criticized as containing questions that are too easy for examinees aspiring to enter tough universities.
Criticism has become stronger that test-takers' abilities to think deeply and express their ideas, as well as their English speaking and writing abilities, cannot be gauged adequately through the center's multiple-choice test formula.
It can be said that there was no avoiding some sort of revision.
The common examination for university entrance, which will be implemented from next year, was going to call for descriptive answers in mathematics and national language tests and measure four skills in English -- reading, listening, speaking and writing -- through tests prepared by private entities. However, the plan was postponed because preparations have not been made to implement it.
After all that, the test formula remains almost unchanged. At a minimum, there is no other way than to consider creating exam questions that make test-takers think by comparing multiple data and assess their thinking abilities. It is also necessary to ensure questions have an adequate level of difficulty.
An expert panel of the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry has started reexamining reforms of the university entrance test formula.
At its initial meeting Wednesday, a panelist expressed an opinion that the common test and tests conducted by individual universities are "two wheels of a cart," saying, "Incorporating everything into the common test could be a factor behind the mayhem this time."
What scholastic abilities should be gauged through university entrance tests? To start with, this point should be confirmed. It is then necessary to carefully study methods of utilizing the common test and individual university tests after taking into account the characteristics and limitations of the two tests.
Students learning under the new teaching guidelines, which attach importance to the ability to think and express oneself, will take university entrance tests in fiscal 2024. It is imperative to formulate an entrance exam system that is able to adequately measure the abilities they acquire.
-- This article appeared in the print version of The Yomiuri Shimbun on Jan. 18, 2020.
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