For many people, November is the time for holidays and shopping because it’s also sale season. However, for some people, this is one of the toughest month ever as they go through the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examinations.
There have been many weird questions that were asked in this major exam throughout the years. In whichever subject, we’re bound to come across questions such as “share your friend’s secrets”, “label the shoe”, “joining the anti-government”, etc.
Yes, the questions are just plain bizarre sometimes.
Well, a parent has recently spoken out about the English paper this time around, where they found an ‘error’ in one of the questions. They then sent in a complaint to The Star but received quite the backlash after it was published.
They wrote,
“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.”
The worried parent continued to explain why this question was confusing.
“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.”
The worried parent then went on to ask for minimal penalty for the mistake made from the ‘error’ of the question.
“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.”
In the end, the parent was really just looking out for their own child.
“It would be truly horrible for kids with excellent English to be penalized severely and given C’s and D’s 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.”
As much as this worried parent wanted to look out for their child, unfortunately, many netizens completely disagreed.
They felt that students who made the mistake deserve to have their points deducted. After all, the language is all about comprehension, thus, misunderstanding the question would be the student’s own fault.
Source: Facebook
Do you guys agree with the parent or netizen’s stance? Share your thoughts in the comment section!
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