Final exams in secondary education are in full swing. De Volkskrant will report in the coming weeks. Paul van Meinen, MP for D66, took the VMBO theoretical exam in Mathematics.
Well, once the average student sees the first problem about a 3D-printed glass dolphin, he or she will probably fall over with fright, says Paul van Meenen D66 MP Paul van Meenen (67), who is taking the VMBO theoretical exam in mathematics. Monday afternoon. “A cylinder, a hemisphere and all those little things,” he says. “By the way, I wonder if today’s students know what a bottlenose dolphin is?”
If the exam had been a bingo card with the didactic sensibility of former math teacher and “education man” Van Meinen, he was sure to win. Starting with the language on the ether crypto-related task. Isn’t it easier to denote dollars with the letter E and the number of days with d? This is really confusing for children who have difficulty with reading comprehension.
Big Numbers: Also worth a bingo chip. In particular 110.000 cubic meters used in the calculations of the Port of Rotterdam. You can’t calculate anything on a piece of paper, everything has to be done with a calculator. I don’t think this is helpful, given the poor arithmetic skills of our students.
no gifts
Of course there are also “nice” questions in the test, for example the question about how many pieces of plastic are floating in the Pacific Ocean. “It’s not easy to relate to current events well.” But no, there are no gifts in this exam, he said. A nine-page exam at this level in two hours? I give it to the people in the Netherlands.
Van Meinen, just like the exam students, is about to close a period and start a new one. In less than a month he will replace the blue seats in the House, where he has been the education spokesperson for D66 for more than ten years, with the green seats in the Senate. Does he have good advice in this regard? Set the record straight a little bit now and then. You have a lifetime.
Advice for the Hafu English exam
On Tuesday afternoon, all havo students will take an English exam. “Looking for the right answers can sometimes suddenly make everything seem right,” says English teacher Ismail Aghzani, who can call himself the “Teacher of the Year 2021.” So look for the answers that can’t be right, you will find them quite easily. If there are still two possible correct answers, which is rare, look for similarities in the text.
Re-examination due to burnt sandwiches
It was supposed to be a great three weeks, right after the exams. Sleep between success and failure, without being able to change anything. But for pre-professional secondary education students at Morek College in Vosges with German in their curriculum, this story has been canceled. And all because of some bun burnt in the oven.
While the VMBO students were taking their exams last Friday, the fire alarm went off. “Everyone has been ordered to leave the building,” Deputy Director Pedro Van Doren told the National Ports Agency. For nothing, it soon became clear. But by then the damage was already done. The disciples spoke on the way. “This is not allowed.”
The Education Inspectorate does not know what the students are talking about, but this is irrelevant. Perhaps it was short talk, but they might also have discussed the final exam. This means that the pure result of the exam is at stake.
So the 38 students, including the eleven who have already completed the exam, will have to go through the cases again at the end of June. Additional bittersweet: vwo students who took the art exam in the same building do not have to return. They were with a smaller group, had more observers and didn’t talk.
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