How Will the 9th Grade History and Literature Exams Be Conducted?

The Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Armenia, Zhanna Andreasyan, made a Facebook post regarding the final certification under the new standards.

“Dear educators, as you know, in the Tavush region this year we will test the final certification under the new standards in the fourth, ninth, and twelfth grades in all schools for future implementation of the same format. There will be no knowledge testing exams in the fourth grade; students will be transferred through final characteristics.

In order to be timely informed about the overall picture of children's progress, we plan to carry out an external assessment in the fourth grade with a unified test covering the subjects of native language, mathematics, and the environment and me. This is not related to transfers; the results will be verified centrally, and only a generalized picture will be sent to schools to guide further activities.

In the ninth grade, the exams for history and literature will be conducted in a unified format as research work. Importantly, both the actual research work and the learner's analytical thinking will be assessed, while the grammatical part of the work will be checked based on the 'green pen' principle: correct sections will be marked, and mistakes will be identified by the student themselves.

Students in the natural sciences direction will have the opportunity to choose between a project work format or a test. Furthermore, the test assignments will be created based on a new logic, using the methodologies of international relevant research such as TIMSS and PISA. The same approach will be used to form tests for mathematics, Armenian language, and foreign languages.

The physical education assessment will be maintained with the requirement to meet standards. The tests for the twelfth grade will also be completely transformed to align with the methodologies of international relevant studies, TIMSS and PISA.

This year, during the testing period, students in the Tavush region will receive an additional opportunity to take the final and unified exams in this new format, alongside the existing format. This means they will have another chance to take the exams. At the same time, it will create a great opportunity for us to compare the results of the new and old systems for the same students,” she wrote.