Early this month, Minister of Education Reda Hegazi announced the adoption of yet new procedures for the Thanaweya Amma, or 12th grade high school exams.

The exam paper has been modified so that 85 per cent of the exam will consist of multiple choice questions (MCQ) while 15 per cent will be essay questions, unlike last year when the entire exam was MCQ.

Thanaweya Amma exams, a series of standardised tests that complete secondary education and enable entry into universities, will kick off this year on 12 June and will last until 15 July. For more than a month around 700,000 Thanaweya Amma students will sit for their exams.

The ministry, according to Hegazi, will adhere to examination specifications: 30 per cent of the questions will be for below average students, 40 per cent for those considered average, and the remaining 30 per cent for those deemed clever students.

“We have reviewed all the problems of the past years which students faced while sitting for their exams. Accordingly, 5,000 teachers have been trained at the central level and almost 41,000 in the country’s governorates on the methods and techniques of formulating exam questions. The questions are to be in accordance with the ministry’s programme of evaluation for secondary schools,” Hegazi said.

Ministry of Education Spokesman Shadi Zalata said the ministry had adopted new security measures related to answer sheets. More than one barcode will be placed on a student’s bubble sheet which will include his or her data, as well as that of the answer sheets for essay questions, Zalata said.

“This will be useful for students who want to complain about any of their grades. In case of complaints, students will be provided with a copy of their bubble sheet and essay answer sheets,” explained Zalata.

Zalata noted that the formatting of the exam will make it easier for students to see the questions. After every 10 questions in the bubble sheet exams there will be an empty space to prevent students from making mistakes or missing questions. “This was a very common mistake; hundreds of students were missing several questions as the sheet was condensed with questions without any separation,” Zalata said.

He pointed out that during the exams, each student will receive rubric sheets for each subject. “The sheets will guide them during the exam as they contain the major rules and equations which the students were studying throughout the year,” said Zalata, adding that the ministry finished enhancing question banks to train students on the questions they should expect during the exams.

According to Zalata, questions will be straightforward. Options in the MCQ will be clear and only one correct answer will be among the choices. “Unlike past years, MCQ answers were all viable and students were asked to pick the best option.”

He said there will be no experimental exams this year for Thanaweya Amma students. “School teachers will have to practise with students on the questions from the question banks. This will be more than enough training for students.’’

He added that the ministry came up with a number of strict procedures to ensure that students would sit for their exams at schools without cheating. “Classrooms where students will be sitting for their exams will be monitored by surveillance cameras,” Zalata said.

Regarding the grading system, Zalata said the minister confirmed that answers will be corrected electronically, especially the multiple choice section. Essay answers will be graded according to a tablet-based rubric in which two teachers will be correcting each question to ensure accuracy. If the evaluation of both teachers differs by more than half a grade, a third teacher would be assigned to check it.

Model answers will also be reviewed before electronic marking starts, said Zalata, adding that a simulation of electronic corrections will be performed more than once before the beginning of the exams to ensure the system’s efficiency. “The minister has instructed the formation of a committee comprising 10 experts to revise samples of student answers before starting the electronic marking for each subject to ensure they adhere to the established standards,” explained Zalata.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 4 May, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.