School graduates face major changes in the Unified State Exam procedure, the final essay will again be a required admission to exams, and if failed it can be retaken. Also, the EGE will add new options, retaking any subject, early taking for all, splitting math and Russian into basic and advanced levels, and an oral part for foreign languages.
The essay will once again be included in the examination requirements for school graduates. School students in our country will write it in December in order to gain access to taking the Unified State Exam.At the beginning of the school year, Sergei Kravtsov, head of the Federal Service for Supervision in Education and Science, signed an order establishing the minimum number of points in all general education subjects within the Unified State Exam required for admission to the country’s universities. The essay will be assessed on a pass/fail basis. In the event of a passing grade, the student will be admitted to further take the Unified State Exam. If the examinee receives a “fail” grade, he or she will be able to retake the essay in February, or at the end of April or the beginning of May. Students with disabilities and children with disabilities will have the opportunity to write a summary instead of an essay.
As Elena Aleksandrovna Osipova, Minister of Education of the Irkutsk Region, said, the essay will thus become a mandatory condition for admission to the state final certification. The topics for the examination essays will be based on works of Russian and world literature; the topics for the essays were determined by a council chaired by the president of the Russian Public Fund, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Natalia Solzhenitsyna.
The thematic directions of the final essay in the graduating classes of 2014-2015 will be:
1. “Not for nothing does all Russia remember…” (the 200th anniversary of M.Y. Lermontov)
2. Questions posed to humanity by war
3. Man and nature in Russian and world literature
4. The dispute of generations: together and apart
5. What do people live by?
Elena Osipova also noted that after checking, all essays will be sent to a unified database. The graduate himself will have the right to submit the essay results when applying to higher education institutions if the universities choose this type of exam as an entrance examination. In this case, the university will access the database and independently carry out its assessment, additionally awarding up to 10 points to the Unified State Exam results.
All those who wish, including graduates of previous years, will now be allowed to take the final certification early, which will be held no earlier than April 1.
For the first time, all students taking the Unified State Exam will have the opportunity to retake any of the subjects if the result is unsatisfactory. Also for the first time, students will be given the opportunity to take the Unified State Exam in individual subjects upon completion of their study. For example, Geography can be taken immediately after the end of Grade 10. According to the minister, the changes will also affect the conduct of the Unified State Exam in foreign languages - the exam will include a “Pronunciation” section, and oral answers to the tasks are planned to be recorded on audio media.
Based on materials from the press service of the Government of the Irkutsk Region.
Under the new procedure, all graduates of previous years and this year will be able to take the Unified State Exam from April to June. The compulsory mathematics and Russian exams will be divided into two levels: basic and advanced. In order to have the opportunity to enter a technical university, graduates will be required to take mathematics at the advanced level and Russian language at the basic level. And vice versa if the university is not technical in nature. To choose the remaining subjects within the Unified State Exam, school students will need to decide by March 1, as was the case in 2014. In order to receive a school-leaving certificate, Unified State Exam participants will only need to pass the subject at the basic level. However, successfully passing the basic level in the core subjects will not make it possible to enter a university where mathematics or Russian language is included in the list of entrance examinations.