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How are entrance exams for graduate school: what the entrants say

Now, for the first time, Ukrainians take a unified entrance exam (EVI) or a unified professional entrance test (EVVV) for admission to a master’s or postgraduate course. EVI usually includes a foreign language test, which is a mandatory requirement for admission, and EFVV assesses competence – specialized knowledge and skills in a specific field. However, regardless of previous education and age (as a rule, people who are already quite mature enter graduate school), these exams cause anxiety among applicants because of the very procedure, tasks and rules.

Also, in the midst of the admissions campaign due to the wartime postgraduate admissions frenzy, the Ministry of Education and Science unexpectedly changed the rules. As the Minister of Education and Science, Oksen Lisovyi, noted on his Facebook page, the purpose of the changes is to avoid fictitious training to postpone mobilization,

In order to find out what obstacles and difficulties exist when taking the exams and what exactly the entrants are most dissatisfied with, IA “FAKT” decided to go to one of the testing centers in Kharkiv and talk to those who have already taken this exam.

Among the interviewees were only those entering postgraduate studies, whose average age was 27-30 years, most of them were men. In general, all our interlocutors expressed dissatisfaction with their results and the number of points scored, noting that the test was quite difficult and unclear.

We have collected typical answers that show the general mood of the entrants.

Elena, 27 years old:

“As it has already become clear, this exam is the same for all professions and areas, it contains a block of tests for the general level of competence (GLC) and any foreign language. The first thing I noticed – the first block (TSNK) includes a large number of grammatical errors. It was very strange for me…

The exam from the Ministry of Education and Science for admission to postgraduate studies contained text excerpts from some information sites with constant repetitions of the words “includes” or “already” in Ukrainian. These mistakes look completely unprofessional and extremely strange. Moreover, the use of materials from dubious sources raises questions about the quality and reliability of information. This approach to the preparation of examination tasks undermines trust in the education system and calls into question the competence of the organizers.”

Sergey, 28 years old:

“I was very impressed that the questions of the first block are not aimed at testing logic or competence, but rather at guesswork. Regardless of the specialty (and I chose philology for myself), there is a task about Achilles’ running with a tortoise and the question of which theorem is suitable and explains this situation. They also ask to calculate the payment for housing according to mathematical formulas depending on the aging of the building and the number of square meters…

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There are many other similar questions that are not related to humanitarian specialties. For technical majors, history and literature questions in this block are also inappropriate and difficult to answer. Why is there only one version of the test for doctors, lawyers, philologists and physicists-mathematicians?”.

Oleksandr, 31 years old:

“During the test, I realized that I wasted a lot of time and money preparing for the exam, because it is impossible to really prepare for this first block. Competent tasks and courses for preparation are also simply absent, because, as it turned out, no one knew what they might ask you there… The trial versions of the tests on the official website are also radically different from those given in the exam.”

Ihor, 29 years old:

“The second block involves the choice of any foreign language and the knowledge test is conducted at a really high level, because the test is quite difficult. I can confirm this with a confirmed C1 level in English. It was difficult for me, and for a person with a technical specialty or a teacher who has worked and studied Ukrainian all his life, such a perfect study of a foreign language is unreal. In fact, it is practically impossible.

Currently, I have great doubts about the fairness of such requirements, since achieving a high level of foreign language proficiency requires significant resources and time, which is not always possible for professionals engaged in their field. In addition, such requirements may limit access to postgraduate studies for many talented specialists who have high potential in their professional field, but they do not possess a foreign language at a sufficiently high level.

Svetlana, 27 years old:

“In essence, I can say that the conditions for taking the exam are quite good: bright and new premises, modern equipment, pleasant workplaces and quite nice instructors. But there are certain drawbacks and rules that greatly complicate the process.

The patrol police conducts a full metal detector check of each exam participant and also carefully checks all documents. This provides a high level of security, but at the same time it is morally depressing and increases the time required to start work. All personal belongings are also taken away, we could only have a passport, water without a sticker on the bottle and one pen.

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In the event of an air raid warning, all those present were sent to shelter, if the examination point was not located in a dungeon. We were lucky with this, but not everywhere. This leads to a big break in taking the exam, because the air alarm can be as long as 3 hours. But due to the fact that all technical devices and personal belongings are taken at the entrance, even if you have to wait for several hours, people will not have access to their belongings, which causes additional great discomfort and stress. My friend’s family, for example, simply did not know where she was for several hours because of such rules.”

Dmytro, 30 years old:

“Everything was more or less patient, but there was a power outage and my computer simply disconnected from the network. Despite this, the time for taking the exam was not restored to me, and I did not have time to complete all the tasks well. But why so? It wasn’t my fault… It’s another thing when, for example, a participant needs to go to the toilet or get fresh air during the exam. This is his own desire and then he understands in advance that the time spent on it is not compensated. But as it turned out for me – any break during the exam meant the loss of valuable minutes that could have been used to complete tasks.”

Denis, 28 years old:

“I was in shock. Just an hour or two before the start of this exam, our ministry updated the entry requirements. According to the new requirements, all men of draft age must score at least 180 points in order to be able to enroll. 180 is almost impossible if you have not studied English all your life. For others applying for a budget seat, the minimum score threshold has been raised to 160 from each block. That is, the ability to write one block average (+-150) and another very good does not affect anything. Each of them should be quite high. This change is just additional problems, and we would have warned at least a few days in advance.”

All these admissions reviews show a large number of shortcomings which create additional stress and problems for applicants who are already under a lot of pressure due to the importance of the exam. Most likely, under such conditions, few people will get to graduate school. Therefore, the future of Ukrainian science is under great question.

 

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