High school students preparing for their university entrance exams have stumbled onto a mystery in their mock test grading, leaving many anxious in the run-up to test day.
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With less than 60 days until the national college entrance exam, high school students across the country are preparing by taking mock exams. However, allegations from students at the Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University claim unusual grading patterns in their Chinese and English essay sections.
Students say that their scores seem to align precisely with the number of lines they wrote, divided by two. One student says, his classmate approached their teacher about the scores, only to discover the systematic nature of the grading pattern.
Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy Chairman Chang Yu-meng (張育萌)
says this mysterious pattern seems too coincidental to be plausible and that students are wondering if their papers were graded properly.
In response, the school has requested around 900 exam papers be returned from the grading company, Hanlin Publishing, for a thorough reevaluation. Hanlin has stated that it outsourced grading to various educators, including retired teachers, and freelance instructors. The company says they will investigate the scoring of the papers to find out if the student's claims are correct.
Ko Kuan-ming (柯冠銘) of the school's academic affairs department assures students that their internal grades will not be affected and that the situation is being looked into.
The extent to which other schools may be impacted by this grading snafu remains uncertain, but one thing is for sure, it has cast a shadow over many students’ confidence as they approach the impending exam day.