The Unified State Exam

The Unified State Exam

The Unified State Exam is the final exam at school, which students take in the end of school. This exam is obligatory for all students in Russia. Also the USE is an entrance exam to university. Since 2009 it is the only form of the final examination.

Since that time, when the USE was introduced, there have many arguments for and against. Certainly, test has positive and negative aspects. In my opinion, the main drawback of this exam is its incomplete. In our country, the USE was introduced with the aim joining the WTO. Russia needed an urgent reform of the educational system, because a prerequisite of joining the WTO was the standardization of national educational system. That was the reason for universities accept the two-level system, and schools introduced the Unified State Exam. These changes are just a formality. The exam has not been worked out with the necessary precision. And many aspects are extremely controversial. The Federal Service for Supervision in Education and Science initiated the exam. The exam was copied from European tests, in particular from American tests. However, introduction of USE did not provide fundamental changes in Russian schools. In addition, specializations of schools were not considered. I think one more important disadvantage is the refusal of the development of logic and creative approach to tasks of students. The USE does not imply a creative approach and therefore the whole thought process suffers. Students training on the tasks of the same type and they do not develop the logic. Students should have some basic knowledge and skills to accomplish tasks. They develop automatic reflexes. If student have not the real knowledge, he can choose the answer at random. This is another significant drawback of the USE. It is impossible to check all students with the same test. Besides, almost all tutorials do not provide training to the USE. What is more important, the abolition of oral part of the exam significantly affect on students' knowledge. Students training to tests and even if they have a good knowledge, they cannot express their thoughts in a proper way.

In spite of all this, the USE has positive aspects. One of the main advantages of the USE is his obligatoriness. Now almost all universities in our country accept applicants with the USE results. It simplified their lives.  It is not necessary apply for admission to the university personally. All documents can be sent by mail or fax. Students have the opportunity to apply to several universities. Furthermore corruption is one of the main problems in Russia today. Of course the exam is unable to eliminate corruption. But after its introduction, the level of corruption considerably decreased. Now everyone has equal rights. The USE allows identifying talented students in the province. High demands of the USE lead to improve the quality of education at school, improve the quality of teachers and tutorials. Not least that the verification of tests is computerized. It eliminates the bias from the inspection staff. Also, it reduces the expenditures on the inspection staff. Unfortunately it does not eliminate mistakes of the computer. But in this case student can appeal if he has doubts of the results. At the same time, the results of the USE are assessed by 100-point scale. This system allows pick out the best students. Of course, system of assessment is not ideal, but it is most appropriate now.

I consider it right to introduce the USE, because it allowed Russia join to WTO. I strongly believe that the USE has right to be. Despite the fact that it has a lot of disadvantages, it also has positive aspects. After all, it really simplified the life of many students. It is necessary to change tests in the future and reforms in the schools should start over.