Exams have started and that means: a record number of complaints at the LAKS. ‘I was reading quietly, then someone next to me went to eat blueberries’

A teenager comes out of the gym. In one hand she has a black handbag with Chanel logo and in her other a resealable bag of transparent plastic with a dictionary Dutch, pens and a marker. She sighs deep.

Not much later a boy walks out of the room, even with such a bag. He bolts his cheeks and blows out so hard that his lips trill. Just before he walks out of the building through the sliding door, he throws a key in a gray plastic container. It says: « Best exam candidate hand in safe key ».

Most other VMBO-T students from Beatrix College in Tilburg, a school for VMBO-T, HAVO and VWO, are still bent over their Dutch graduation in the gray gym next to the school. It is the Monday of the central final exams that started on Friday. The first period, the regular exam period, lasts until 26 May. The re -exams start on 17 June. Last Friday, VMBO-T kicked off with English.

Outside in the sun, in front of the entrance of the sports hall, ISIS (15) says that Dutch went ‘very bad’. « Many questions were open; there were almost no closed questions. »

Last week spoke NRC Even with Isisand with Lina (16) and Thijmen (16), also VMBO-4 students. The final exams were about to start. Then it was about performance pressure and final exam stress. « I just never really have stress, » said Isis then. « Not even if I didn’t learn for a test. » She did not learn for English, because that was ‘just’ a reading test.

English did go well, ISIS says Monday. « I really found that much easier. You don’t have to go as deep as with Dutch. At English you just have to read what it says. » She is not really worried about Dutch; She thinks she has achieved a 6.

Complaint

The National Action Komitee Schools (LAKS)-where students can submit a complaint about the final exams-received more complaints this year about the VMBO-T-Exam English than last year: 8,645 compared to 8,145. Scholieren.com wrote that students fell about the last question, which was about the British children’s program Peppa Pig. But ISIS thought that question was easy. « It was a question. About grunting children. But I was fine. »

This year, fewer complaints were received about the VMBO-T exam Dutch than last year: 6,414 versus 7,812.

When it comes to the total number of complaints, LAKS has been breaking its complaint record every year. Last year the counter stood up at the end of the first period More than 370,000. The year before More than 300,000. With many complaints, LAKS cannot do anything, because they are not specific enough and/or insufficiently substantiated. « Most of the complaints that come in are: » It was stupid, «  » it was too difficult, «  » it was too long. « And then without substantiation, » says Fé Swets. As a Laks board member, she goes over the final exam complaints line.

My teacher had a hair transplant that I could not focus

That is why Laks hopes this year for MINDER complaints, which are more specific and better substantiated. That makes the organization clear in the media and through its own channels. For example, it writes on Instagram: « complaining to complain makes no sense! »

But so far the complaints « flow » back in, says Swets. Wednesday evening the counter Already at more than 121,000. On Instagram, Laks talks about an « impressively high » number. Incidentally, it also shares a striking complaint every day, such as: « My teacher had had a hair transplant that I could not focus. » VMBO students complain the most, but that may also be because they form the largest group of final exam students, says Swets.

According to Swets, that Laks gets more complaints every year is largely due to social media. « As a result, more and more students are becoming familiar with the opportunity to complain. And I think it is also a piece of test pressure. »

Swets emphasizes that a real comparison between this year’s number of complaints and that last year is only possible at the end of the first period, because the exam schedule is different every year and there are certain ‘peak courses’, such as Dutch, English and mathematics. These are courses that many students take the exam and about which more complaints come in.

Blueberry

« For me, Dutch actually went very well, » says Lina with a broad smile. She has joined her schoolmate Isis outside. More and more students are coming out through the sliding doors of the sports hall; The two hours before the exam are almost over. « At the first exam, English, I really had to get used to my environment. People who were moving next to me, eating. I was quietly reading that text and then someone went to eat blueberries next to me! »

At the Dutch exam came the kind of questions that Lina had practiced well. « For example, what the connection was between certain paragraphs. »

« What is an anecdote? » ISIS asks. « A funny story, » says Lina. Isis: « I saw ‘anecdote’ somewhere three times, I was so of: shit, what is that, I don’t have a dictionary with me. »

Are they planning to submit a complaint about one of the exams? « For Dutch for sure; what was this test? » Says Isis. « I don’t know, » says Lina. « If I saw on Tiktok how much has already been complained about English … Everyone submits a complaint, but I don’t know if I think that’s that normal. »

« I’m definitely going to complain about Dutch. I don’t know about what exactly, but about anything, » says Mohamed (16), a tall boy in a skate pants who also come to it. « For a higher N-term. » The N-Term is the correction factor-between 0 and the 2-that is determined after the exam. This determines how many questions you must have good for a sufficient. If an exam turned out to be relatively difficult, the N-Term is higher and you will therefore receive a higher figure.

Lina looks doubtful. « Apparently it is very normal for this age to submit a complaint. I don’t just go in a complaint, that’s not what you just do at a restaurant. » She laughs. « Yes, it’s a bit for the younger generation. »

Mohamed: « You are only one month older! »

Isis: « She really pretends to be thirty and we ten. »

Increasing the N-Term is a common reason to complain, says Fé Swets van Laks. But according to her, students overestimate the influence that LAKS has on the N-Term. « I saw under a tap video of us that final exam candidates asked if we could arrange an N-Term of 1.3 for history and for mathematics 1.6. But we do not determine the N-Term. » The college does this for tests and exams (CVTE). « We take the complaints with us, » says a spokesperson. « But we are not looking at the number of complaints; we are about the content. » So there is no: the more complaints about an exam, the higher the N-Term.

Noise

« It is actually the complaints that we can do the least, » says Swets. « We can really make a difference when it comes to complaints about, for example, noise pollution during the exam or if you were entitled to extra time, but it didn’t get it. We will discuss that about that with the school. Sometimes that means that someone can take a re -examination. And if not, then we have given a voice to the student. Because it can be very exciting to step to the exam coordinator.”

NRC also spoke with Thijmen at Beatrix College last week. On Wednesday morning he says on the phone that the exams are going well so far and that he is still just as relaxed as last week. « I think it’s a shame that I don’t have much stress, because with a little stress I learn better. Tomorrow I have math and I already know how things are going right away. Then I make three practice assignments, I grab my phone and after half an hour I notice that I have not done anything anymore. »

He says he doesn’t understand that so many people complain. « I don’t need that myself. I think it makes no sense. »

The students’ surnames are known to the editors.

To share

Mail the editors