“Every hour spent at school brings me closer to my dream”: how a new learning format helps Moscow students prepare for exams

Moscow eleventh-graders have been attending workshops for a month on the subjects they will take for the Unified State Examination. In these classes, students, together with the teacher, analyze exam tasks in detail in order to better prepare for them without tutors and additional courses. In addition to core subjects, the disciplines that are mandatory for all students remain in the schedule: mathematics, history, social studies, Russian language and physical education. Some of the school non-core subjects the guys studied in the first half of the year. In February, classes in these subjects were removed from the schedule of students in order to pay more attention to preparing for the exam.

Veronika Gavrilyuk, school No. 1619 named after. M. I. Tsvetaeva

We were immediately told that the new training system would be aimed, first of all, at the successful passing of exams. Of course, this made everyone happy, because high scores in the Unified State Examination will allow you to enter good universities, and this is what worries me and my classmates now more than anything else.

In the first half of the year, we had lessons in core and non-core subjects. We were constantly distracted from the really important subjects. Since February the situation has changed for the better. Now, at the workshops, we hone only the knowledge and skills that are necessary for the successful passing of the exam, this cannot but rejoice. I go to workshops in mathematics, social studies and in Russian and English, as I plan to take exams in these subjects. Every week I have 4 to 6 lessons in each subject. I think this is enough for good preparation.

We are just getting used to the new program, but I already like that in the workshops there is an opportunity to perform many tasks similar to exams. In the classroom, we analyze not only certain types of tasks, but sometimes we solve full exam options in order to objectively assess the level of our preparation. The mechanism of work at workshops is simple: first, the teacher tells the theoretical material, and then distributes possible tasks with a disassembled topic to consolidate knowledge.

With the advent of workshops, the process of self-preparation for exams has not changed for me, I still continue to study even at home. To do this, I often use a special MES platform, where you can find many exam tasks, complete them, and then immediately see the result. Teachers can look at my mistakes and help me deal with them in class at school.

The main advantage of the new system of education is that now I have a lot of time to study for exams. You no longer need to do what is not useful when entering a university – the entire focus of attention is now directed to preparing for the Unified State Examination and achieving high results. Now I get all the necessary theory from teachers, which I can immediately consolidate by doing practical tasks.

Alexander Ovodkov, school number 1298

At the beginning of the school year, the director of our school held a meeting at which we were told that from February, 11th grade workshops would begin in core subjects. The essence of the changes is that now most of the school hours are aimed at diligent preparation for exams. My classmates and I reacted positively to this news.

From October to February, as part of the new education system, we went through the entire program in non-core subjects. And now I attend only compulsory disciplines for all, as well as lessons in those subjects that I need to enter the institute. Previously, preparing for each individual lesson took me a lot of time, I had almost no strength left to prepare for the exam.

I go to workshops in the Russian language, specialized mathematics and physics, because I will take exams in these subjects. Our class was divided into groups according to the level of knowledge: more prepared guys sort out more difficult tasks, and the rest of the students carefully and precisely work out tasks in which they often make mistakes. Thanks to the grouping, teachers began to pay more attention to each student, which once again confirms the usefulness of this approach to learning. With the advent of workshops, I began to spend much less time on self-preparation for exams. Now at home I can do other interesting things for me. For example, I like to participate in subject Olympiads for schoolchildren, and I also need to prepare for them. Now I finally have time for this.

Many students in high school have tutors, and for some time I also studied with teachers. But now this is not necessary, because in the workshops we have the opportunity to ask individual questions and analyze them together with the teacher. We have only been studying the new system for a month, but I can already see the effect: there is more knowledge, and fears gradually disappear.

Vladislav Spiridonov, school number 1440

I was immediately pleasantly surprised by the news about the appearance of workshops in core subjects. I am sure that the more time you spend preparing for exams, the better your results will be. It’s great that now you can diligently prepare in school lessons. In the 10th grade, we studied according to the usual program, which did not always allow us to get the necessary theory for passing exams successfully. I came home from school tired and tried to study topics on my own or with tutors that would help me to correctly complete the exam tasks.

Now in my schedule there are mainly those subjects for which at the end of the academic year I will take the exam. In fact, I can just go to school, listen carefully to teachers, do practical tasks, and I think this will be enough to get the desired score on exams. This is what I like about the new education system: you study the necessary theory and practice right in the classroom.

In workshops, we can work on “weak points” (tasks that are more difficult to complete than others) at a comfortable pace, rather than jumping from topic to topic to catch up with the program. The teacher sees what causes difficulties for many students, and tells the necessary theory until our results improve. Now I go to school with pleasure, because I understand that all efforts will definitely not be in vain.

Maria Kornoukhova, school number 1576

The beginning of February was a little chaotic, as the new training format was unusual. It was difficult to get used to the fact that lessons in some subjects are no longer in our school curriculum, but in general the changes have been beneficial. We’ve been stripped of information that can distract from exam preparation, while adding core subjects to fully focus on the most important things.

At first, it was difficult to get used to the fact that in the schedule, workshops on the same subject often follow each other. That is, for example, on Monday we can have from two to four workshops in the Russian language in a row, and this is difficult, because we are used to switching from one subject to another. But this has its advantages: couples at the institute will not seem too long.

At workshops, we scrupulously work out individual tasks or solve complete exam options. I am already well versed in all types of tasks and therefore spend less time on them. If you suddenly have questions, teachers are always ready to answer them and help you understand the topic. In addition, I began to hear more often from classmates that high results in the exam no longer seem so unattainable: The more practice, the more self-confidence.

Thanks to the new system, I have additional free hours for sports and meetings with friends. I used to come home after school and study for exams until night, but now there is no need for this. Sometimes, in a relaxed home environment, I can go to a special MES platform and complete several tasks to consolidate knowledge. It takes not so much time, but the material in the process is well absorbed and remembered.

In the usual general classes, and not in groups, students study compulsory subjects: mathematics, history, social studies, literature and physical education. Students of specialized and pre-professional classes will attend workshops in specialized subjects until the end of the academic year.

Ksenia Gubskaya, school №2086

The fact that this academic year will introduce a new system of education for 11-graders, we learned from the class teacher in the fall. The whole class was surprised, because we did not quite understand what was waiting for us.

For the first six months, we went through the entire program at an accelerated pace in non-core subjects (for which we will not take the exam). I did not feel the rush, everything was as usual, the number of tests just decreased. Since February, we have not been taught non-core subjects anymore – there are only workshops and compulsory lessons for everyone in mathematics, history, social studies, literature and physical education, as well as the Russian language in the format of workshops.

I plan to take exams in English, history, as well as in Russian and mathematics (they are mandatory), so I attend workshops only in these subjects. In the classroom, we analyze the options for tasks that can be caught on the exam.

In addition, the MES (Moscow Electronic School) educational platform helps us prepare for exams. It contains options for tasks in the USE format for each subject. Before the start of the workshops, we wrote trial exams, thanks to which we saw what topics we need to pay more attention to in practical classes with a teacher.

The new system of education helped to concentrate only on core subjects. There was so much practice at school that I even refused a math tutor. At the workshops, I get a lot of necessary information, so I am sure that the results of the exams will please me.

For each subject, as part of the workshops, groups of basic and advanced levels were formed depending on the results of the trial USE and additional test papers, the level of knowledge of students, academic performance and desired results in the exam. That is, those who are interested in a high result, and those who just need to pass the exam for the minimum passing score, attend different workshops.

Author: Maria Yakovleva