Summary on scientific and statistical study of admission examinations’ results for academic year 2009/2010

Admission of students to higher educational institutions, to all civil higher schools, special educational institutions of Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of National Security, Ministry for Emergency Situations, State Border Service and “Azerbaijan Air Lines” State Concern, including private higher schools of the Republic of Azerbaijan having gone through registration as required in accordance with the legislation, for academic year 2009/2010 has been held by the State Students Admission Commission in centralized way and in full conformity with the “Admission Regulations to higher educational schools of the Republic of Azerbaijan”.
Some innovations were applied in the admission regulations for the purpose of improving the students’ admission in the last few years. These are the following:
Beginning from 2008 acceptance of applications was held in two stages via internet. At the first stage, applications were accepted from all applicants wishing to take part in admission examinations. At the second stage, applications were accepted only from those individuals who met the competitive requirements for a given specialty. As distinct from previous years, the applicants chose specialties after the results of the test examination were announced.

Competition for specialties demanding specific skills was conducted on the basis of the scores gained in aptitude exams.

The distribution of exam passes, the announcement of the results of the test examination, the registration of the applicants for specialties demanding specific skills, and the processing of the aptitude examination results were carried out via internet.
The main purpose of the students’ admission is the selection of applicants having the ability to get education in a higher school on the selected specialty. In order to implement this duty the test items used during the examinations must be valid; it means that they must have the characteristics of making the right choice. In order to appropriately carry out this duty the SSAC implements improvement activities in a consecutive manner both in the content of the test items and their development and the forms of presenting the items as well on the basis of international experience on knowledge assessment. During this year’s admission examinations one of such activities was the increase of test items on application of theoretical knowledge in tests on different subjects in some degree in comparison with the previous years. As a result, the scores gained by a part of the applicants during solving the tasks requiring non-standard thinking and creativity decreased in comparison with the previous years. But this year in the high score range (500-700 score interval) the knowledge assessment and ranking of the applicants on the basis of it were carried out more accurately. This modification had its impact on examination results of the applicants giving more preference to cramming during the preparation for the admission examinations. Such applicants usually do not try to understand the essence of physical, chemical and biological processes, mathematical transformations, and it is very difficult for them to explain the cause-and-effect relations of the simplest natural phenomena.

But in spite of this, the study of the results of the admitted applicants, especially the applicants having scored between 500-700, gives an opportunity to come to a conclusion that we have formed the student contingent for the first year of higher schools whose knowledge and skills make it possible to get a higher education.
Every normal society thinking about its future makes all attempts to balance in a maximum degree the opportunity for people from all layers to get education. Educational system must provide equal chances to young people to gain success, get a decent place in the society on the basis of their skills and efforts. The admission examination results prove once more that a real social mechanism has been established in our country for this purpose and this mechanism successfully carries out its activity.

The tasks connected with the content of admission examinations to higher schools have been analyzed by expert groups of the SSAC on every subject this year too as they were carried out in the previous years. According to the experts’ opinion, the test items used in the examinations have been developed in conformity with admission programs based on educational programs of secondary schools and textbooks that are in use now and have completely covered the course of the secondary education.
The model of test items was discussed long before at the scientific methodical seminars on subjects that carry out their activities within SSAC, their analogical variants were published in “Abiturient” journal. The test items for all specialty groups were prepared in three levels (simple, middle, complicated) and in different categories (nominations) of relevance, and they gave an opportunity to discover knowledge, skills and habits of the applicants gained at school.

Sociological survey carried out in this regard shows that methodical materials, test models published in “Abiturient” journal, test collections on all examination subjects, textbooks of a new kind on Chemistry, Geography, History, Mathematics, Physics, the Russian and the German languages, electronic test aids played a positive role in effective preparation of the youth to admission examinations.

As in the previous years, this year SSAC organized trial tests for applicants before the admission exams and test item models that would be offered in the admission examinations in the future were pretested. Trial tests were held both in Baku and other 41 regions of the Republic, and they were carried out via Internet as well. The number of participants of these exams in Baku was 117 700. More than 6 500 applicants took part in these pretests in Nakhchivan AR, and the number of participants in other regions was more than 57 100. These trial tests played an important role for the applicants in getting awareness of the test technology and getting accustomed to the examination environment psychologically.

The admission to higher schools in academic year 2009/2010 has been implemented in four specialty groups. Group I consists of mathematics, physics, engineering, chemical technology specialties, architecture and designing specialties; group II consists of economy, management, sociology and geography specialties; group III consists of humanities, arts and music specialties; group IV consists of medicine, chemistry, biology, psychology, and sport specialties.

Admission of 29 030 students to higher schools of the Republic was planned for academic year 2009/2010. 30.03 per cent of the places for admission were intended for group I, 25.25 per cent for group II, 32.82 per cent for group III, and 11.90 per cent for group IV.

This year 112875 school graduates applied for admission to higher educational institutions, males constituting 48.80 per cent, and females 51.20 per cent. The gender composition of applicants who took part in the admission examinations corresponds with the total composition of the population. This year 31.73 per cent of applicants applied for admission to group I, 22.18 per cent to group II, 31.69 per cent to group III and 14.40 per cent to group IV.

It is the third year as the State Students Admission Commission has carried out the examinations on the Azerbaijani language for Russian sector graduates before the admission examinations to higher schools and secondary specialized schools on the base of secondary education in conformity with the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan “On State Language in the Republic of Azerbaijan”. This year the examinations on the Azerbaijani language have been held twice – on 24 May (in Baku, Nakhchivan, Ganja, Sumgait, Sheki and Guba) and on 21 June (in Baku and Nakhchivan). The examination results have been evaluated with “pass” and “not pass”. The applicants getting “pass” have been permitted to participate in the admission examinations.

The admission examinations to higher schools were held on 5, 12, 18 and 24 July. 107 347 applicants participated in the examinations.

All the conditions were arranged for the representatives of Mass Media to participate in the examinations with the purpose of delivering all detailed information to the public about the examination process and at the same time assuring transparency in the admission as well. In connection with this, the Chairperson of the State Commission held press conferences for the representatives of Mass Media on every Friday of the week on the eve and in the period of the exams. It is already the eighth year as SSAC has enlightened the process of admission examinations on its web site thoroughly and presented photos reflecting the whole examination process.

Every moment of the examination process as well as post examination activities – expert examination of test items, determination of item keys, analysis of examination protocols have been enlightened in an operative manner on SSAC’s web site.
The examination results were announced on SSAC’s web page and via Azercell phone service in a few days after each exam on specialty group was held.
After each examination SSAC declared correct answers of test items applied in the examination by “Space” TV channel. The senior officials and subject experts of SSAC answered during live broadcast the questions about test items, and the examination process the applicants and pedagogical community were interested in. This activity was of great importance from the view point of applicants being able to calculate their scores and getting answers to the questions they were interested in, and in general, for assuring transparency of the examination process as well.
The SSAC established the commission for appeals to review the appeals concerning the content of test items on every subject applied in the examination and the examination process after each admission examination.

The applicants who met the competition conditions selected the specialties and confirmed their applications via Internet from 25 July to 3 August 2009 to take part in the competition connected with the admission to higher schools. According to the results of the test examinations 33 202 applicants gained the right to participate in the competition of the specialties to higher schools. During the selection of specialties with the purpose of helping the applicants, the SSAC published the information on some data about every specialty group separately, including the number of planned places, the distribution of examination scores of the applicants who gained the right to participate in the competition, the pass scores formed in the admission examinations on specialties of state higher schools in 2007 and 2008 in special issues of “Abiturient” journal.

The implementation of the competition and the placement took 2 days and the results were announced on the 5th of August via SSAC’s web page and Azercell phone service, and published in the 6th issue of “Abiturient” journal on the 6th of August. Here the pass scores on specialties were presented as well.
According to the results of the admission examinations 27 476 applicants were admitted to higher schools at the first stage, and the admission plan was met for 94.65 per cent.

After the results were announced the additional enrolment to vacancies of higher schools was declared from the 7th to 11th of August. The information on the additional enrolment, planned vacancies and the competition conditions was published and delivered to the public in the 7th issue of “Abiturient” journal. During additional enrolment applicants who had got high scores in main campaign but couldn’t succeed due to too high competitive condition to specialties selected by them were provided with the opportunity to choose from among other specialties with remaining vacancies matching their scores. At this stage the conditions of allowance to the competition were not modified and remained as they were at the first stage.

This year the additional enrolment to the vacant places of higher schools and the admission competition of students to secondary specialized schools on the base of secondary education were announced at the same time. During the last three years the admission of applications for both competitions was carried out via Internet. The applicants were able to write in the same application form in Internet both – the vacant specialties to higher schools and codes of technical school specialties in the order they preferred. And here the competition was implemented according to the order of specialties selected by applicants in accordance with general rules and every applicant was admitted to the first specialty he was selected from among other candidates. 28 493 applications were accepted to both competitions together. Vacant specialty codes of higher schools were marked in 1 999 of these applications. 533 applicants participating in the competition were admitted to higher schools. Thus, the admission plan of higher schools increased from 94.65 per cent to 96.48 per cent.
As it is seen, 24.81 per cent of applicants were admitted to higher schools, 75.19 percent were not admitted. It means 84 866 applicants. And this in its turn shows how high the competition in the admission process and the number of applicants who were not admitted to higher schools were, and at the same time, it shows the mass character of this process, and how difficult and responsible this work is.
Understanding the responsibility of this work, SSAC constantly informed the public about all the activities carried out at each stage with the purpose of providing complete transparency of the admission campaign. The information about examination results of every applicant who participated in the admission examinations was delivered to the public via Internet in 2-3 days after the examinations. Here correct and incorrect answers, relative scores of every applicant on every subject taken separately were presented and on the basis of it they were able to analyze their examination results in detail.

This year 4 393 (4.1%) applicants scored higher than 500 points in admission examinations, including 996 (0.9%) applicants scoring higher than 600 points. High-scorers represent 71 regions of the republic. According to relative proportion of high-scorers, the indicators of the cities of Baku and Sumgait as well as the districts of Shaki and Gakh were the highest. 5-6 of every 100 applicants from these regions scored more than 500 points in the admission examinations to higher schools.
All the applicants having scored between 500-700 points were admitted to the most prestigious specialties of higher schools of the Republic. The candidacy of 102 applicants who scored the highest results has been put forward for the President scholarship.

The statistical analysis on admission indicators to higher schools of applicants from different regions of the Republic proves that the percentage of admission to higher schools of applicants from Baku City is higher. It must also be noted that as a rule the admission percentage of applicants from Sumgait City and Shaki region is high.
The provision of help to the applicants from refugee families during preparation for admission examinations is always in the centre of attention of the SSAC. Every year the meetings, discussions on professional orientation, free of charge trial tests aimed at familiarizing them with the technology of conduction of the examinations are organized for these applicants. The manuals, training means, various issues of the journal “Abiturient” as well as questionnaires are distributed among them free of charge. This year 8431 persons from the regions under occupation applied for admission to higher education schools, 1 870 of which were admitted to various universities. The percentage of admission of applicants from refugee families to prestigious specialties increases every year, which is the result of aspiration and interest displayed by them for education, as well as support provided by the government of the republic.
The State Students Admission Commission uses the existing international practice with creativity to form the work of knowledge assessment as the main point of the students’ admission process in accordance with the standards recognized in the world and carries out continuous improvement measures.

This year the relationship and cooperation with international organizations were continued and a number of projects were implemented in this direction. In view of this, the regional conference of International Association for Educational Assessment (IAEA) which was held with the organizational activities of the State Students Admission Commission from 20 to 22 May 2009 in Baku City takes a special place. This regional conference was devoted to the theme “Educational Assessment: the present situation and the perspectives of development”. The representatives from England, the Netherlands, Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Nigeria and other countries participated at the conference.