The Russian Uniform State Examination in Mathematics: The Latest Version

Abstract

This paper aims to tell how the Russian national examination in mathematics (the Uniform State Examination or USE) has been conducted most recently. The author must say at once that the history of the system of secondary school graduation examinations or even the history of the USE will be covered only to the small degree that is necessary for understanding the current situation (more information can be found in Karp & Zvavich, 2011; Karp, 2007; Karp, 2003; these papers also served as a resource for writing the introductory sections of this paper). The goal of this paper looks modest, particularly given that the format of the USE obviously is subject to change; the USE, however, is so important for the Russian mathematics education, and the current situation is so typical of the challenges that are confronted in conducting assessment on the national level, that this situation deserves to be analyzed in considerable detail.