“Tutoring hype and clickbait”: Ukrainian education official dismisses claims of native speakers failing English test

A viral social media post claiming that a Briton and an American failed Ukraine’s National Multidisciplinary Test (NMT) in English lacks any factual basis and serves as a textbook example of information manipulation, according to Ukrainian education officials.

Speaking at a briefing at Media Center Ukraine, Tetiana Vakulenko, Director of the Ukrainian Center for Educational Quality Assessment, National Coordinator of the PISA Study in Ukraine, stressed that the widely circulated story is riddled with unverified claims.

“This is a perfect case study for a course on critical thinking and reading skills,” Vakulenko said. “We don’t actually know if these people even exist. And we certainly don’t know the conditions under which they supposedly took the test. According to the same social media accounts spreading the story, they allegedly completed an hour-long exam in just 20 minutes.”

Vakulenko explained that even for native English speakers, completing the NMT at such speed would be highly unlikely due to the structure of the test.

“Today’s foreign language exams include two major sections: reading and listening comprehension,” she noted. “Reading makes up a substantial portion. Even native speakers would struggle to read several 500-word texts, process and analyze the information, and respond to the questions within just 15 minutes, it’s unrealistic.”

She went on to suggest that the real aim behind the story was not to raise questions about the test, but rather to promote private tutoring services.

“This is a good story, sure, but the only real outcome is that it’s become free advertising for tutors across Ukraine,” Vakulenko said, adding that the incident reflects a broader trend of manipulative content used to boost specific businesses.

“You take an attention-grabbing headline, throw in minimal facts, a graphic showing some supposed results, and suddenly your channel goes viral within hours,” she said.

Read more: https://mediacenter.org.ua/news