How is the 2025 high school graduation exam graded?

(Dan Tri Newspaper) - The essay portion of the high school graduation exam is graded twice independently, while the multiple-choice section is graded by machine.

Grading essay exams

In the first round of grading, examiners receive the answer sheets that have been assigned codes and will check each exam paper before grading. This check aims to ensure that the exam papers have the correct number of pages and codes, and to promptly detect any irregularities that may indicate violations of the regulations.

At the same time, the examiner will cross out all the blank spaces left by the candidate who did not fill the entire exam paper.

Apart from these diagonal lines, the judges in the first round will not write anything on the candidate's exam paper or exam envelope.

Component scores, overall scores, and any comments should only be recorded on one grading sheet for each exam. The full name and signature of the examiner must be clearly written on this grading sheet.

After grading each bag, the examiner hands it over to the Head of the Grading Committee or the Head of the Essay Grading Team authorized by the Head of the Grading Committee (collectively referred to as the Head of the Grading Committee).

Teachers supervising the high school graduation exam (Photo: Thanh Dong).

In the second round of grading, members of the Secretariat withdraw all the grading sheets from the first round from the exam papers. The exam papers are then randomly assigned to new examiners, ensuring that the same examiner who graded the papers in the first round does not return them to the same examiner.

The judges in round 2 will score the candidates' papers directly. The score for each sub-point will be recorded in the left margin of the paper, next to the point being graded.

After two rounds of grading are completed, the Head Examiner receives the exam papers and grading sheets from the Secretariat and directs the essay grading teams to standardize the scores.

The candidate's exam score will only be recorded in the designated area on the exam paper after the examiners have agreed on the score.

If the overall score or the component scores do not differ, or differ by less than 1 point, the two examiners will discuss and agree on a final score.

If the overall score or component scores differ by 1-1.5 points, the examiners will discuss and record the difference in minutes, and report it to the Head Examiner to reach a consensus on the final score.

If the two examiners cannot agree on the score, the Head Examiner will draw up a record of the final score.

If the overall score or the component scores differ by more than 1.5 points, the Head Examiner will organize a third grading session directly on the candidate's exam paper using a different colored ink.

In the third grading round, if the results of the three grading rounds differ by a maximum of 2.5 points, the Head Examiner will take the average of all three scores as the official score.

If the score difference is greater than 2.5, the Head Examiner will organize a joint grading session with all examiners in the essay grading team.

The process of entering essay exam scores into the system also involves two independent rounds, performed by two different groups, each with a minimum of three people: one person to read the results, one person to enter them into the software, and one person to supervise and verify the data.

Only after the score entry is complete will the matching of the answer sheets in the software be performed. At this point, the entered score data for the essay exam and the candidate's information along with the answer sheet number will be combined.

To ensure accurate matching of exam scores and to avoid mistakenly pairing one candidate's score with another's information, the Secretariat will manually and randomly match at least 20% of the essay exam papers.

If any errors occur, a report must be made and submitted to the Chairman of the Examination Council to determine the cause and take corrective measures.

Grading multiple-choice tests

To enter the test grading area, all involved parties are prohibited from bringing pencils, erasers, and other forbidden items. This is to ensure that no one can alter or add to the test-taker's answer sheet.

Candidates' papers must be graded by machine using the same specialized software provided by the Ministry of Education and Training , from the image scanning stage to the final result.

The computers used for grading multiple-choice tests are connected to an internal LAN network. The computer casings and connection ports/slots that are not needed or not needed on the grading computers are sealed before grading begins.

The entire multiple-choice test scoring system will be scanned and tested to ensure compatibility between devices and software.

The head of the multiple-choice test grading team will import the list of candidates from the file exported from the exam management system provided by the Examination Board, and then assign tasks to the team members.

The scanning of multiple-choice answer sheets and image recognition is done for each test bag; once a bag is scanned, it is sealed.

After completing the scanning and recognition of the scanned images, the test grading team reports to the Head of the Grading Committee and exports the data from the software.

The output data is saved to two identical CDs, abbreviated as CD0.

In case of technical errors during the scanning process, such as the software failing to recognize the candidate's selection, the Multiple Choice Examination Committee will check and correct the error, and prepare a correction report with the full signatures of all relevant parties.

In the scoring step, the Multiple Choice Test Scoring Team will load the multiple-choice answer data into the scoring software, and then perform the scoring function within the software.

The grading results are then exported from the software and saved onto two identical CDs, referred to as CD2.

The discs will then be sent to the Ministry of Education and Training.

The entire grading process, including both essay and multiple-choice exams, is conducted in a single area equipped with adequate fire safety measures and guarded by police 24 hours a day.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/bai-thi-tot-nghiep-thpt-2025-duoc-cham-nhu-the-nao-20241226142901820.htm