Grading 10th grade entrance exam in Ho Chi Minh City: No more 'rain' of 8 and 9 scores in literature

As of today (June 14), the 10th grade entrance exam marking process in Ho Chi Minh City has entered its fifth day. Like every year, the marking process is organized systematically, with strict procedures, on schedule, and many strict regulations... to ensure serious marking, bringing fairness to candidates.

For the literature exam, the score situation clearly reflects the reasonableness of the exam and the purpose of the 10th grade entrance exam is to classify candidates. Specifically, the number of papers with very poor scores compared to previous exams has been reduced, but there is also no phenomenon of "raining" 8 and 9 scores. According to many examiners, the scores reflect the candidates' level and classify very well. There are few 2 and 3 scores; the common score is in the range of 6.5 - 7; 8 and 9 scores are not many but are enough to classify candidates.

Candidates complete procedures to take the 10th grade literature entrance exam in Ho Chi Minh City for the 2025-2026 school year

Photo: Nhat Thinh

Explaining the above scores, the examiner said that most candidates did well in the reading comprehension section of literary texts (3 points) because many questions were easy, close to the sample exam and the program they had studied. The question of writing a literary argumentative paragraph (2 points) was a new question, because it was an argumentative essay about a text that had not been studied. But this question was not too difficult for candidates. Because the skills of analyzing the theme and some artistic features were practiced very carefully by students at school. Therefore, if candidates understood the theme of the poem, grasped some artistic features and developed the paragraph correctly, they could score 1.25 points or more. However, this question also had a classification function, because in reality many candidates did very well (1.75 - 2 points), but many candidates only scored 0.75 - 1 point.

The clearest classification is in question 2 (writing a social argumentative essay, 4 points) of part II. The candidate's weakness in this question is that he only discusses one aspect of the required topic, such as "knowing how to read", "maturity"; or discusses the correct attitude in using social networks... Therefore, he does not meet the requirements of the answer, the high difficulty score in this question, leading to a low overall score.

Essay topics for 10th grade admission in Ho Chi Minh City for the 2025-2026 school year

Photo: BT

There are many reasons for the above practice. First, students have not read the questions carefully and have not analyzed the connection between the argumentative text and the social argumentative requirements. Second, students may have become accustomed to the old argumentative style; or they may only stick to the requirements of the writing topic, and have strayed from the argumentative text. Therefore, in this question, very few candidates scored 3.5 and 4 points; the highest score a candidate could achieve was between 2 and 2.5 points.

Grade 9 students taking the entrance exam to grade 10 this year in Ho Chi Minh City in particular and the whole country in general are worried about the literature exam because it is the first time taking the exam according to the 2018 General Education Program, with completely new materials. However, the actual test results and scores show that the anxiety has been resolved and on the contrary, the new way of making the exam has become easier for candidates. This is a positive signal from the innovation in teaching and testing literature.

End of 10th grade exam: Candidates confidently reap high scores

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/cham-thi-tuyen-sinh-lop-10-tphcm-khong-co-hien-tuong-mua-diem-8-9-185250614094511001.htm