Choosing a subject combination, the game that shapes the university door

Although it has been around for 4 years, choosing a subject combination is still very new to parents and students, because this is an important factor for them when choosing a major and university in the future.

Confused

Ms. Nguyen Dieu Thuy, Cau Giay (Hanoi) said that her daughter had just been admitted to Tran Phu High School, Cua Nam. Before submitting the application, the school organized a meeting with parents to inform them about the subject combinations (hereinafter referred to as combinations). Next school year, the school has 5 combinations including: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Informatics; Physics, Chemistry, Technology, Informatics; Physics, Fine Arts, Geography, Chemistry; Geography, Economic and Legal Education, Technology, Chemistry; Geography, Economic and Legal Education, Technology, Physics.

Only then did Ms. Thuy realize that her child's curriculum was very different from the previous one. "When I read the information, I was surprised and confused. How will choosing this combination affect my child's graduation exam and university entrance exam in the next 3 years? I cannot answer this question," Ms. Thuy said. Many parents present at the school's consultation session shared the same difficult feelings when deciding on a combination for their children.

Students taking the 10th grade exam for public high schools in 2025 in Hanoi . Photo: Nhu Y

The difficulty is that in this choice, students are both active and passive. Actively choosing but actually passive because the combination is arranged by the school, students only get to eat "dishes on the tray" that the school has prepared. Students are also passive when the school only has a certain number of classes for each combination, if the number of students choosing exceeds the school's capacity, they will have to choose another combination. Many schools allow students to register for the combination of subjects according to their first, second, etc. wishes, also for this reason.

Mr. Nguyen Duy Hung, Long Bien (Hanoi) said that the school his child was admitted to has 8 groups. Of which, the group of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Informatics has 6 classes; the group of Geography, Economic and LegalEducation , Physics, Technology has 3 classes; the remaining 6 groups have 1 class/group. Mr. Hung wondered, with such a division, how can his child study the group of subjects he wants? Even registering for a group of 6 classes is not certain to have a chance because the quota is 270, but he has absolutely no idea what each of the nearly 700 students admitted to the school wants.

Ms. NTH, Thanh Tri (Hanoi) said that the high school her daughter just passed the 10th grade entrance exam has 2 high-quality IELTS-linked classes. Students voluntarily register according to their needs. 15 general classes with 6 subject groups will be arranged according to the students' admission scores to the school. Thus, the class arrangement is mainly based on the candidates' exam scores. Ms. H asked, on what basis does the school arrange classes based on exam scores and why are students only allowed to choose in compulsory classes?

Ms. Nguyen Boi Quynh, Principal of Viet Duc High School, said that teachers at the school always advise students with natural science abilities to boldly choose combinations related to Physics, Chemistry, Biology, combined with Literature, Math, Foreign Languages to create popular university entrance exam combinations such as A01 (Math, Physics, English), B08 (Math, Biology, English), D07 (Math, Chemistry, English)...

How to choose to not be "offside"

In reality, parents are having an underground race in choosing the 10th grade combination because the initiative does not depend on the students. Meanwhile, the subject combination must meet 3 conditions at the same time: students are capable of studying, suitable for high school graduation exams, and meet university admission requirements. In fact, many students in 11th grade "unlearn" the combination and choose to switch to another more suitable combination.

Or there are candidates who, when applying for university in grade 12, panic when the admission combination of the desired major is not included in the combination they have studied for 3 years. Ms. Truong Nguyet Anh, Ha Dong, Hanoi, whose child has just taken the high school graduation exam, said that because the subject combination does not include Biology, since grade 11, she had to invest in her child to study this subject outside of school so that later her child can take the Hanoi National University's capacity assessment exam to get the score for university admission.

In the 2024-2025 school year in Hanoi, the situation of students wanting to change subject combinations is almost common in every school. The reason is that after studying for a while, students find that it is not suitable and want to change the combination to serve the university entrance exam later.

According to the explanation of high school leaders when building subject combinations, in addition to resources and facilities, schools seek to balance students' strengths and interests with the requirements of universities.

The leader of a high school in Hanoi shared that from this school year, the school's social science elective groups will be built according to the rule that they must always have at least 1 of the 4 natural subjects: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Information Technology. The fact that many large universities have stopped considering the C00 group (Literature, History, Geography) shows that the training trend of universities is shifting to suit the requirements of digital transformation, technology integration, and the use of artificial intelligence in social life. The Ministry of Education and Training is also promoting STEM education (engineering, technology, science, mathematics) in general education.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/chon-to-hop-mon-van-bai-dinh-hinh-canh-cua-dai-hoc-post1759873.tpo