On July 1, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) reported on the results of the high school graduation exam as of June 30, 2025. The MOET said that this year's exam meets the goals set out in Resolution 29: "Accurately assessing students' abilities, serving as a basis for vocational education and university admissions."
The test does not exceed the required standards.
The exam is designed for candidates to take two compulsory subjects: math and literature, and two elective subjects from the subjects they study in grade 12. Accordingly, candidates will be able to choose two of their strong subjects to take the exam and receive the results for admission consideration.
According to the Ministry of Education and Training, the exam has increased the number of questions that are differentiated. In previous years, the exam had few questions to classify students, leading to difficulties in enrollment, forcing manyuniversities to organize their own exams, causing costs and wasting social resources. However, the Ministry of Education and Training also affirmed that the exam content belongs to the 2018 General Education Program, not exceeding the requirements of the program. The ratio of thinking levels (related to difficulty) is required to closely follow the published reference questions; differentiate and based on the test results in 3 regions.
Candidates taking the high school graduation exam in Can Tho . Photo: CA LINH
The Ministry of Education and Training recognizes that there may be many reasons for some difficult test scores, especially in math and English, but we have to wait until the exam results are available to determine clearly.
Meanwhile, although the high school graduation exam has entered the grading stage, public opinion about the "too difficult, too shocking" level of the exam, especially the math and English exams, is still noisy on forums and social networks.
Not only teachers and parents, but also many high school teachers of English and math when discussing this year's math exam, all have the same opinion that the exam is difficult. An English teacher in Hanoi commented that the exam was too difficult, the vocabulary density in the reading comprehension section was higher, there were many academic words, collocations and phrasal verbs at level C1 or higher, along with many long and difficult noun phrases... With a large amount of information and only 50 minutes to complete the exam, many candidates will not be able to complete it. This exam is a challenge for students of specialized schools, not to mention students in rural and mountainous areas. Although the exam has just ended, many teachers expect the average score for English to stop at 4-5 points...
Dr. Pham Hong Danh, Vinh Vien High School - the unit providing suggested solutions for high school graduation exams, said that the average score for English this year will be around 4.5 points, while the average score for math will be higher. "Although the math and English exams are difficult, that does not affect the high school graduation rate this year. In addition to serving the graduation exam, the exam also has a level of differentiation for universities to consider university admissions" - Dr. Pham Hong Danh expressed his opinion.
Disadvantages of university admission
Universities said that after the Ministry of Education and Training announced the exam score distribution, universities would use that as a basis to convert scores between groups and admission methods. The problem is that if schools set a common score for all groups, candidates will be disadvantaged.
Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Hoai Thang, Head of Training Department, University of Technology - VNU-HCM, said that in high school graduation exams, the score distribution of this or that subject is skewed to the left (due to difficult test questions) or to the right (due to easy test questions) is normal. Math is a common subject for all candidates, so candidates who are well prepared will have higher scores than candidates who are not well prepared; English is an elective subject, so candidates taking this subject also compete for points with each other depending on their academic ability and preparation. "Candidates taking the same subject, if the test questions are difficult, it will be difficult for others and difficult for us" - Associate Professor Thang said, and said that the problem is that the test results are not as expected, so candidates are worried.
From 2025, universities can use more than 4 admission combinations for 1 major, so many candidates are worried about whether using combinations with math and English will be at a disadvantage compared to other combinations?
In many previous admission periods, when announcing the benchmark scores of each major, in addition to schools that set separate benchmark scores for each admission combination, many schools also set a common benchmark score for many combinations. This method is considered to be more or less disadvantageous to candidates.
Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Hoai Thang said that after the results of the high school graduation exam, the Ministry of Education and Training announced the score distribution and related information, then universities would convert scores between subject groups and admission methods. Dr. Pham Tan Ha, Vice Principal of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities - VNU-HCM, said that in a major, if a school sets a common admission score for all groups in a specific major, candidates applying for admission with a combination of math, English or both such as combination D01 (math, literature, English) will be disadvantaged for candidates. For example, in the literature major, the school considers both combinations D01 and C00 (literature, history, geography). If the school applies a common score, candidates applying for combination D01 will be at a disadvantage compared to C00, so for many years the school has set a separate admission score for each admission group.
Two programs, two different levels of difficulty
A representative of another university said that this year there are two groups of candidates taking the exam according to the 2018 and 2006 General Education Programs. The math and English exams of the 2018 General Education Program are difficult while the 2006 program is "easier". Therefore, candidates taking the 2006 program will likely have better test scores and an advantage in university admission.
Source: https://nld.com.vn/co-ket-qua-thi-moi-xac-dinh-duoc-de-kho-hay-khong-196250701204508098.htm
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