At the same time, it is an opportunity to review and draw important lessons to better implement the 2018 General Education Program.
Prof. Dr. Huynh Van Chuong, Director of the Department of Quality Management, Ministry of Education and Training : Promoting experience and lessons from the 2025 Exam
In 2025 - the first exam for students studying under the 2018 General Education Program with a new exam plan - took place in a special context: Right at the time of implementing 2-level local government; simultaneously organizing exams for candidates studying under the 2018 General Education Program and the 2006 General Education Program who have not graduated or need to retake the exam for university admission with 2 exam regulations and 2 sets of exam questions.
Up to now, the High School Graduation Exam has always had an influence, receiving much attention from public opinion, from each person, from each household. This attention is even greater with the special nature of the 2025 Exam. Aware of this, all preparations for organizing the Exam were carried out early, from afar, with the utmost seriousness and responsibility. Documents directing and guiding the organization of the Exam, exam format structure, reference questions, etc. were issued earlier than every year.
Although the Exam has many changes to meet new requirements, ensuring objectivity, transparency and safety; the common point is that the management agency and teachers take on the hard work and difficulties to reduce pressure and create maximum convenience for candidates. The Prime Minister's directive with the motto "no student has to drop out of the exam due to financial or travel difficulties" has been thoroughly implemented in this year's Exam.
In the High School Graduation Exam, the exam questions are always the most concerned issue. The exam question council was established according to the Decision of the Minister of Education and Training to carry out its tasks as planned, to create exam questions that meet the requirements of organizing the exam. The Ministry mobilized more than 230 teachers and experts from 48/63 provinces and cities (old), the exam question library system was tested in 11 provinces and cities and at 51 high schools with more than 13,000 12th grade students participating in the test. Accordingly, the exam question council simultaneously developed 2 sets of exam questions: 1 set of exam questions according to the 2006 General Education Program and 1 set of exam questions according to the 2018 General Education Program.
The high school graduation exam has three important purposes: To accurately assess the learning outcomes of learners; to use exam results to consider recognizing high school graduation and to assess the teaching and learning quality of general education /continuing education institutions; to provide reliable and honest data for universities and vocational education institutions to use in enrollment in the spirit of autonomy.
To fully meet these three purposes, the 2025 high school graduation exam has many adjustments. Accordingly, the exam is designed to assess capacity, integrating many practical questions, a lot of interdisciplinary knowledge...; ensuring appropriate differentiation to both serve the recognition of high school graduation and provide reliable data on candidates' capacity for universities and vocational education institutions to use in enrollment.
After receiving the exam scores, the Ministry of Education and Training analyzed the exam results data and announced the score distribution for each subject; clearly stating the average score, median, standard deviation, median absolute deviation (MAD), below average score, score greater than or equal to 7, score achieved by most candidates, number of candidates with score 10 and score 0, number of candidates with score lower than or equal to 1, ratio of score 10 per 1,000 candidates, etc.
At the same time, provide the score distribution of each subject from 2022 onwards for comparison; build a chart of exam scores for each subject from 2022 onwards; compile statistics of the top 10 provinces and cities with the highest average score and the most 10s for each subject.
Due to the large number of candidates, if only using the score distribution, it may not be possible to fully evaluate important indicators. Therefore, the Ministry of Education and Training has directed to calculate both the percentile of subjects and the adjusted scores in accordance with the theory of testing and assessment. This information helps to go deeper and provide more useful information for educators, high schools, and universities. This work will continue to be implemented at the Departments of Education and Training in accordance with the regulations in the High School Graduation Exam Regulations.
With a very detailed, transparent, scientific, and independent analysis, the score distribution shows that this year's exam basically meets the set goals, differentiates and meets the goals of high school graduation and university admission. In particular, for the English subject, before the score distribution, many opinions said that the exam was difficult and not suitable. However, the score distribution of this subject is quite suitable and somewhat reflects the current reality of English learning of high school students.
English overcomes the "two peaks" situation of last year, showing a positive change in test design with a trend of standardization and increased classification, correct and real assessment of students. Of course, the number of candidates taking English is less because it is an optional subject, unlike previous years, this is a compulsory subject. Similar to Math, the score spectrum is left-skewed, the distribution is normal, the percentage of students scoring above 5 points is large enough, ensuring the conditions for high school graduation. If in 2024 there are no 10 points in Math, this year there will be 513 10 points...
The test scores and score distribution also help identify the educational “picture” of regions and the adaptation in teaching and learning to develop capacity according to the 2018 General Education Program of each school. With the innovative test questions in the direction of assessing capacity, enhancing practical factors and logical thinking, teaching and learning in schools must be more actively changed; requiring students to learn practically, understand the nature of knowledge, have reading - understanding - analysis skills, in line with the spirit of the 2018 General Education Program.
The 2026 high school graduation exam will continue to be organized according to the plan approved in Decision No. 4068/QD-TTg dated November 28, 2023 of the Prime Minister. Based on the experience of the 2025 high school graduation exam, the Ministry of Education and Training will take early and remote preparations to prepare for next year's exam to be safe, serious, objective, honest, in accordance with regulations, and convenient for candidates.
In parallel with the preparation for the 2026 High School Graduation Exam, the Ministry of Education and Training will also immediately begin to gradually prepare conditions so that by 2027 it can pilot the exam on computers; and move towards the roadmap to 2030 when the exam can be taken on computers as directed by the Prime Minister and the exam plan for the period 2025 - 2030 has been announced.
Dr. Nguyen Viet Huy - Deputy Head of General Education Department, Hung Yen Department of Education and Training: The exam shows positive results in implementing the 2018 General Education Program
In recent years, society has paid great attention to the 2018 General Education Program. The results of the 2025 high school graduation exam have also been noticed in the emotion of expecting the "output results" after a new program implementation cycle. Regarding this content, it can be seen from the following aspects:
Firstly: The results of the score distribution analysis have dispelled concerns and worries about the difficulty of the exam (especially English and Math), when shifting from testing knowledge to assessing students' abilities at different levels of thinking. The score of 10 in the exam subjects means that a significant number of students have approached and quickly caught up with the 2018 General Education Program, with the development trend of the times.
Second: In the context of the first exam under the new program, the rampant extra classes have been controlled with Circular No. 29/2024/TT-BGDDT, the exam results have clearly differentiated, with the appearance of valedictorians in rural areas who do not have the conditions to take extra classes. This proves that the students' self-study under the guidance of teachers has had positive results.
Third: The Exam results are one of the important parameters for the Education sector to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing a large volume of professional work in recent years; from policy planning, program development and implementation, teaching and learning direction, and testing and evaluation, analyzing the results achieved on a large scale. From there, there are solutions to continue improving the quality of education in the coming time.
The 2025 High School Graduation Exam has achieved its main objective of using exam results to consider recognizing high school graduation; assessing the quality of teaching and learning of educational institutions; providing reliable and honest data for universities to use in enrollment in the spirit of autonomy. Therefore, the Exam has an important role in orienting teaching and learning methods in general education.
Specifically, teachers need to continue to innovate teaching methods, testing and evaluation. For students with outstanding abilities and quick adaptation to the program, teaching elective subjects related to career orientation requires preparation at higher levels of thinking, guiding them in self-study, self-discovery and discovery methods.
For the remaining group of students, it is necessary to create a friendly learning environment; encourage them to actively participate in learning activities to discover their own abilities and aspirations; advise them to choose a career that suits their interests, abilities, and family circumstances. Similarly, testing and assessment also need to be designed to properly assess the abilities of the above groups of students.
Students need to be proactive and active in learning theory in class; doing experiments and practicing when studying subjects in the field of natural sciences; being active and creative when participating in experiential activities; practicing self-study methods under the guidance of teachers.
Students need to regularly apply what they have learned to discover and solve practical problems, focusing on applying information technology, artificial intelligence, etc. to support learning activities. On that basis, students can discover their own abilities and strengths to orient and accurately choose subjects, and study in depth to serve the university entrance exam.
Ms. Phan Hoang Tu Nga - Principal of Luu Van Liet High School (Vinh Long): Students are gradually getting used to the exam questions that assess their abilities.
The results of the high school graduation exam show the quality of education according to the 2018 General Education Program, as well as the adaptation of teachers and students. The 2025 high school graduation exam will be innovated in the direction of assessing capacity, linked to reality.
Before the exam reform, the score distribution remained fairly even and differentiated. This shows that the new program has had initial success in orienting teaching towards competency development. Students do not just memorize but also have to apply knowledge to solve practical problems.
Practical elements in the test help students see the meaning of learning, encourage critical thinking and problem solving. A good score distribution shows that students have access to more active learning methods.
It can be seen that students have been exposed to more active and proactive teaching methods right from the lower levels. Therefore, when they reach high school, they have better adaptation to learning in the direction of developing capacity, critical thinking and applying knowledge to practice. From school practice, it can be seen that students have gradually become familiar with the orientation of high school graduation exams in the direction of assessing capacity.
Regarding teachers, they have participated in many training sessions on the new program, on teaching methods to develop capacity and testing and evaluation according to the new orientation. Despite difficulties, the majority of teachers have proactively researched and learned to meet the requirements of the program. Experiences from pioneering and active teachers have been shared and spread throughout the educational community. Pressure from the program's innovation requirements is also the driving force for teachers to proactively adapt, meet work requirements, and improve teaching quality.
In the coming time, it is necessary to continue reviewing and adjusting the content of the program and textbooks if there are points that are not really suitable, not optimal for developing students' capacity, or are overloaded. Provide more guidance documents, diverse and rich reference documents for both teachers and students, especially documents related to the implementation of practical activities and learning projects.
Training should be conducted regularly and in more depth, not only focusing on theory but also on specific pedagogical situations and sharing practical experiences. Focus on training the capacity to create test questions and assessments in the direction of developing teachers' capacity, so that internal school testing also approaches the orientation of national exams.
To teach and develop capacity, it is also necessary to have enough practice rooms, laboratories, libraries, and modern teaching equipment. At the same time, encourage and support the construction and use of digital learning materials and online learning platforms to support students' self-study and innovate teaching methods in the current context.
English overcomes the "two peaks" situation of last year, showing a positive change in test design with a trend of standardization and increased classification, correct and real assessment of students. Of course, the number of candidates taking English is less because it is an optional subject, unlike previous years, this is a compulsory subject. Similar to Math, the score spectrum is left-skewed, the distribution is normal, the percentage of students scoring above 5 points is large enough, ensuring the conditions for high school graduation. If in 2024 there are no 10 points in Math, this year there will be 513 10 points...
Source: https://giaoducthoidai.vn/dau-an-mot-chu-trinh-trien-khai-chuong-trinh-giao-duc-pho-thong-2018-post740922.html
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