The 2025 high school graduation exam in Math and English is attracting attention and debate among experts, teachers, students and parents. Some say the exam is too difficult and puzzling; others support the new way of writing the exam. VietNamNet opens a forum to record diverse opinions, contributing to improving the exam and enhancing the quality of teaching and learning.

The following article is the opinion of Master Nguyen Quang Thi, Bao Loc High School ( Lam Dong ) about the need to adjust the way of making high school graduation exam questions in Math:

This year's Math graduation exam is similar to the sample high school graduation exam according to the 2018 program announced by the Ministry of Education and Training. The number of easy and difficult questions is evenly distributed among the topics. When reading and studying the code 0109, I found that the math knowledge mainly falls into the 11th and 12th grade program. The Math exam is divided into 3 parts. The type of questions in the exam is more about practical math problems to classify each group of students.

The test design has increasing difficulty, with advanced questions mainly classified in part II and part III. These questions are a chain of knowledge, requiring students to reason, speculate and calculate quickly to be able to do it.

First, let's learn about each part of the Math test in detail:

Part I. Consists of 12 questions, each question has 4 options, students only choose one answer for each question and get 0.25 points. In my opinion, this part is familiar and students have practiced for a long time so it is very fluent.

Of these, 7 questions are from the 12th grade program, focusing on topics such as derivatives, integrals, spatial geometry, statistics, vectors and coordinates. The remaining 5 questions are from the 11th grade, including exponential and logarithmic equations, trigonometry, arithmetic progressions and perpendicular relations. The questions are generally at a basic level, suitable for general ability. However, weak students may have difficulty with some 11th grade questions. However, this part does not cause much pressure and is unlikely to cause students to fail.

Math Test.jpg
Hanoi candidates after the 2025 high school graduation math exam.

Part II consists of 4 questions, each divided into 4 sub-questions (a, b, c, d) in the form of true - false, the score is cumulative and maximum 1 point/question. This form is quite familiar because it is often used by teachers in teaching and testing. The advantage is that the score increases gradually according to the number of correct answers, creating opportunities to score points even if students do not complete the whole question. Specifically, question 1 belongs to the chapter on coordinate methods in space, just need to remember the knowledge to be able to do it; question 2 on antiderivatives - integrals is quite complicated, easy to confuse; question 3 belongs to the derivative and graph section, familiar so not difficult; question 4 is about probability, relatively simple. However, due to the long introduction, extensive knowledge and difficulty of question 2, it is not easy for students to get the maximum score in this part.

Part III consists of 6 short essay questions, each worth 0.5 points, which clearly classify students' abilities. This is a difficult part, requiring high thinking and skills, usually only good students can do well. Question 1 requires creating a system of equations - the algebra part is not easy; question 2 is about combinations, complicated in reading and understanding the question, so very few students can do it; question 3 is about 11th grade knowledge about the distance between two lines, if students know how to draw a picture, they will find a solution; question 4 is about probability, difficult and few students can do it correctly; question 5 is about functions, familiar so can score points; question 6 is a difficult question about spatial geometry, related to the volume of a truncated pyramid - if students do not remember the formula, they can easily skip it.

In short, this year’s exam is difficult for students because there are too many factual questions that waste time reading and summarizing data. Average and weak students can mainly do part I; good students can complete a few more questions in part II; while good and excellent students are capable of handling the remaining questions completely. The predicted score range is mostly around 5–6.5 points. Average and weak students usually get from 3 to 4.5 points; good students get from 4.5 to 6.5 points; good students can get 6.5 to 8.5 points; higher scores are mainly for excellent students.

With the above comments, I have some suggestions for the exam questions for the following years as follows:

Firstly, it is necessary to reduce the number of questions from the 11th grade program and completely eliminate questions from the 10th grade. This year's Math exam has 6 questions from the 11th grade (5 questions from Part I and 1 question from Part III), while the 10th grade also has 2 questions from Part III. Each additional question means that students have to learn an entire chapter of knowledge, causing unnecessary pressure and overload; meanwhile, the 12th grade program has a lot of rich content to exploit.

Second, the number of practical questions needs to be adjusted. Putting too many problems related to practical situations makes the exam lengthy and confusing. Complicated introductions make students waste time summarizing the facts, easily getting overwhelmed and losing their composure. Practical questions should be concentrated in Part III and limited to about 4 questions, each representing a topic, which is reasonable.

Third, Part I and Part II should be designed lightly, playing a foundational role so that students can reach the 7-point mark without being mentally overloaded. Part III with 6 questions can be differentiated in the following direction: the first 2 questions are at a low application level, the last 4 questions are at an advanced level to clearly classify, serving the goal of university admission.

The content of the article represents the author's own perspective and views. Readers who have opinions or stories to share on this issue, please send them to email: [email protected]. Articles published on VietNamNet will receive royalties according to the editorial board's regulations. Sincerely thank you!

>>> Quickly look up 2025 high school graduation exam scores on VietNamNet<<<

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/de-toan-tot-nghiep-thpt-kho-3-viec-nen-dieu-chinh-trong-ra-de-thi-2416615.html