Editor's note:
The 2025 high school graduation exam marks an important milestone in the implementation of the 2018 general education program. The Ministry of Education and Training has set three goals for this exam: to assess learners' learning outcomes according to the goals and standards of the new program; to use exam results to consider recognizing high school graduation and to serve as one of the bases for assessing the quality of teaching and learning of general education institutions and the direction of education management agencies; to provide reliable data for universities and vocational education institutions to use in enrollment in the spirit of autonomy.
On that basis, the Ministry has made strong and drastic innovations in both exams and university admission regulations to aim for real learning and real testing, reduce exam pressure, promote the teaching and learning process according to the abilities and interests of each individual, while ensuring fairness and transparency.
However, as these ambitious policies were put into practice, a series of challenges arose.
From English exams with difficulty levels exceeding the standard, the uneven test matrix of each subject, the difference in scores between groups, to the complicated regulations on equivalent score conversion... All of these unintentionally create "privileges" for a group of candidates and widen the gap with candidates in rural and remote areas.
With the series of articles "High school graduation exam and university entrance exam 2025: The maze of innovation and concerns about fairness", we not only look back at the problems that have occurred but also dig deep to find the core causes, thereby proposing solutions and making practical recommendations so that the high school graduation exam and university entrance exam in 2026 and the following years will truly be a fair and transparent competition for each learner and each training institution, while also positively impacting innovation in teaching and learning at the high school level.
"Uncertainty" between exam questions and teaching
A month has passed since the 2025 High School Graduation Exam ended, but the echoes of unusually difficult math and English questions still linger, becoming a hot topic in discussions among teachers, students and parents.
The graduation exam is not only a graduation and admission exam of the year, but also a guideline for the entire teaching and learning journey. Therefore, when thousands of hopeful students suddenly become confused and worried after leaving the exam room, the problem is no longer the problem of a few individuals.
The tears rolling down, the emotional status lines on social networks, the comments covering all forums, the scores that seemed "surprisingly beautiful" but showed a bitter reality... reflected the confusion and disappointment of a generation of students.
The underlying cause of this incident is believed to be the gap between the innovation expectations of those who create the test and the teaching reality in schools, especially in disadvantaged areas. The sudden innovation of the test while the teaching reality in many schools has not changed in time, has unintentionally created a large gap, making students feel "shocked" and disoriented.
Candidates from Hanoi (Photo: Hai Long).
Evaluating this year's high school graduation exam, especially the math and English questions, Mr. Lam Vu Cong Chinh, a teacher at Nguyen Du High School - Ho Chi Minh City, said that the exam put a lot of pressure on students because the exam "ran" ahead of teaching innovation.
Specifically, according to this expert, the impact of exams greatly affects teaching and learning. Therefore, the consequence of the "strange" exam questions will be that next year, students will have to "cram" knowledge from both the old and new programs.
Next year's exams will be filled with questions only for specialized students and quick calculation formulas based on knowledge outside the curriculum.
According to this teacher, when the knowledge in textbooks is not enough to equip students to "cope" with "unusually" difficult exam questions, extra teaching and learning becomes an inevitable need.
Expectations that educational innovation would open up more opportunities for students to develop their own abilities were dashed by the "harsh" way of setting exam questions.
“We need to look back at the way of training that emphasizes scores because the core of education is to answer the question: “What is the purpose of learning, learning to develop yourself and contribute to society”, instead of giving riddles,” said Mr. Chinh.
A teacher (who asked to remain anonymous) in Hanoi also commented that the high school graduation exam questions for some subjects this year are exceeding the standards compared to what is taught in the program.
This will create conditions for "online tutors" and exam preparation classes. Without tutoring, students will not be able to do such difficult, out-of-control questions.
This year's exam questions for some subjects such as math and English are unlikely to exceed the program standards (Photo: Trinh Nguyen).
According to Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh, former Director of the Department of Vocational Education (Ministry of Education and Training), the phenomenon of many students being "shocked" by the exam questions of some subjects in the recent graduation exam is a serious warning sign, showing a clear gap between the expectations of the test makers and the actual preparation of the teaching system - especially in difficult areas.
School systems in these areas lack the capacity to implement new methods, or teachers are not adequately trained.
Answering the question of why some students still get 8, 9, or even perfect 10 points if the exam is too difficult, Dr. Vinh said that individual high scores do not represent the majority. In any differentiated exam, there is always a small percentage of excellent students who get the maximum score - that is the result of outstanding personal ability, proactive self-study or studying in a good environment.
However, if in most schools students are "shocked", confused, and their results decline, the problem does not lie with the individual, but with the whole system.
According to the former Department Head, if exams are innovated without teaching innovation, without delays, without teacher training and without updating teaching materials, it will cause negative reactions.
The feeling of being “overwhelmed” is not only a matter of test-taking skills, but also reflects the asymmetry in access to content and learning methods, increasing the gap between specialized schools and mainstream schools, between urban and rural areas.
“An innovative exam is only valuable when the teaching system is prepared. Otherwise, even if there are a few dozen 10s, the system will still fail because the goal of education is not to honor the minority, but to give equal opportunities to the majority,” said Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh.
If there is innovation in exams but no innovation in teaching, no delay, no updated documents, it will cause negative feedback (Illustration: Hai Long).
Also from this perspective, MSc. Nguyen Phuoc Bao Khoi, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, believes that innovation in exam questions will have a strong impact on innovation in teaching and learning methods in high schools.
The reason is that our country is still more or less influenced by the education system based on examinations, the purpose of studying for exams, to get high results in exams still exists in the minds of many parents and students. In addition, one of the information channels to evaluate the quality of teachers' training is the learning and exam results of students.
Inevitably, these two factors combine to lead to a situation where students only pay attention to what is necessary for exams and teachers are also concerned with what to teach so that students can achieve good results in exams.
This expert believes that large-scale innovation in assessment and testing/innovation in exam questions will inevitably cause the entire education machine, which consists of many parts, to have corresponding changes.
“The change in exam questions or increase in difficulty while innovation in teaching activities in many places remains “still” will cause injustice, widening the gap between urban and rural schools, between specialized schools and general schools.
The recent high school graduation exam is a necessary warning for places to make efforts to meet the requirements of the 2018 General Education Program," said Master Khoi.
The gap between textbooks and exams: "A world apart"
Assessing the inadequacy between high school graduation exam questions and teaching practice, Dr. Dang Ngoc Toan, Director of the Center for Community Development and Climate Change Response in the Central Highlands (CHCC), under the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations, said that exam innovation is necessary but needs to be appropriate to teaching capacity and suitable for many regions, instead of being "puzzles".
Dr. Dang Ngoc Toan believes that with the difficulty of this year's high school English exam, is it really aimed at all students across regions, studying in very different conditions, or is it only really suitable for a small group of elite students in urban areas, specialized schools, or exam preparation centers?
“When the line between “assessment” and “puzzle” is blurred, many students, despite having worked hard for 12 years, face the risk of being eliminated from their learning journey just because the test questions are far beyond their actual abilities,” said Dr. Dang Ngoc Toan.
Education assessment expert Phan Anh (Master of Education, La Trobe University, Australia) also said that in the spirit of the 2018 General Education Program, textbooks are a tool to specify the "requirements to be achieved" - that is, the minimum competencies, knowledge and skills that students need to master after a period of study. In principle, graduation exams need to be based on these requirements to ensure consistency and reasonableness in assessment.
In fact, the 2025 high school graduation exam, especially in math and English, has many questions that go beyond the scope and level of presentation in textbooks.
Complicated questions, strange language and high application requirements appear frequently, making it impossible for students to orient their review content, even though they have actively studied the textbooks systematically. The gap between textbooks and exam questions can be compared to "a world apart".
Many questions in the math and English exams go beyond the scope of the textbooks (Photo: Phuong Quyen).
Escape the "chicken-egg" cycle
Returning to the question of whether the “chicken” or the “egg” came first, Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh believes that teaching must come first, because that is the foundation for creating real values such as critical thinking, life skills, and creativity.
Exams are only a tool to evaluate learning outcomes, not the goal of education. If we put exams first, we can easily fall into a vicious cycle of “teaching for exams”, forgetting the core: education for the comprehensive development of the person.
According to this expert, teaching creates capacity, while testing measures the level of achievement of that capacity. Once a learner's capacity is real, any measure can be used to accurately reflect that value.
Exam innovation must go hand in hand with the roadmap to improve teachers' capacity, adjust programs, and improve learning materials. In particular, there needs to be a certain delay for teachers and students to adapt.
If the exam is “changed in advance” but the corresponding teaching foundation is lacking, the system will react negatively, which is similar to “ordering to harvest when the rice is still young”, causing confusion, injustice and counterproductiveness.
If you put exams first, it's easy to fall into a vicious circle (Photo: Huyen Nguyen).
“I think that innovation in teaching and learning must come first, but it cannot be without an examination system that is sufficiently delayed and intelligent enough to reflect and promote that process in a fair, accurate and humane way,” emphasized Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh.
To escape the vicious circle of “chicken and egg”, according to Mr. Vinh, it is necessary to take three synchronous steps: First, prioritize teacher training in the direction of developing learners’ capacity; Second, diversify assessment forms – not only exams but also learning projects, capacity profiles, group discussions, etc.; Third, reduce the pressure on scores, so that exams return to their true nature: a tool to serve the goal of human development.
Master Dao Chi Manh, Principal of Hoi Hop B Primary School, Phu Tho Province, the first Vietnamese to receive the Gusi International Peace Prize for his contributions to education, said that any innovation is difficult and controversial.
To escape the "chicken-egg" vicious cycle, according to experts, three synchronized steps need to be taken (Photo: Phuong Quyen).
“If we talk about innovating the test or teaching methods first, I think both must go hand in hand. Innovating the program without innovating the assessment method will be unfair. On the contrary, innovating the assessment method without innovating the teaching method will not bring about the core things,” said Mr. Manh.
However, according to Master Manh, innovation in teaching methods should be given priority because it directly affects the way students acquire knowledge and develop their abilities, while exams are just an assessment tool.
“If teaching methods do not change, the innovation of exam questions may not bring about the desired results, even causing unnecessary difficulties for both teachers and students or falling into the same situation as before: Studying for the exam,” said Mr. Manh.
According to this teacher, educational innovation is like "serving a hundred families", each person has different desires and interests, so there are different requirements for innovation.
It is important that we have the heart, courage and enthusiasm, and at the same time, we need a mechanism to pave the way for teachers to boldly innovate, turning educational reform into a movement instead of a few individuals.
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/doi-moi-de-thi-truoc-doi-moi-day-hoc-rui-ro-neu-gat-lua-non-20250805160258364.htm
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