HCMC students "out of sync" in choosing graduation exam subjects: Foreign languages ​​dominate

Students of Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted, Ho Chi Minh City at the opening ceremony of the 2024-2025 school year (Photo: Nam Anh).

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training has just announced surprising statistics on the choice of subjects for the 2025 high school graduation exam of the city's students. While the whole country "rushes" to choose history and geography, students in the "Pearl of the Far East" tend to choose differently, with foreign languages ​​leading the way.

According to official figures, out of a total of 97,940 students registered for the high school graduation exam, 49,328 students (50.37%) chose foreign languages. Physics followed closely in second place with 43,176 students (44.08%).

Other subjects that also attracted the attention of HCMC students included chemistry (27,796), geography (25,220), history (24,074), biology (8,073) and economic and legal education (15,143).

Notably, the group of new subjects added to the list of subjects for the High School Graduation Exam has a low number of registrations: Information Technology (737), Technology - Agriculture (213) and Technology - Industry (109).

Another bright spot is that up to 1,724 candidates in Ho Chi Minh City were exempted from the foreign language exam, accounting for 1.76%.

If across the country, history is the "bright star" with nearly 500,000 candidates choosing it, followed by geography (more than 494,000) and English (nearly 359,000), the trend in Ho Chi Minh City is completely opposite.

Mr. Ho Tan Minh, Chief of Office of the Department of Education and Training, said this is not the first time that students in Ho Chi Minh City have made different choices compared to the national average.

"Last year, up to 60.85% of city candidates chose the natural science group, much higher than the national average of 37%," Mr. Minh shared.

Explaining the "reign" of foreign languages ​​this year, Mr. Minh commented that this year there was a change in the way subjects were selected, so English was "put on the scale".

With the advantage of English proficiency shown through the graduation exam results of previous years (last year, the average English score of HCMC students led the country with 6.73), it is understandable that half of the students choose this subject.

Ho Chi Minh City has also taken the leading position in average foreign language test scores for 8 consecutive years since 2017 when it started applying the "2 in 1" exam format.

In 2025, nearly 1.17 million students nationwide registered for the high school graduation exam, an increase of about 95,000 compared to last year. All candidates will take the exam on June 26-27 with 2 compulsory subjects: math, literature and 2 elective subjects.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/hoc-sinh-tphcm-lech-pha-chon-mon-thi-tot-nghiep-ngoai-ngu-len-ngoi-20250509061928205.htm