Eliminate the C00 combination exam: It is necessary to ensure the rights of candidates when adjusting.

Very close to the 2025 High School Graduation Exam, manyuniversities have announced that they will not use the C00 combination (Literature, History, Geography) to enroll students in many training majors.

The University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi has announced that it will no longer consider the C00 combination in 17/28 training programs, including: Journalism, Sociology, Psychology,... Majors that have traditionally recruited students using the C00 group this year will switch to using combinations with Foreign Languages for enrollment, such as: D14 (Literature, History, English), D15 (Literature, Geography, English), D66 (Literature, Civic Education, English),...

Previously, the University of Law ( Hanoi National University), Academy of Journalism and Communication, Hanoi Capital University, Hanoi University of Procuracy... also announced to stop using the C00 combination in regular university admissions in 2025.

Regarding the reason for stopping using combination C00 in admission, according to Hanoi University of Procuracy, it is to ensure balance in admission between combinations.

“Group C00 is the group that usually has the highest average score in the High School Graduation Exam and the number of candidates registering is large, leading to a very high possibility that the entire enrollment quota of the school will be concentrated in this group only. This will lead to an imbalance in the selection process between groups, causing disadvantages for candidates taking other groups, and is not consistent with the policy of the prosecution industry on training a team of legal staff with comprehensive capacity in many fields and subjects,” Hanoi University of Procuracy said in its announcement.

Associate Professor, Dr. Dang Thi Thu Huong, Vice Principal of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, said the reason for stopping using the C00 combination in many training majors: “Based on the orientation of innovation in high school exam subjects applied from 2025, according to the enrollment requirements of each major, the requirements on foreign language output standards according to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, at the same time, implementing the strategy of internationalizing training programs, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities increases the selection of combinations of Literature-History-English, Literature-Geography-English, Math-Literature-English, Literature-Civic Education-English,…”.

The fact that social science training institutions reduce or eliminate the C00 combination in admissions at a time when candidates have already settled on their choice and are about to take the graduation exam has made them confused and worried. The opportunity to enter their favorite majors, using the combination of subjects that they have spent a long time studying, may be wasted. It is very likely that many students will have to consider changing their major selection plan.

Discussing this issue, the leader of the Ministry of Education and Training said: According to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, in the High School Graduation Exam from 2025, candidates will take 2 compulsory subjects, including: Literature, Math and 2 elective subjects from the remaining subjects studied in grade 12. According to this way of choosing subjects, in addition to the two compulsory subjects of Math and Literature, candidates who want to apply for university admission according to the combination of Social Sciences subjects will often choose to take two additional subjects: History and Geography.

Therefore, if some schools do not consider admission for block C00 but still use combinations of Math - Literature for admission such as: Math - Literature - History, Math - Literature - Geography, Math - History - Geography, candidates can completely register for admission based on the high school graduation exam scores of these subjects.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, most schools currently have the above combinations when building admission combinations. During the learning process, students are trained in mathematical thinking, which will be very favorable in career development. Building combinations with mathematics, instead of purely social subjects such as combination C00 (Literature - History - Geography) will also help schools classify candidates better in the admission process.

However, there are some schools that, when building admission combinations, focus on English subjects such as: History-Geography-English; Literature-History-English; Literature-Geography-English; Literature-Civic Education-English... then candidates who register for the graduation exam with 4 subjects (Math-Literature-History-Geography) will lose the opportunity to register for admission in these combinations because they do not have a graduation exam score in English. This is disadvantageous for candidates during the admission process.

Therefore, upon receiving information reflecting that some training institutions have completely abandoned the C00 combination and are recruiting according to the above combinations, the Ministry of Education and Training has discussed with the schools and advised the training institutions to adjust the recruitment combinations appropriately in the context of the first year of candidates taking the high school graduation exam according to the 2018 General Education Program. The Ministry also reminded that the selection of graduation exam subjects was completed before the time the schools announced the recruitment information.

The Ministry of Education and Training requires that schools, after making adjustments, will soon inform candidates and explain to society. The spirit of the Ministry of Education and Training is that although schools are autonomous and responsible for enrollment, they must be reasonable and ensure the best interests of students.