Regulations for the 2024 High School Graduation Exam: Stabilizing the exam structure, adding a period to protect confidentiality

The 2024 high school graduation exam will be held for the last students studying the 2006 general education program - Photo: NGUYEN BAO

Stable exam questions and methods

According to the exam regulations, the exam has 5 subjects including literature, math, foreign language, natural science (including physics, chemistry, biology) and social science (including history, geography, civics).

Candidates who are 12th grade high school students must take 4 exams to graduate from high school, including literature, math, foreign language, natural science or social science (choose 1 of 2 combined exams).

Candidates studying the continuing education program must take 3 exams including math, literature and 1 of 2 combined exams.

It is important to note that candidates cannot choose both combined exams at the same time. Candidates studying a continuing education program can register for an additional foreign language exam if they want to use their university admission results.

Regarding the content of the 2024 high school graduation exam, the Ministry of Education and Training also said that it will be within the high school curriculum, mainly grade 12 and have some questions related to grade 11 knowledge.

The exam is built according to the matrix of the Ministry of Education and Training, including 4 levels: recognition, understanding, application and high application. The content will mainly be at the levels of recognition, understanding and application. The questions at the high application level account for a sufficient proportion to differentiate.

Independent candidates who have graduated from high school can choose to register for combined exams or component subjects in natural science or social science exams suitable for the university-college admission combination.

In the 5 exams, only the literature exam is in essay form, the remaining exams are in objective multiple choice form.

Additional deadline for protecting exam confidentiality

Candidates taking the 2024 high school graduation exam should pay special attention to the items that the Ministry of Education and Training stipulates are "prohibited from being brought into the exam room", including: carbon paper, erasers, alcoholic beverages; weapons and explosives, flammable substances; documents, communication devices or information storage devices that can be used to cheat during the exam and marking process.

This regulation aims to overcome the problem of items candidates are allowed to bring into the exam room related to high-tech devices that are prohibited from being brought into the exam room in 2023.

Also related to the regulations in the examination room, before taking the exam, candidates must fully write their registration number and information on the exam paper, exam paper, multiple choice answer sheet, scratch paper, etc.

Exam questions and answers that have not been made public are classified as "top secret" state secrets, with additional protection time limits for top secret protection.

Specifically: "The period of protection of 'top secret' state secrets for exam questions/subjects only ends when the test time for multiple-choice exams/subjects ends and two-thirds of the test time for essay exams ends."

Thus, high school graduation exam questions that are spread during the exam process, have not been announced by the competent authority, but are leaked by someone outside, can be considered as revealing state secrets . Candidates need to pay special attention to this.

Previously, the Ministry of Education and Training said the exam is expected to take place in the last week of June 2024. The Ministry has made adjustments to ensure time for candidates to apply to universities and colleges after knowing their graduation exam scores.

Foreign language certificates are still used to exempt exams.

This year's exam retains the following regulations: "Candidates exempted from the foreign language test will be awarded 10 points for this test to be considered for high school graduation recognition. Candidates who do not register to use their right to be exempted from the foreign language test must take the exam and be considered for high school graduation recognition like candidates who are not exempted from the exam."

This content is included in the regulations instead of just stating in the document guiding the organization of high school exams like last year. Specifically, for English, in addition to the TOEFL ITP certificates (minimum requirement of 450 points), TOEFL iBT (minimum requirement of 45 points) and IELTS (minimum requirement of 4.0 points), the following are also added: B1 Preliminary/B1 Business Preliminary/B1 Linguaskill; TOEIC; Aptis ESOL B1; Pearson English International Certificate (PEIC) Level 2; foreign language certificates according to the 6-level foreign language proficiency framework used for Vietnam at level 3.

In particular, with the TOEIC certificate, candidates need to achieve a listening score of 275 - 399 points, a reading score of 275 - 384 points, a speaking score of 120 - 159 points, and a writing score of 120 - 149 points. Adding foreign language certificates used for exemption from the high school graduation exam is necessary to ensure fairness for foreign language certificates of equivalent level, to ensure rights and expand legitimate opportunities for learners.

From 2025, the Ministry of Education and Training will have many changes in the high school graduation exam to match the 2018 general education program. Therefore, this year is the last year that students studying the 2006 general education program will take the graduation exam.

As in previous years, the high school graduation exam is still assigned to localities to take full responsibility for printing, invigilation, grading, inspection, and announcement of high school graduation results. The Ministry of Education and Training creates the exam and strengthens inspection and supervision of this exam.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/quy-che-thi-tot-nghiep-thpt-2024-on-dinh-cau-truc-de-thi-them-thoi-han-bao-ve-do-toi-mat-20240308161145047.htm