The truth behind 15,000 10s: What does the 2025 score spectrum reflect?

Yesterday, the Ministry of Education and Training announced the score distribution of the 2025 high school graduation exam subjects. The score distribution of the exam subjects is uneven. Among them, Math and English are really difficult.

Candidates taking the 2025 high school graduation exam. Photo: Nhu Y

Over 15 thousand points 10

According to the analysis of the independent assessment team of experts on the score distribution of the 2025 high school graduation exam subjects, the score distribution of the subjects is similar to last year. This year, the whole country recorded over 15,000 scores of 10 in all subjects, compared to about 10,000 last year. Of which, Geography has the highest number of scores of 10 with over 6,900 exams, double that of 2024 (3,100 exams), Physics has the number of candidates scoring 10 nearly 8 times higher than in 2024. This year's average score for Mathematics is lower than in 2024, but there are 513 candidates scoring 10 (in 2024, no candidates scored 10).

This year, the failing score (below 1) is also higher than in 2024. The total number of candidates with failing scores is 827 (last year, 468). Of which, Math has the highest number of candidates with failing scores, 777, 10 times more than in 2024 (76). The Math exam in this year's high school graduation exam is really difficult. It is clear when comparing the score distribution this year with the score distribution in 2024. If the average Math score in 2024 was 6.45, then in 2025 it was 4.78, a decrease of 25%. If in 2024, half of the candidates scored 6.8 points or higher, then this year, half of the candidates scored only 4.6 points or lower. This year, Literature (the only subject with essay test) has no score of 10 (last year, there were 2 score of 10).

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Sharing at the announcement of the 2025 high school graduation exam scores, Dr. Quach Tuan Ngoc, former Director of the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Education and Training, said that this is a high school graduation exam so it must meet the general requirements, and universities are autonomous so it is only for reference. Mr. Ngoc assessed that the exam questions according to the new general education program in 2018 have reduced the situation of "luck", it is impossible to guess randomly. This is a positive change, contributing to building a solid educational philosophy, learning to be a person, learning to develop.

Overall assessment of the exam scores of each subject, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Duc, University of Technology, Vietnam National University, Hanoi , said that the differentiation of this year's exam was good. Although Math and English were difficult, fortunately, looking at the score distribution, there was no "shock" because of the low scores.

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High reliability

Overall assessment of the exam scores of each subject, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Duc, University of Technology, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, said that the differentiation of this year's exam was good. Although Math and English were difficult, fortunately, looking at the score distribution, there was no "shock" because of the low scores.

Prof. Dr. Pham Hong Quang, Chairman of the Council of Professors ofEducational Sciences, said that the score distribution of the 2025 high school graduation exam is shown on the basis of data that ensures the goal of confirming the general, basic, fundamental level and is reliable for use in university admissions. According to him, it is necessary to end the mindset of absolute scores in the context of educational globalization. A score is only truly valuable in the context of a specific person with a certain level of academic ability. The high scores of specialized students compared to general students without environmental context factors will be an inaccurate indicator. According to Prof. Dr. Pham Hong Quang, it is necessary to have a roadmap for evaluating the 2018 general education program and a roadmap for making exam questions from 2026, especially in the new context.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Pham Ngoc Thuong said that this year's high school graduation exam has fully achieved three important goals: graduation assessment, providing data to assess the quality of teaching in general education and being the basis for education policy. Analyzing the score distribution of exam subjects is not only theoretical but also reflects the practical operation of the exam, from the stage of creating questions to organizing the exam and enrolling students.

No longer simply testing knowledge, the exam has shifted its focus to assessing ability. Students are allowed to choose subjects based on their strengths - a step forward in personal career orientation. For the first time, IT and English are included in the selection, clearly demonstrating the principle of "no one is left behind". This flexibility has helped students maximize their individual abilities, while also posing new challenges for teachers in their teaching work.

This year's score distribution is considered highly reliable and can be used as a basis for university admission. Difficult provinces such as Gia Lai and An Giang have students achieving high scores in Information Technology, reflecting the positive impact of policies such as Circular 29 on the management of extra teaching and learning.

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Math: Deviating from graduation goals?

According to Dr. Tran Nam Ha, the Math subject of the 2025 high school graduation exam is really difficult when viewed from the score spectrum.

Mr. Nam Ha analyzed that the score distribution of Math showed a clear left-skew, with an average score of 4.78, a median of 4.6, and over 55% of candidates scoring below 5 points. Although the score distribution statistics only recorded 6 absolute zero points, the 777 failing points reflected that the problem did not lie in “absent students”, but in the inability to overcome the basic threshold.

However, what is more noteworthy is the context of the exam: this year, the exam was designed using expert methods, not through a standardized question bank. This makes indicators such as score distribution, average score or standard deviation only descriptive, not enough to assess the difficulty of the exam, the quality of teaching or the level of achievement of the required requirements of students.

For the graduation exam, this year's exam has not met the requirements. When more than half of the candidates could not get more than 5 points, it is clear that the exam has exceeded the required level and is no longer suitable for assessing students' completion of the general education program. For the admission goal, the exam is well classified. The clear differentiation in scores helps universities easily establish admission thresholds.

Mr. Nam Ha said that dividing the spectrum into small score bands of 0.2 leads to many artificial sub-peaks, causing misunderstandings about the stratification of academic performance. This technique makes the score spectrum lose its smoothness and can lead to incorrect interpretations. The score spectrum only truly reflects correctly when: the score band is divided reasonably (0.5 or 1.0); there is an accompanying smoothing curve; detailed statistical tables are published transparently.

The 2025 Math score distribution shows that the exam is more about differentiation in admissions than recognition of graduation. When the exam is not standardized and the score distribution is presented without technical standards, the data only reflects the phenomenon, not the essence. To assess the difficulty of the exam, as well as to have feedback from the exam results, it is necessary to analyze the exam in detail to use the score distribution analysis results to ensure scientific validity. In addition, to ensure fairness and the correctness of the exam objectives, it is necessary to adjust the exam and the way the results are presented in a scientific and balanced manner.

English: Nearly 50% of the test scores were below average.

Dr. Le Truong Tung, Chairman of the Board of FPT University, said that English has the best and most balanced score range among all the high school graduation exams this year. Compared to the score range of English in previous years, which usually had two peaks (one standard peak, one peak for outstanding students due to extra classes), the score range in 2025 is standard. However, with the nature of an elective exam, the average score and median score are only over 5 points, Mr. Tung assessed that the English exam was difficult.

Dr. Tran Nam Ha acknowledged that with more than 351,000 candidates choosing to take the English exam, the published score distribution attracted attention when 46.68% of candidates did not achieve the average score, with 141 candidates achieving a score of 10, even though this is a subject that students choose to take, often with a clear learning orientation and relative ability. This raises questions about the suitability and accessibility of the exam.

Dr. Tran Nam Ha said that because the standardized question bank was not used, this year's exam was not tested for difficulty, discrimination, or program coverage. Therefore, the score distribution does not accurately reflect the difficulty of the exam, nor can it be used as a basis for assessing teaching quality or students' actual abilities.

This year’s score distribution shows that the exam has not met the minimum requirements for graduation (because the below average rate is too high), and at the same time, it is not capable of classifying well for university admission (because the high scores are too few). If we continue to maintain the uncontrolled way of setting questions, the exam will gradually lose its stability and fairness.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/su-that-phia-sau-15000-diem-10-pho-diem-2025-phan-anh-dieu-gi-post1760516.tpo