Candidates with 10 points in English for 2025 high school graduation exam give reasons for perfect score

Among the 141 candidates who scored 10 points in English in the 2025 high school graduation exam, Hoang Cuc and Minh Chung have in common that they have taken international certificates such as IELTS and competed in many English proficiency exams.

English score distribution for the 2025 high school graduation exam, showing that 141 candidates scored 10 points

PHOTO: MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

This morning, July 16, the Ministry of Education and Training officially announced the 2025 high school graduation exam scores of more than 1.1 million candidates nationwide. In English alone, the score distribution shows that the average score of more than 350,000 candidates is 5.38, of which only 141 students scored 10. This number is 4 times lower than in 2024 (565 candidates) and accounts for 0.04% of the total number of candidates taking this subject. In addition, only more than 15% of candidates scored 7 or higher.

IELTS supports high school graduation exam 2025

Sharing the secret to getting a perfect score in English, Nguyen Minh Chau, a 12th grader at Truong Dinh High School ( Hanoi ), said that while doing the test, he often prioritized doing the easy parts like grammar and vocabulary quickly to "gain momentum" before moving on to the difficult content. For the reading passage on greenwashing, Chau said he used scanning skills and guessing the meaning based on context to process it.

"I finished the entire test in about 45 minutes, spending the last 5 minutes reviewing the types of questions that are easy to make mistakes, such as finding mistakes, word types...", the female student shared.

According to Chau, one of the reasons why the female student did well in the English exam was because she had studied for the IELTS exam before and achieved an IELTS score of 8.0 on her first attempt, with speaking and writing skills reaching 7.5, listening reaching 8.5 and reading achieving a perfect score of 9.0. In addition, the female student twice won third prize in the city-level English competition and achieved 17/20 points in the national exam for excellent students, also in English.

"IELTS practice test helps a lot in the process of taking the graduation exam. Firstly, because the structure of the reading passages and the difficulty of the vocabulary in the graduation exam have recently become more academic, so getting used to IELTS reading passages helps me process the text quickly and not be overwhelmed when encountering difficult topics or new words. Listening and speaking IELTS regularly also helps me improve my language reflexes, 'feeling' which sentences are right or wrong thanks to the feeling of grammar and vocabulary," Chau said.

"Of the 4 IELTS skills, I find that reading skills help me the most for the high school graduation exam because it trains me to read quickly, grasp the main idea and find accurate information, very close to the requirements of the exam," the female student emphasized.

Nguyen Minh Chau, the owner of 10 points in English in the 2025 high school graduation exam from Hanoi

PHOTO: NVCC

However, the female student also said that practicing IELTS is not the only way to help her improve her English level. Because, the owner of a 10 in English also practices this language in "very ordinary" but effective ways, such as watching movies and listening to English music almost every day, especially the genres she loves, or writing down good phrases, writing a diary or status on social networks in English.

"I've liked English since I was little, so learning it came naturally to me. I don't deny that learning grammar and vocabulary is necessary, but I think if I don't create a sense of enjoyment for the language, it will be difficult to learn this subject well," Chau shared. "Although I mainly studied IELTS, thanks to the teachers' detailed instructions on common types of questions, I was quite confident and not confused, especially in the grammar section."

Practice contextual reasoning

Nguyen Hoang Cuc, a 12th grade student at Nguyen Thi Minh Khai High School, Xuan Hoa Ward (old District 3), Ho Chi Minh City, has an opposing view.

According to the female student, IELTS was not the thing that helped her the most in the English test. "Most of the skills and knowledge that helped me achieve good results came from the lectures of my teachers. The teachers taught me how to read and recognize context effectively when doing the test," Cuc confided.

In the exam room, the female student said she prioritized doing the easy questions first, instead of prioritizing a certain type of question. Then, she reread the question and continued to do the more difficult questions. "With difficult questions like 'bluewash', I reasoned based on the context of the text, questions, and answers, not based on grammar, and then chose the answer I thought was the most correct. I found the rearrangement of the sentence order very difficult," the female student shared.

"Contextual reasoning means comparing the answer with the question and the text to see if its meaning matches because some answers, although having relatively similar content, still have certain differences," Cuc shared. "The time I spent doing the test and checking my work took up most of the exam time. When I finished, the whole room was informed that there were 5 minutes left until the end of the exam," Cuc added.

Nguyen Hoang Cuc, a candidate from Ho Chi Minh City, scored 10 points in English for the 2025 high school graduation exam.

PHOTO: NVCC

The female student shared that she often used English in daily communication with friends and relatives. Not to mention, Cuc started to interact and learn English since she was 6 years old, and has been doing so for 12 years now. "During that time, I not only studied in class, but also watched entertaining videos in English on YouTube. Around 8th grade, I started taking academic exams in English," Cuc said.

Up to now, in addition to winning third prize in the city-level English competition in grade 12, Cuc also achieved an IELTS score of 7.5 and an ACT score of 28 to serve the goal of university admission, and also participated in the English Olympic competition in grade 11 and the city-level English competition in grade 9.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/thi-sinh-diem-10-tieng-anh-thi-tot-nghiep-thpt-2025-neu-ly-do-dat-tuyet-doi-185250716152729277.htm