The 2025 high school graduation exam has many firsts

At the conference to summarize the organization of the 2025 high school graduation exam and prepare for the 2026 high school graduation exam in Ho Chi Minh City on the afternoon of September 26, Mr. Pham Ngoc Thuong, Permanent Deputy Minister of Education and Training, said that the 2025 high school graduation exam has many firsts and most important things.

The exam took place in the context of local government shifting from 3 levels to 2 levels: exam organization is still in 63 provinces/cities, but exam marking is still in 34 provinces/cities.

The 2025 high school graduation exam has 1,165,289 candidates registered to take the exam, the largest number ever.

This is also the first time the exam is organized according to the 2+2 plan: candidates must take 2 compulsory subjects, Literature and Math, and 2 elective subjects from the remaining 9 subjects, in line with career orientation at high school level and creating many advantages for students. Mr. Thuong said: "There are provinces where only one candidate chooses one exam subject, such as Lai Chau where only 1 student chooses Information Technology, Quang Ninh where only 1 student chooses Industry, but the province still organizes the full exam."

Mr. Pham Ngoc Thuong.jpg
Mr. Pham Ngoc Thuong, Permanent Deputy Minister of Education and Training. Photo: TT

Mr. Thuong said that the 2025 high school graduation exam witnessed the strongest digital transformation when, for the first time, the exam questions were digitized and transmitted via the secure transmission line of the Government Cipher Committee, helping to save time, reduce costs, limit risks and increase safety and security.

By 2025, 100% of candidates will register for the exam online. In addition, the number of exam sessions will be reduced from 4 to 3.

Preparations for the exam were carried out as soon as possible. The preparations were also coordinated smoothly between localities, without any incidents.

For the first time, the rate of using learning assessment results in grades 10, 11 and 12 is increased to 50% (previously it was 30% and only grade 12 results were used).

Judging that Math and English exams are difficult is speculation and emotion.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, in the rapid development of the 4.0 industrial revolution, to solve major problems in strategic technology, it is necessary to teach students how to solve problems, face different problems in practice; towards a real learning environment, real exams, real talents, even if they are initially confused.

The Ministry of Education and Training said that before the exam results were available, there was some information that this year's high school graduation exam was difficult, especially the Math and English exams. However, the analysis of the score distribution showed that the exam for these two subjects was completely suitable for the purpose of the exam and not as difficult as rumored.

“The English score distribution no longer has two peaks like in previous years, the slope is evenly divided on both sides showing an even spread of scores, the average score is 5.38; the number of candidates scoring 10 is 141. The Math score distribution is clearly shown through a very nice score distribution, naturally distributed from low to high, no longer concentrated around 8-9 points. More importantly, although many people said the test was difficult, there were still more than 500 scores of 10 in Math nationwide. That shows that the test did not 'puzzle' but only differentiated and selected truly good students,” the Ministry of Education and Training stated.

Limitations in the marking and printing of exam papers

Mr. Huynh Van Chuong, Director of the Department of Quality Management (Ministry of Education and Training), assessed that the 2025 high school graduation exam has many advantages. The Ministry of Education and Training has proactively coordinated with ministries, branches and localities to prepare early and remotely, helping to facilitate the organization of the exam for localities, schools, teachers and students in the context of merging provincial-level administrative units and operating a two-level government.

Huynh Van Chuong
Mr. Huynh Van Chuong, Director of the Department of Quality Management (Ministry of Education and Training). Photo: TT

The exam was organized in a concise, practical and effective manner, reducing 1 exam session and 2 exam subjects for candidates according to the 2018 General Education Program. The exam questions according to the 2018 General Education Program closely followed the goals of the new General Education Program, shifting from mainly assessing knowledge to assessing learners' abilities.

The exam results achieved the set goals and closely followed the major policies in Resolution No. 29-NQ/TW of the Central Executive Committee; Resolution No. 88/2014/QH13 and Conclusion No. 91-KL/TW of the Politburo on implementing fundamental and comprehensive innovation in education and training.

Mr. Huynh Van Chuong said that the 2025 high school graduation exam still has some limitations that need to be overcome: some units printed copies of the 2006 general education program exam questions that did not comply with regulations, causing difficulties in the grading process. Although the multiple-choice grading software has been tested, in reality, problems still arise that require updating, especially when the new format requires a lot of checking and error correction, so the processing speed in some stages is still slow.

In addition, in some places, the Literature review still has score adjustments, mainly increasing or decreasing by 0.25 points.


2026 will be granted

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/thi-tot-nghiep-2025-nhieu-cai-nhat-de-toan-va-tieng-anh-kho-la-cam-tinh-2446414.html