Safe and serious high school graduation exam

Today, June 25, nearly 1.17 million students nationwide will complete procedures to take the 2025 high school graduation exam at testing sites. The exam will take place on June 26 and 27.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) said that up to this point, preparations for organizing the 2025 high school graduation exam in localities have been completed.

Give the exam your best shot

The total number of candidates registered for the exam this year is 1,165,289, of which 1,122,507 (96.33%) are grade 12 candidates taking the exam under the 2018 GeneralEducation Program and 42,782 are independent candidates (3.67%). The number of candidates taking the exam this year increased by nearly 100,000 compared to 2024.

On June 24, the 2025 High School Graduation Examination Board began working. Inspection teams of the National Examination Steering Committee continued to directly inspect the organization of the exam in many localities. According to the assessment, although the organization was in the context of the two-level government preparing to operate with many tasks to be implemented, the localities still prioritized the best conditions for the exam to take place safely, seriously, and achieve the set goals.

Hanoi is the locality with the largest number of candidates taking the exam in the country with more than 124,000 students, of which 2,565 candidates will take the exam under the 2006 General Education Program and 121,507 candidates will take the exam under the 2018 General Education Program. According to Director of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training Tran The Cuong, this year, the number of candidates registered to take the exam in Hanoi increased by nearly 16,000 compared to 2024. This puts significant pressure on all areas of exam preparation and organization, from facilities, human resources to security. The large number of candidates also increases the complexity of managing two different exam programs.

Hanoi has 233 examination sites and the city plans to arrange 5,587 rooms for examination supervision, including 5,172 examination rooms, 182 waiting rooms and 233 spare rooms. More than 16,000 officers, teachers and staff have been mobilized to participate in examination supervision at examination sites; more than 800 officers and teachers will participate in grading examinations. The city police have mobilized nearly 900 officers and soldiers to work at examination supervision, marking and grading sites.

According to the Hanoi Department of Education and Training, up to now, 100% of the exam venues have been thoroughly inspected. Preparations for the exam in Hanoi regarding facilities, human resources and safety conditions have been ensured. The Hanoi Department of Education and Training has established 16-17 teams to conduct surprise inspections of exam preparation and organization; 5 teams to inspect the protection of exam papers and test papers outside of working hours.

The Hanoi City Examination Steering Committee has issued a plan to organize the exam, assigned specific tasks to members, and focused on preventing high-tech cheating... The Examination Steering Committee especially emphasized the work of ensuring security and safety for the exam, especially in printing and copying exam papers and preventing cheating using high-tech equipment.

Professor Huynh Van Chuong, Director of the Department of Quality Management - Ministry of Education and Training, and the working group inspected the preparation for the high school graduation exam in Phu Tho. Photo: Kim Anh

New points to note

The 2025 high school graduation exam is the first exam to apply new regulations according to the 2018 General Education Program.

The Ministry of Education and Training said that this year's exam will apply Circular 24/2024/TT-BGDDT of the Ministry on promulgating regulations for high school graduation exams, with many contents to tighten exam room discipline. In particular, the list of prohibited items to bring into the exam room is clearly stated, including mobile phones, recording, video recording, and communication devices; documents related to exam content; carbon paper, erasers; alcoholic beverages; weapons, flammable and explosive substances... The list of items allowed to bring into the exam room includes: Pens, rulers, pencils, erasers, compasses, squares, graphing rulers, drawing tools, handheld calculators without text editing functions, and no memory cards.

A new point to note is that candidates are not allowed to bring into the exam room geography atlases, periodic tables or solubility tables if they are in the group studying under the new program. This is a big difference from previous years, when candidates could still use geography atlases as a valid supporting document. Meanwhile, candidates studying under the old program can still bring and use geography atlases in the exam room.

According to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, immediately after receiving the exam paper from the invigilator, candidates must urgently check all the content carefully. If any abnormalities are detected (such as missing pages, torn, blurred, smudged, etc.), candidates must immediately report to the invigilator within 5 minutes from the time the exam paper is distributed. If more than 5 minutes have passed since the exam, candidates are fully responsible for the exam paper they have received.

The Ministry of Education and Training recommends that candidates proactively check the exam questions. Each testing site has the original exam questions for comparison in case verification is needed.

Another new point in this year's exam is that candidates will take all the exams in a fixed exam room, instead of changing exam rooms for each subject like previous years. This organization helps reduce the need to move between exam rooms.

The elective exams are held simultaneously in one session. Therefore, candidates need to clearly understand the time and procedure of taking the exam, to avoid confusion about the exam subjects in the same session.

The time to be present in the examination room for the combined exam is also regulated separately. Accordingly, candidates studying the new program (General Education Program 2018) must be present from the beginning of the exam, enter the waiting room and wait to be called to take the exam. Candidates studying the old program (General Education Program 2006) only need to be present 10 minutes before each component exam.

This afternoon, June 25, candidates will go to the examination sites to complete the examination procedures, correct errors (if any), listen to the regulations and examination schedule; present their citizen identification cards and receive their examination cards. The Ministry of Education and Training notes that if any errors are found in personal information, priority subjects, priority areas or necessary documents are lost, candidates must immediately notify the supervisor or the person on duty at the examination site for timely handling.

According to the regulations, candidates taking the 2006 General Education Program will take 4 exams: 1 session of literature, 1 session of math, 1 session of optional natural science or social science, 1 session of foreign language. Candidates taking the 2018 General Education Program will take 3 exams: 1 session of math, 1 session of literature, 1 session of 2 optional subjects.

Candidates taking the exam under the new program, in addition to the two compulsory subjects (math and literature), will take two elective subjects from the subjects they studied in grade 12. The two elective subjects will be tested in the same session, and candidates will still take the exam in a fixed room throughout the exam. The time between the two elective subjects is 15 minutes.

Ho Chi Minh City arranges 171 exam locations

After Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City is the locality with the second largest number of candidates taking the 2025 high school graduation exam in the country.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu, Director of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, said that the city has 99,578 candidates registered for the exam, of which 97,940 are taking the exam under the 2018 General Education Program. To meet this scale, the city has arranged 171 exam sites with a total of 4,242 exam rooms. Each exam site is arranged with 3 spare rooms to handle any arising situations.

Ho Chi Minh City has mobilized 855 officials to participate in the examination site management board, 12,726 exam supervisors (an increase of 1,409 compared to last year), 2,394 exam site service staff, 513 police officers on duty at the examination sites, 92 officials in the exam printing and copying department, and an expected 300 officials in the exam paper transportation and handover department.

Meanwhile, according to assigned tasks, since the morning of June 24, many universities in Ho Chi Minh City have sent staff and lecturers to localities to support the exam. Two buses took staff and lecturers from Ho Chi Minh City University of Law to Long An province. Ho Chi Minh City University of Banking assigned about 50 staff and lecturers to perform tasks in Ninh Thuan province. The universities: University of Finance and Marketing, Western University of Construction and Tay Do University also mobilized 49 staff and lecturers to perform tasks in Hau Giang province... The tasks of the delegations are to inspect the direction of exam supervision; organize exam supervision; inspect and check exam supervision, together with localities to achieve the goal of ensuring the exam goes well.

H.Lan - H.Xuan

Source: https://nld.com.vn/thi-tot-nghiep-thpt-an-toan-nghiem-tuc-196250624212646688.htm