Ho Chi Minh City "rehearses" high school graduation exam 2025 with a series of historic changes

Today (May 27), public and non-public high schools, continuing education and vocationaleducation centers will organize mock exams for 12th grade students.

On one day, students will come to complete the exam registration procedures and listen to the exam regulations and schedule. On the next two days, May 27-28, students will take the 4 subjects they registered for. The mock exams will be created by the schools themselves.

This is the first exam under the 2018 general education program, marking a major turning point in a completely new way of teaching, testing and assessment.

Instead of taking 6 subjects as before, the number of subjects is reduced to 4, including compulsory math and literature. In addition, students choose 2 subjects they have studied at school (chemistry, physics, biology, geography, history, economic and legal education, information technology, technology and foreign languages).

The official exam in 2025 also brings many notable changes. The number of exam sessions is increased to 2, and in particular, each exam room can have up to 5 different subjects.

In addition, the number of exam codes for each subject will double compared to previous years with 48 exam codes (each exam session has 24 exam codes). Previously, the subjects (except literature) only had 24 exam codes.

Another important change is the way literature questions are set. With the implementation of "one program, many textbooks", the materials appearing in the exam will come from many textbooks and can also be completely "open" to materials that are not part of the curriculum in class.

In particular, the materials are expected to be new, reducing the situation of "learning by heart" and practicing sample texts that has been mentioned in recent years.

TPHCM tổng diễn tập thi tốt nghiệp THPT 2025 với loạt thay đổi lịch sử - 2

According to statistics, in 2025, Ho Chi Minh City has 97,940 12th graders registered to take the high school graduation exam. Of these, foreign languages have the highest number of registered students, with 49,328 students (accounting for 50.37%). Physics follows closely in second place with 43,176 students (44.08%).

Other subjects that also attracted the attention of HCMC students included chemistry (27,796), geography (25,220), history (24,074), biology (8,073) and economic and legal education (15,143).

Notably, the group of new subjects added to the list of subjects for the high school graduation exam has a low number of registrations: Information Technology (737), technology - agriculture (213) and technology - industry (109).

Another notable point is that up to 1,724 candidates in Ho Chi Minh City were exempted from the foreign language exam, accounting for 1.76%.

In this trial exam, the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City requires educational institutions organizing the 2025 high school graduation trial exam to ensure safety and seriousness; invigilators and students must comply with the exam regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training.

The mock test must be absolutely confidential, the test content must closely follow the test plan, time, format and structure of each high school graduation exam from 2025.

Regarding the work of creating mock exams, each school must establish a test-making team. Each subject has a test-making team consisting of teachers with solid expertise and experience in teaching and test-making; the Head of the subject-specific team is responsible for assigning tasks and supervising the test-making process.

The principles of exam questions are as follows: Ensure adherence to the official exam structure of the Ministry of Education and Training; Knowledge content is within the high school program, focusing on grade 12; Ensure accuracy, science and education; Exam questions must have appropriate differentiation: 70% basic knowledge, 20% advanced knowledge, 10% creative application knowledge.

At the same time, the school must organize the stages of the trial exam in accordance with the current high school graduation exam regulations. Assign invigilators and supervisors in accordance with regulations, organize the marking of the exam in accordance with the marking process of the Ministry of Education and Training; Establish marking teams to ensure professionalism and objectivity.

At the training conference on Regulations and procedures for organizing the 2025 high school graduation exam organized by the Ministry of Education and Training in Ho Chi Minh City in April, Deputy Minister Pham Ngoc Thuong suggested that schools must organize mock exams for students, with the spirit of mock exams but real assessments, using the results to evaluate and classify students. From there, see what skills students lack and supplement accordingly.

The 2025 high school graduation exam will officially take place on June 26-27.

In the graduation score calculation formula, exam scores account for 50%; the rest is the grade 10, 11 and 12 report card scores (50%) and priority points if any. Compared to before, the report card score increased by 20%.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/tphcm-tong-dien-tap-thi-tot-nghiep-thpt-2025-voi-loat-thay-doi-lich-su-20250526230204766.htm