Why is the essay topic easy but it's hard to get "8s and 9s"?

(Dan Tri) - The 2025 high school graduation essay questions are said to be "for 6th graders" but overall it is considered unlikely that there will be a "rain of 8s" like last year.

Ms. Nguyen Minh Anh, a literature teacher in Ho Chi Minh City, said that among all the opinions about the literature topics in this year's high school graduation exam, many people forgot an extremely important thing: this year's graduating students did not learn the new program from middle school, they only started learning from grade 10.

Ms. Minh Anh analyzed that the reading comprehension part in this year's essay test is much easier than the requirements of the 12th grade program.

High school graduation essay topics for 2025 (Photo: Hoang Hong).

Specifically, the first two questions in the reading comprehension section are supposed to be "bonus points" for students when the requirements are only at the 6th grade level.

The task of writing a 200-word paragraph to analyze a character's feelings has been taught to students since grade 7.

The female teacher assessed the essay topic as “raising high and hitting lightly” for the first-year students, combining the old and new programs. The topic being lighter than the requirements of the 12th grade program is a reasonable choice of the Ministry of Education and Training .

In reality, the program is much more difficult. 12th graders do not study short stories but novels, surrealist poetry, memoirs… the genres and requirements are very heavy.

Although the questions are easy, in general, Ms. Minh Anh asserts that it is not easy for students to get high scores because the social commentary section, which accounts for 4 points, has a high level of differentiation. This is a question that will cause "trouble" for students who memorize, do not have the right mindset, or do not study according to the program.

Because of this argument, this year, according to Ms. Minh Anh, it will be difficult to have "rain of 8s, rain of 9s" like last year.

The female literature teacher said that the social argumentation question requires students to have real life experience and thinking skills, and cannot use sample essays to do the test. Any training center that teaches students sample essays like “youth, responsibility”… will not be able to meet the requirements of this argumentation question.

"After the literature exam, I heard many people say that finding facts and evidence for social argumentation is difficult. But it is necessary to determine that this is also a task of the learner, learning social argumentation must provide real life experience in society," Ms. Minh Anh expressed.

Candidates in Hanoi during this year's high school graduation exam (Photo: Hai Long).

The essay question will help the examiner to filter out which students have a writing mindset and which students do not. Students with a strong writing mindset will know the steps to write a social essay such as explaining concepts, discussing the topic, giving counter-arguments if necessary and from there can draw a message for themselves.

"A boost" for teachers

Ms. Tran Ngoc Phuong Yen, a literature teacher at Gia su eTeacher, said that unlike the old exam questions that focused on literary argumentation, often revolving around familiar works in textbooks - where students had access to and had their literary appreciation ability measured - the exam questions under the new program have clearly changed, reflecting the spirit of the times and clearly showing the differentiation of social knowledge.

Instead of just testing literary ability, the new exam questions closely follow the practical issues of the country, especially in the context of Vietnam entering the "era of rising up" in a period of strong innovation and deep integration.

This test requires candidates not only to master writing skills, but also to have independent thinking, rich life experiences and a comprehensive view of the changes in modern society. The special features of this type of test are its updating, topicality and ability to stimulate multi-dimensional thinking.

This year, it is predicted that there will be hardly any 8s and 9s in literature like in 2024 (Photo: Phuong Quyen).

This is no longer a mere test of academic knowledge but has become a measure of the ability to connect bookish knowledge with life experience - an essential quality of citizens in the new era.

Therefore, the more creative, critical and insightful the candidate is, the easier it is to make an impression and achieve high scores. This also requires teachers to adjust and change their teaching methods.

According to Ms. Nguyen Minh Anh, this year's high school graduation essay is not very creative or new, but it is a good exam.

“For me, this exam is a good sign that requires students to think, think to learn how, not to memorize like before when doing familiar, boring sample essays. If you ask if it is close to the 2018 program, my answer is "not yet", but it is a remarkable step forward from the Ministry of Education and Training," she said.

According to Ms. Minh Anh, the social argument not only differentiates students but also influences teachers to focus on teaching students to accumulate life experiences and life materials from reality, not just learning from books and sample essays. This is the "push" for teachers to adjust and change in the process of teaching students.

Rain of 8s and 9s in literature in the 2024 high school graduation exam

In the 2024 high school graduation exam, more than 1 million candidates took the literature exam with an average score of 7.23. The highest score a candidate achieved in this subject was 8 points.

Literature score distribution of the 2024 high school graduation exam (Data: Ministry of Education and Training).

The total number of candidates who scored 9 points or more was 92,055. There were two candidates who scored 10 points, 1,843 candidates scored 9.75 points, 14,198 candidates scored 9.5 points, 26,758 candidates scored 9.25 points, and 49,254 candidates scored 9 points in this subject.

The number of candidates scoring 9 or higher in literature is 8 times higher than the number of candidates scoring 9 or higher in math. Subjects with many 9 or 10 points such as history, geography, and English are also far behind literature in terms of scores of 9 or higher.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/vi-sao-de-van-de-nhung-kho-co-mua-diem-8-diem-9-20250626170522832.htm