Sample high school graduation exam questions from 2025 to be announced in the fourth quarter of 2023

Previously, also on November 29, the Ministry of Education and Training announced the official plan for high school graduation exams from 2025.

Accordingly, candidates will take four exams, including two compulsory subjects: mathematics and literature, and two elective subjects from foreign languages, history, geography, economic education and law, physics, chemistry, biology, information technology, and technology. Of the exams, only literature will be in essay form, the remaining subjects will be in multiple choice form.

The exam will take place nationwide, with the same questions (test questions are set by the Ministry of Education and Training), the same session, and the same time. The exam aims to evaluate learning outcomes according to the 2018 General Education Program for students who have completed high school and continuing high school education, and is the basis for assessing the current situation and quality of education in localities and educational institutions.

In addition, the results of this exam are also a reliable basis for admission to higher education and vocational education institutions.

The high school graduation exam from 2025 will still be assigned to the People's Committees of provinces and centrally run cities to take full responsibility for all stages of exam supervision, grading, inspection, etc.

The Ministry of Education and Training will provide general direction, issue examination regulations, guide the organization of the examination, and create common examination questions. Coordinate with ministries, branches, and localities to ensure the examination is safe, serious, and objective.

Will failed candidates in 2024 face difficulties?

At the press conference, Mr. Huynh Van Chuong, Department of Education Quality Management (Ministry of Education and Training), said that the announced graduation exam plan is based on a number of principles such as reducing pressure and costs for society, ensuring honesty, reliability, and correctly assessing students' abilities, serving as a basis for university and vocational education admissions.

The exam plan is suitable for the requirements of the 2018 General Education Program at the high school level, enhancing differentiation and career orientation. The exam innovation is also calculated on the basis of ensuring systematicity and synchronization with the innovation of regular and periodic testing and assessment in the teaching and learning process at the high school level and the roadmap for autonomy in higher education.

"Is it possible to take more than two optional subjects?". Responding to this concern from the press, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Ha - Deputy Director of the Department of Quality Management - said that according to the announced plan, candidates are not allowed to take more than two optional subjects. Because the number of candidates wishing to take more than two optional subjects will not be large, causing unnecessary waste.

"Candidates taking the 2024 high school graduation exam (using the old method) who fail may have difficulty taking the exam in 2025. What guidance does the Ministry of Education and Training have for this group?"

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Ha affirmed: in principle, candidates who study a program will take the exam according to that program. Therefore, in case candidates who fail the exam in 2024 want to retake the exam, they will still be able to take the exam with content closely following the program they studied.

In response to this question, Ms. Nguyen Thu Thuy - Director of the Department of Higher Education - shared: University admission regulations have remained stable over the years. Accordingly, regardless of how the graduation exam changes, admissions can still be considered fairly with the methods set by higher education institutions.

How will the format and content of the high school graduation exam change from 2025?

Responding to reporters about how the process and method of creating exam questions for the high school graduation exam from 2025 will change, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Ha said that in parallel with developing the exam plan, the Ministry of Education and Training has researched and discussed the development of the exam format for the exam from 2025. And of course, the exam questions will have to meet the goal of assessing students' abilities and qualities. At the same time, the exam questions must still inherit previous advantages.

Mr. Ngoc Ha also shared that when researching the format and structure of the exam for the 2025 exam, it is necessary to balance between different subjects, avoiding too large a difference in scores between subject groups.

Different from the previous method, the Ministry of Education and Training will promote resources to build a question bank from the grassroots level.

"In November, there was the first training session for teachers teaching graduation exam subjects from 63 departments of education and training and a number of universities. Up to now, more than 3,000 teachers have participated. This is the core team participating in building the exam question bank," said Mr. Ngoc Ha.

When will the sample exam be announced?

In fact, the sample exam questions for the high school graduation exam should be announced only when the first batch of students studying the 2018 General Education Program study the 12th grade program. However, in order for schools, teachers, and students to have an earlier idea, right after developing and testing the exam format for the high school graduation exam from 2025, the Ministry of Education and Training will announce the sample exam questions based on the content of the 10th and 11th grade programs of the 2018 General Education Program but in accordance with the new format and structure.

"It is expected that by the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, the ministry will announce sample test questions for the high school graduation exam from 2025," Mr. Ngoc Ha affirmed.