Nearly 67,000 candidates were scored in 10 foreign languages ​​for graduation exams

Professor Huynh Van Chuong, Director of the Department of Quality Management, Ministry of Education and Training, announced the above information on June 20. This number of candidates is equivalent to 6.25% of the total number of candidates taking the exam this year.

The two localities with the most registered candidates are still Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, with more than 21,500 and nearly 13,100 students, respectively.

According to the ministry's regulations, these candidates will be given 10 points for foreign language when considering high school graduation recognition if the certificate is valid.

For English, candidates need IELTS 4.0 or higher, TOEFL ITP 450, TOEFL iBT 45 points, similar to previous years. In addition, this year the ministry added a number of other certificates in this group: B1 Preliminary, B1 Business Preliminary, B1 Linguaskill; Aptis ESOL B1; Pearson English International Certificate (PEIC) level 2; TOEIC 4 skills (Listening and Reading 275, Speaking and Writing 120); level 3 certificate according to the 6-level foreign language proficiency framework for Vietnam (VSTEP).

For the remaining 5 foreign languages: Russian, French, Chinese, German, Japanese, the certificates used for exam exemption are similar to last year.

The conversion from 4.0 IELTS to a 10 in foreign language graduation has caused much controversy. Many experts say the conversion is reasonable, based on the 6-level foreign language proficiency framework for Vietnam, but many teachers say it is unreasonable because the nature of the graduation exam and IELTS are different.

However, most agree that very few candidates take the IELTS test to get a 4.0 to be exempted from the graduation exam, most of them use it for university admission and studying abroad.

The Ministry of Education and Training notes that exemption from foreign language exams and conversion to 10 points are only used for high school graduation consideration.

Currently, about 100 schools use international language certificates for admission, by converting scores and combining them with transcripts or graduation exam scores. Typically, schools require IELTS 5.5 or higher.

This year’s high school graduation exam took place from June 26-28 with about 1.07 million candidates. Students took four tests, including math, literature, English and a combination test (natural science or social science). All subjects were multiple choice, except for literature, which was in essay form.

Last year, 98.88% of candidates passed the graduation exam, the highest rate since 2015. Of these, more than 546,000 students applied for university admission.