What is the trend of students choosing subjects for high school graduation exam?

Physics and English are the most popular subjects.

In the 2025 high school graduation exam, candidates will only take two compulsory subjects: math and literature, and two elective subjects from the remaining subjects, including: foreign languages, history, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, economic and legal education, information technology, and technology. This is the first time students will take the exam according to the new 2018 general education program. The exam questions have also changed to meet the goals of innovation.

Therefore, high schools in the province have early surveyed the needs and trends of students choosing subjects for the 2025 high school graduation exam to proactively develop teaching and review plans for them.

Kim Thanh High School has 462 12th graders. According to the survey, 276 students chose English, 270 students chose physics, 159 students chose chemistry. 66 students chose history, 29 students chose geography, 21 students chose biology. In addition, 98 students chose economics and law, only 1 student chose computer science.

Kinh Mon High School has 421 12th grade students. Of these, 271 students choose physics, 235 students choose English, 128 students choose chemistry, 90 students choose history, 73 students choose geography, and 6 students choose biology. 35 students choose economics and law, and no students choose information technology.

According to the reporter's investigation, in the 2024-2025 school year, the whole province has more than 20,400 12th graders. The most students choose physics with about 8,600 students, followed by English with nearly 8,200 students. Geography is chosen by about 7,800 students, chemistry by nearly 5,500 students, and history by about 4,400 students. Biology is the least chosen, with only nearly 700 students. In addition, nearly 5,500 students choose economic and legal education, about 270 students choose technology, and only 20 students choose information technology.

Some high school principals in the province analyzed that the trend of students choosing English and physics is because they can choose more university entrance exam groups. For example, choosing physics combined with math and literature, students have at least 5 combinations of block A, 6 combinations of block C and some combinations of block B, H, V.

English also has up to 8 combinations in block D and some combinations in traditional blocks A and B for admission. In particular, English is a subject with many options in university majors.

Analyzing why few students choose biology, some high school principals in the province said that in recent years, the number of students choosing to take the B block exam (math, chemistry, biology) is small, the admission quota of universities for this exam block is also not much, only medical and pharmaceutical schools stand out but the entrance scores are quite high. Biology is a difficult subject to study, not diverse in the combination of admission blocks.

If students have chosen the D block combination for university admission, they will choose economic and legal education for graduation exams. Because these subjects are easy for students to get high scores. Instead, students will have more time for math, literature and English.

Currently, universities have not yet announced the admission combinations, while the number of subjects in 2025 is 2 subjects less than previous years, so students must prioritize choosing subjects that can be considered in many combinations to ensure safety. Therefore, students rarely choose new subjects such as information technology, although these subjects are very suitable for the modern economy.

Focus on review and career orientation

Teacher Nguyen The Toan, Principal of Kim Thanh High School, said that the school has also informed students and parents about the new exam plan and emphasized that choosing subjects for the exam should be based on ability and strengths, avoiding emotional choices and following the majority.

Based on the need to register for graduation exams, the school has arranged classes according to university entrance exam groups and built specific teaching and review plans. The school arranges appropriate teaching for subjects that students rarely choose to prepare knowledge for them in the best way.

"Teachers have closely followed the exam structure and sample exam questions of the Ministry of Education and Training to develop a review plan. In addition, the school will strengthen the work of testing, evaluating, and surveying students according to the general schedule of the province, the whole school and inter-school. From there, we can quickly assess the quality of each student in each stage to have a timely supplementary plan," said Mr. Toan.

Similarly, Ms. Than Thi Cham, Principal of Kinh Mon High School, said that the school has developed a flexible teaching plan for the 12th grade program. The program is designed to ensure that students can both study according to the progress of the new program and have time to review and consolidate knowledge in preparation for the high school graduation exam.

The school divides the stages into appropriate learning stages to help students avoid being overloaded and have enough time to deeply understand and grasp knowledge. In particular, the new point this year is that the school will assign competition assessment criteria to each teacher for each graduation exam subject to improve exam quality.

"The school will focus on career counseling for students and parents. However, to facilitate schools and students to have a clear orientation in choosing a combination and major, universities need to have an enrollment plan and announce the enrollment method early," said Ms. Cham.