Grading the 2025 High School Graduation Exam: Many literature papers have scores of 6 - 6.5

This year's high school graduation exam in literature has a special mark, as it is the first year that candidates nationwide take the exam according to the 2018 General Education Program. The literature exam has been renewed with the highlight being that the texts used are not in the textbooks.

The time for long essays is over.

From this requirement, it leads to the general reality that the majority of literature essays of high school graduation exam candidates this year are relatively short, few essays are longer than 3 pages of exam paper, the number of essays on 1 page accounts for the largest number.

A literature teacher in Ho Chi Minh City analyzed: "With a time limit of 120 minutes, along with requirements to write paragraphs and essays with length limits of about 200 words and about 600 words, very few candidates will be able to write multiple sheets of paper."

This year's high school graduation exam's literature subject used text that was not in the textbook for the first time.

Photo: Nhat Thinh

Talking on the sidelines of the grading of the literature subject of the high school graduation exam, Mr. Tran Tien Thanh (literature specialist, Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City) expressed his opinion: "The time of long essays of 9 or 10 pages like before is over. The new program does not evaluate the ability of candidates to show off too much knowledge in their essays, but evaluates the ability to write concisely, concisely, sufficiently and to the point." For that reason, if the literary argumentative question (5 points) according to the 2006 program exam does not require length, candidates can write long and long essays, then with the requirements of the 2018 program exam, the scoring answer will deduct points for essays that do not meet the length requirement. For example, with the paragraph writing question (about 200 words), candidates are only allowed to write less or more than 100 words. If it is too short or too long, candidates will be deducted 0.25 points.

Initial record of literature exam marking: few scores below 5

On the first day of marking the literature essay exam in Ho Chi Minh City, many examiners said that the marking process was methodical and followed absolutely strict marking regulations. Each marking room was equipped with many surveillance cameras. The marking rounds were organized independently to avoid mistakes. All items (including mobile phones) were put into sealed boxes in a separate area, not in front of each marking room as before, and the boxes were only opened at the end of the day. Teachers were absolutely not allowed to use phones in the marking area, including lunchtime and dismissal time.

The judges must thoroughly follow the instructions of the board's leaders: In accordance with regulations, no arbitrary creativity, in accordance with the marking instructions of the Ministry of Education and Training. Any question that is marked "closed" according to the answer will be marked "closed"; any question that is marked according to the "open" spirit of the answer will be marked "open"...

Initial observations from many examiners show that the literature scores in Ho Chi Minh City are quite good, with few scores below 5, occasionally scores above 8, and the majority of papers with scores of 6 - 6.5.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/cham-thi-tot-nghiep-thpt-2025-nhieu-bai-lam-mon-van-co-diem-6-65-185250702101821506.htm