The transcript scores of all subjects are higher than the high school graduation exam scores.

According to the correlation between the 2025 high school graduation exam scores and the average scores of high school subjects recently announced by the Ministry of Education and Training, in all subjects, the transcript scores are higher than the exam scores.

Looking at the comparison table of the Ministry of Education and Training, it can be seen that for all subjects, the transcript scores are higher than the high school graduation exam scores, the difference depends on each subject.

Notably, the average score for math in the high school graduation exam is 4.78. Meanwhile, the average score for math in the report card is 6.7 in grade 10; 6.89 in grade 11 and 7.51 in grade 12. The correlation coefficients are 0.67 - 0.68 - 0.63, respectively.

Another thing that is also easy to see is that the average score of all subjects in high school increased sharply in grade 12. For example, in math, the average score in grade 10 and grade 11 was 6.70 and 6.89 respectively, then in grade 12 it was 7.51; in literature, it increased from 6.93 in grade 10 to 7.35 in grade 12...

Students taking the high school graduation exam in 2025

PHOTO: TUAN MINH

Many years ago, according to the regulations for high school graduation, grade 12 transcript scores accounted for 30% and exam scores accounted for 70%. However, by 2025, a notable change is that the ratio of grade report scores accounts for 50% in graduation, a significant increase compared to 30% last year.

This means that the learning process throughout the 3 years of high school will play a more important role, instead of just relying on exam results.

The Ministry of Education and Training believes that increasing the proportion of academic transcript scores and calculating scores for all three years of high school instead of just grade 12 as before will help students prepare for the long term and avoid the mentality of rote learning and biased learning instead of just focusing on studying for exams in a short time.

Comparison table between exam scores and academic records for each subject conducted by the Ministry of Education and Training:

Are schools "lenient" when grading?

Mr. Vu Khac Ngoc, a teacher specializing in exam preparation in Hanoi , analyzed: just look at the average score of the transcript and the exam score to see the difference.

In this case, in all subjects, the report card scores are higher than the exam scores, showing that grading in the report card at school is clearly "easier" than exam scores (especially for subjects that are considered difficult this year such as math and English).

The standard deviation values ​​show the degree of differentiation of scores. The higher standard deviation of the graduation exam scores reflects a better degree of differentiation than the report card scores. It shows that the graduation exam has done a better job of classifying students' actual abilities than the report card scores.

"The correlation coefficient between the report card score and the exam score shows whether the report card score accurately reflects the student's ability (compared to the exam score) or not. The higher this coefficient is, the better this "level of accuracy" will be," according to Mr. Ngoc.

From the above analysis, Mr. Ngoc said: "High school graduation exams still play an extremely important role to ensure fairness and classification. Academic transcripts should not be used to enroll students in highly competitive majors. If so, it is necessary to combine many other admission tools. The Ministry of Education and Training requires converting both admission scores using academic transcripts to the same scale as other methods to ensure fairness, which is necessary."

However, many opinions also pointed out that the gap between the transcript scores and the high school graduation exam scores mentioned above does not fully reflect the reality of the "leniency" in regular testing and assessment at the high school level due to the number of candidates studying and taking most of the subjects being dissimilar.

Except for Math and Literature, which are two compulsory subjects in this year’s high school graduation exam, all the remaining subjects are optional. Candidates choose which subjects to take the exam, which are basically their strong subjects.

Therefore, comparing the learning outcomes of all students who were taught with the exam results of a small number of candidates who chose to take the exam and whose transcript scores were higher than their exam scores, the results given only partially reflect the "skew" between these assessment methods.

From the perspective of university admissions, the Ministry of Education and Training recommends: "Training institutions using high school academic results in admissions need to base on this data to develop and announce equivalent conversions of admission scores and entrance thresholds for each program, major, group or training field."

However, perhaps the Ministry of Education and Training itself needs to look at this comparison result to review whether the use of up to 50% of the transcript score to consider high school graduation is really safe. Or we can ask the opposite question: Is the difficulty and differentiation of the exam appropriate to the nature of the high school graduation exam?

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/diem-hoc-ba-tat-ca-cac-mon-deu-cao-hon-diem-thi-tot-nghiep-thpt-185250722172822073.htm