Closing the "special" exam

The 2025 High School Graduation Exam is a special milestone in the history of Vietnamese education, when it was first organized according to the new plan of the 2018 General Education Program. This year's exam has many new points, but with the viewpoint of "Taking students as the center, the subject - teachers as the driving force - schools as the support - families as the support - society as the foundation", the organization work has been carried out carefully and focusedly by Quang Ninh province, with the efforts of the entire political system so that the exam takes place successfully, well, ensuring safety and seriousness; recognized and highly appreciated by parents and students.

Special exam, many innovations

After 2 days with 4 exam sessions, the 2025 High School Graduation Exam in the province ended successfully, closing the 12-year journey of "hard work and study" of more than 19,900 Quang Ninh students, opening a new chapter on their journey to adulthood. The exam took place on June 26 and 27, attracting the attention of the whole society with many new points compared to previous years in terms of exam method and structure, exam questions, how to calculate admission and graduation scores, and exam organization procedures.

The examination invigilation work of the Examination Council is organized seriously, safely and in accordance with regulations.

Notably, this is the first exam for students studying the 2018 General Education Program, while still ensuring the exam for students following the 2006 General Education Program who have not graduated or need to retake the exam for university admission. In addition, the whole country is implementing administrative reform, arranging and streamlining the apparatus, converting to a 2-level local government, restructuring and rearranging the inspection and police system from the Central level.

In Quang Ninh province, 19,930 candidates registered for the 2025 High School Graduation Exam, an increase of 1,966 candidates compared to the previous year. Of which, 19,594 candidates registered for the exam under the 2018 General Education Program (98.3%); 336 candidates registered for the exam under the 2006 General Education Program (1.7%). The whole province organized 1 Examination Council with 40 examination sites (an increase of 3 examination sites compared to 2024) corresponding to 849 examination rooms (an increase of 64 examination rooms compared to 2024).

In this year's exam, candidates studying the 2018 General Education Program will take 4 subjects, including 2 compulsory subjects (Literature, Mathematics) and 2 optional subjects (among the remaining subjects studied in grade 12 including: Foreign Language, History, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography, Economic and Legal Education, Information Technology, Technology). These candidates will take 3 exams: 1 Literature session, 1 Math session, 1 optional combination exam of 2 subjects. Meanwhile, candidates taking the exam according to the 2006 General Education Program will take 4 exams: 1 Literature session, 1 Math session, 1 optional Natural Science or Social Science exam, 1 Foreign Language session.

This year's official exam was also organized with many new changes. Instead of organizing one exam session as before, each exam day has 2 sessions. Notably, in one exam room, 5 different subjects can take place at the same time - something that has never happened in previous exams. Another new point is that the number of exam codes has been doubled. If before, subjects (except literature) only had 24 exam codes, this year, each subject has up to 48 exam codes. The increase in exam codes is to limit the situation of rote learning, lopsided learning and ensure fairness.

Inspectors from the Ministry of Education and Training were present at the Hon Gai High School Examination Site during the morning exam session on June 26, carefully inspecting all stages of the exam organization. Photo: Song Ha

According to statistics from the Department of Education and Training, Geography is the elective subject with the largest number of candidates registering for the exam with 10,741 students. Subjects appearing for the first time in the high school graduation exam such as: Information Technology has only 113 candidates, Technology (Industry) 1 candidate, Technology (Agriculture) 182 candidates registered to take the exam. The exam is designed in the direction of 40% of questions at the recognition level, 30% at the comprehension level and 30% at the application level. At the same time, the requirement to connect and apply knowledge to practice is increased, in order to accurately assess students' abilities.

Most notable is the change in the way the exam questions are set, especially for the Literature subject. This year's Literature exam has the topic of "Every homeland's sky is the Fatherland's sky" - a topic that is highly topical in the current context. The exam requires higher skills in text analysis and independent thinking, and the ability to grasp current issues of candidates. Immediately after finishing the exam, most candidates commented that this year's exam was new, the topic was broad but within their ability. Student Ngo Duc Dai Duong, Bach Dang High School, Quang Yen Town, shared: This year's exam closely follows the knowledge and skills that teachers have reviewed. Not only that, the topic of this year's exam is also very close, creating opportunities for candidates to be creative and express their thoughts.

Multiple choice subjects are divided into different types of tests, creating flexibility in thinking and testing knowledge, while ensuring differentiation of students' abilities.

Along with the new points in the exam format, according to the 2025 High School Graduation Exam Regulations, 50% of the graduation score will be calculated from the high school graduation exam score, the remaining 50% will be taken from the learning results throughout the three years of high school, a significant increase compared to the 30% of the previous year. Foreign language certificates, Vietnamese (for foreign candidates) will continue to be used for exam exemption in the recognition of high school graduation but will not be converted into 10 points in the recognition of graduation as before; no more points for vocational certificates for all candidates; no more points for IT certificates, foreign languages, vocational intermediate certificates for continuing education candidates...

Youth union members give water to candidates.

Accompanying the students "passing the imperial exam"

To organize the 2025 High School Graduation Exam, the Department of Education and Training coordinated with the Provincial Police and the Department of Health to mobilize about 3,500 officers, teachers and employees to participate in the exam supervision task according to the Examination Regulations and instructions of the Ministry of Education and Training. Personnel participating in the exam supervision work, especially the heads of the selected stages in the organization of the exam supervision, all meet the prescribed standards and conditions on capacity, qualities and professional skills to ensure good completion of the task. To ensure the honesty, objectivity and fairness of the High School Graduation Exam, inspections and checks by the 3 levels of ministry, province and department have been carried out at all stages.

Security, safety, medical work to prevent and control epidemics, food hygiene and safety, electricity and water supply, contingency plans, response work in case of severe weather, natural disasters, floods, heat waves are also ensured, carefully prepared, promptly responding to arising situations. Control is objective, strict, effective, against negativity in exams, especially in exams, transportation of exam papers, supervision, and management of exam papers.

Teacher Mai Thi Hoa, Deputy Head of Examination Site No. 14, Cam Pha High School, said: The examination site has closely coordinated with the agencies, carefully prepared the facilities as well as thoroughly grasped and strictly implemented the documents and instructions according to the regulations. Thanks to that, the 2 days of graduation exam went quite smoothly, in accordance with the regulations, most of the candidates were confident and excited to complete the exam well. Hopefully, the results of this year's exam will be higher than previous years, contributing to reflecting the efforts in teaching and learning of the teaching staff as well as students in the whole province.

To facilitate candidates to arrive at the exam site safely and on time, the Department of Education and Training of Ba Che district has arranged accommodation for 45 students whose houses are far away. Photo: Pham Tang

To facilitate candidates, each locality in the province has arranged from 1 to 9 exam sites. The Department of Education and Training, in coordination with the localities, has proactively reviewed and taken measures to support candidates taking the exam, so that no candidate has to drop out of the exam due to economic difficulties, travel difficulties or other objective obstacles. In remote areas where many candidates live far from the exam sites, schools have proactively ensured facilities in the kitchen area, organized meals for candidates (in need) during the exam days, and arranged cars to pick up candidates who live far from the school to the exam sites safely and on time.

Teacher Le Thi Anh, Vice Principal of Nguyen Trai High School, Tien Yen District, said: The school has promoted the spirit of responsibility to prepare the best conditions for facilities, coordinated with parents to take full care of food, accommodation, and transportation to ensure absolute safety for candidates. At the same time, proactively prepared 15 free dormitories with a maximum capacity of 250 students, helping students feel secure to take the exam and achieve the best results.

Following the orientation of setting questions to assess candidates' abilities, the Quang Ninh education sector has proactively innovated teaching methods and improved the quality of review. All public high schools in the province organize review exams for grade 12 students completely free of charge. In addition, the Department of Education and Training has organized a mock high school graduation exam on a province-wide scale to assess the actual results of teaching and learning, as a basis for classifying students and continuing to organize in-depth review. Thereby, not only helping students have a solid knowledge base to enter the 2025 High School Graduation Exam but also contributing to improving the effectiveness of organizing the Exam.

The 2025 high school graduation exam is a particularly important exam, so all forces and units are mobilized. Quang Ninh Electricity Company has arranged regular staff at 40 exam sites to operate the backup generator system; arranged generators to ensure stable power supply for the entire school such as: lighting system, air conditioner, fan, printer... In addition, the Traffic Police Department and professional departments (Provincial Police) have mobilized maximum forces and vehicles, synchronously deployed measures to ensure smooth traffic to serve candidates and parents to travel safely during the exam days.

Lieutenant Colonel Le Van Tuyen, Deputy Captain of Traffic Police Team No. 2, said: We have increased patrols at intersections to ensure safe and smooth traffic. The patrol force also proactively monitors the situation on the route, promptly detects situations to promptly support candidates and parents to ensure that candidates arrive at the exam site safely and on time.

Candidates are happy in the arms of their families after completing the exam.

The Provincial Youth Union has established 40 youth volunteer teams at 40 examination sites for the 2025 High School Graduation Exam with over 1,500 union members and youth participating in supporting candidates and their families. The teams coordinate to guide and direct traffic, participate in ensuring security and order at examination sites, support candidates in completing registration procedures; support volunteer motorbike taxi drivers to take candidates to examination sites; arrange, guide, and contact safe places to eat and rest, ensuring safety for candidates and their families throughout the exam. The Youth Union at all levels has also mobilized nearly 500 cartons of milk and drinking water, 300 support gifts, nearly 700 free meals, cakes, snacks, and school supplies with a total value of mobilized resources of nearly 200 million VND.

With the viewpoint of "Taking students as the center, the subject - teachers as the driving force - schools as the support - families as the support - society as the foundation" along with thoughtful and thorough preparation, close attention from all levels, sectors, localities, and the efforts of candidates, the 2025 High School Graduation Exam took place safely, smoothly, seriously, objectively, thoughtfully, compactly, reliably, effectively, reducing pressure, reducing costs and creating consensus. 40/40 exam sites in the province have actively and synchronously deployed work with a high sense of responsibility. All exam sites strictly followed the regulations, ensuring the organization of the exam safely and effectively. According to the plan, the 2025 High School Graduation Exam scores will be announced on July 16. Students can start registering and adjusting their university admission wishes from July 16 to 28.

Hoang Quynh

Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/khep-lai-ky-thi-dac-biet-3364355.html