'Why is the high school graduation English exam printed in such small letters?'

Besides complaining that the 2025 high school graduation English exam is too difficult, causing difficulties even for good students, many candidates and parents also wonder why the exam has small print and close line spacing.

Before the exam site of Saigon Practical High School (Saigon University), a female candidate named VL, a 12th grade student, social science class, Gifted High School (Ho Chi Minh City National University), said: "Reading the high school graduation English exam questions, I felt dizzy."

"Every year I see candidates praising the Ministry's exam papers for their beauty, but this year I see the exam papers are printed in small letters, 4 pages long, and the letters are too small," said candidates NL and VL, both 12th grade students at the Gifted High School.

PHOTO: THUY HANG

PHOTO: THUY HANG

PHOTO: THUY HANG

4 pages of English exam questions for high school graduation 2025, exam code 1128

PHOTO: THUY HANG

Many parents also commented on this year's high school graduation English exam. Without discussing the difficulty or differentiation of the exam, parents said that the exam was 4 A4 pages long but the font was small, did not use Times New Roman font, and the lines were presented close together, making it very difficult to read.

"My child came home from the exam complaining that the questions were difficult. When I looked at the questions, I saw only words. The words in the questions were small and difficult to read. I think if the font size was larger and the lines were spaced more widely, even though there were more pages, it would help students read the questions more clearly, especially those with eye problems. At the same time, psychologically, students would feel less 'tired' reading the questions," said parent LD, residing in District 12, Ho Chi Minh City.

Among the 2025 high school graduation exams, the exams for literature, biology, chemistry... were all clearly evaluated by candidates, without being reflected in small print. The exams with quite a lot of words such as economic education and law were also easier to read, presented more openly than the high school graduation English exam.

Candidates are stressed in the 2025 high school graduation exam room

PHOTO: DAO NGOC THACH

What do the high school graduation exam regulations say about the exam questions?

Regulations on high school graduation exams are stated in Article 5 of the High School Graduation Exam Regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training (issued under Circular No. 24/2024/TT-BGDDT dated December 24, 2024, effective from February 8, 2025).

Specifically, the high school graduation exam must meet the following requirements:

• The content of the exam must meet the provisions of Clause 2, Article 4 of these regulations;
  
• Ensure accuracy, science and pedagogy; text and sentences must be clear;
  
• Closely follow the requirements of the General Education Program; ensure the classification of candidates;
  
• Essay tests must clearly state the score for each question; scores for each subject are calculated on a 10-point scale;
  
• Each test has an answer key, and essay tests have marking instructions;
  
• The test must clearly state how many pages there are (for tests with 2 pages or more); clearly state the word "END" at the end of the test.
  

With the regulation that the high school graduation exam "must be accurate, scientific and pedagogical; the text and sentences must be clear" in the regulations, candidates for the 2025 high school graduation exam and many parents hope that in the following years, the Ministry of Education and Training should have clearer and more specific regulations on font size, font style, layout, and spacing between lines in the high school graduation exam in all subjects. These specific regulations help candidates see clearly, without difficulty in receiving the exam questions and reduce stress and pressure in the process of receiving the exam questions.

Because in the exam room, especially in very important exams such as high school graduation, the psychology of candidates is very tense. Facing a long exam, with many words, small words, close lines, and difficult to read presentation, increases the pressure and tension for candidates. All of these things will certainly affect the test performance of all candidates.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/vi-sao-de-thi-tieng-anh-tot-nghiep-thpt-in-chu-nho-vay-185250629144700084.htm