Ministry of Education: Researching more multiple choice test formats for high school graduation exams

The Ministry of Education said it is researching more multiple-choice questions and may invite the American Testing Institute to train in building a question bank for the 2025 high school graduation exam.

At the conference to review the organization of the 2023 high school graduation exam in Hanoi on September 20, the Ministry of Education and Training said it is continuing to collect opinions on the 2025 high school graduation exam plan.

Accordingly, the exam is expected to include 11 subjects: Literature, Mathematics, Foreign Languages, History, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography, Economic and Legal Education, Information Technology, and Technology. These are subjects that are evaluated by scores in the new general education program (2018). Of which, some subjects are compulsory and some subjects are chosen by candidates.

The exam will closely follow the objectives of the new program, mainly grade 12. The 2025 high school graduation exam will focus on enhancing the assessment of students' abilities. Literature will be tested in essay format, other subjects will be multiple choice.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Ha, Deputy Director of the Department of Quality Management, Ministry of Education and Training, said that the new general education program focuses on developing 5 qualities and 10 competencies for students. However, the high school graduation exam cannot assess everything. Therefore, the exam will focus on important competencies, suitable for career orientation in high school such as problem solving and creativity, calculation, and language skills.

The test format is researched and built in the direction of inheriting the advantages of the previous test, while at the same time innovating to suit the goal of assessing capacity. Currently, except for Literature, the remaining subjects are given in the form of multiple choice, choosing one of four options.

"We are researching some more formats such as 4 true/false options, open questions requiring short answers," said Mr. Ha, adding that this is to assess some other abilities of the candidates.

However, he also stated that each format has its advantages and disadvantages, and feasibility needs to be carefully considered. For example, there is a very good assessment method but if it increases the exam from 4 pages to 10 pages, it needs to be considered.

In addition, the Ministry plans to develop the format of the 2025 high school graduation exam around October-November, then test it in some localities.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Ha shared about the 2025 high school graduation exam at the conference on September 20. Photo: MOET — Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Ha shared about the 2025 high school graduation exam at the conference on September 20. Photo: *MOET*

Regarding the construction of a question bank, Mr. Ha said the Ministry has the idea of building a shared exam library because the openness of the 2018 general education program is very large.

The Ministry also plans to invite the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and leading domestic experts to train officials and teachers working in testing to build a question library. From there, the Ministry will have a bank of exam questions to ensure standardization.

Professor Do Duc Thai, Chief Editor of the Math program of the 2018 general education program, said that developing a graduation exam question format suitable for the new program is difficult and requires further discussion with many experts, managers, and teachers.

To have a solid scientific basis in developing the format of questions for the high school graduation exam, Mr. Thai pointed out three immediate tasks that need to be done. One is to clarify the role and purpose of the high school graduation exam in relation to university admissions. Two is to research and standardize the curriculum of subjects in the new program. Three is to develop a set of standards to assess students' qualities and abilities and a set of assessment tools for each subject in the new program for common use.

Mr. Thai also proposed that the committee that creates the high school graduation exam questions from 2015 should have representatives from the committee that builds and develops the new program, key authors of textbooks, and experts, core high school teachers with a lot of experience in building exam questions.

The new general education program (2018) will be applied to high school from 2022. In 2025, the first batch of students following this program will take the graduation exam. To match the content of the new program, the graduation exam will also have many changes.

In mid-March, the Ministry of Education and Training announced a draft plan for the 2025 high school graduation exam with four compulsory subjects: Math, Literature, Foreign Language, and History. In addition, students must choose two other subjects. However, the Ministry has not yet finalized the number of compulsory subjects.

In addition, the Ministry plans to pilot computer-based testing for multiple-choice subjects in some localities in the 2025-2030 period. After 2030, all 63 provinces and cities will be capable of organizing computer-based multiple-choice tests.

The high school graduation exam from 2025 will still be under the general direction of the Ministry, with localities directly organizing the exam and considering graduation recognition for candidates.

Duong Tam

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