The 2024 high school graduation exam is the final exam for students following the 2006 general education program. Next year will be the first exam for students following the new 2018 education program. Mr. Huynh Van Chuong, Deputy Head of the National Steering Committee for the 2024 High School Graduation Exam, assessed that up to this point, the exam has taken place safely and seriously in accordance with regulations.

A smooth, easy exam

This year, the whole country has not recorded any negative phenomena, organized cheating or the use of high-tech equipment. During the entire exam, 30 candidates violated the regulations and were suspended from the exam because they brought documents and phones into the room. Meanwhile, last year, the number was 41. There were two cases of candidates in Cao Bang and Yen Bai using their phones to take photos and send out the Literature and Math exam papers.

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Candidates excitedly held hands and ran out of the school gate after taking the high school graduation exam. (Photo: Thach Thao)

So far, there has only been a suspicion that the Literature exam was leaked on social media right before the exam day. However, the Ministry of Education and Training has confirmed that there was no leak. The fact that someone guessed the work correctly was “coincidental”, because for the Literature exam, if the exam questions were leaked, both the excerpt and the question would have to be the same.

Immediately after receiving this information, the Ministry of Public Security also searched and found the subject who spread the leaked information. This subject admitted to having fabricated false information and pledged to voluntarily remove it.

In Dak Lak, there was an incident where dozens of math exam papers were blurred. Mr. Pham Dang Khoa - Director of Dak Lak Department of Education and Training, said that the cause was due to an error in the printing technical department. The initial review results showed that about 20 exam papers were blurred. Most of the papers had 1 to 3 blurred questions (the exam had a total of 50 questions). After discovering the incident, the examination council reported to the National Examination Steering Committee for guidance.

"After being instructed, we met, researched and decided to give the blurred questions a maximum score of 0.2 points/question," said Mr. Khoa.

Not easy to fail graduation

This year's exam questions for all subjects were assessed as suitable for candidates. The exam content was within the high school curriculum, mainly the 12th grade curriculum. Commenting on the questions, although in different subjects, most teachers gave similar comments, that as long as candidates had a solid grasp of the knowledge in the textbooks, they could easily score 6-7 points.

In particular, the Literature subject is assessed to have a safe way of setting questions, without any breakthroughs. However, teachers believe that the differentiation of the exam is still guaranteed, mainly in question number 3 of the Reading Comprehension section, the way of developing ideas in the Social Argumentation section and the short comments in the Literary Argumentation section.

“In the Literary Essay section, although the works and materials in the test are familiar and within the focus of the review, the differentiated content is quite interesting and highly connected to the topic of the test,” commented Mr. Nguyen Phuoc Bao Khoi, lecturer of Literature, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education.

In addition, teachers all commented that the questions were designed to test students' abilities in many different aspects, from basic knowledge to the ability to use and apply in practice. With this test, average students with a solid grasp of basic knowledge can achieve a score of 5.5-6.5, enough to ensure graduation; good students can achieve a score of 7-7.5; excellent students can achieve a score of 8-8.5 or higher.

Regarding the Math exam, although the structure is stable compared to last year, the level of difficulty is higher, especially questions from 39 to 50. These questions are all at the application and high application level, many of which are quite strange to students, requiring them to flexibly use knowledge in many specialized areas to handle.

The average score of this subject is mainly around 6.5-7, there will not be many candidates who achieve absolute scores. Thus, the exam closely follows the goal of using the results to consider graduation and university.

Meanwhile, the English subject has many high-level questions and difficult vocabulary questions. The common score that students achieve is about 6-6.5 points. To achieve a good or excellent score, students need to have a firm grasp of phonetics, grammar, and a rich vocabulary and do the test carefully, eliminating distracting options. Teachers all assess that the number of test takers with a score of 9 or higher in this subject will not be as high as last year.

The subjects in the Natural Science and Social Science exams this year are also assessed as “easy”, with basic knowledge, and it is not difficult to get a score of 7. Biology in particular is assessed as having innovation in the direction of assessing capacity, reducing math factors, increasing biological nature, requiring candidates to have the skills to read pictures, tables and diagrams.

“To get 7-8 points requires candidates to understand Biology very carefully, but to get 9-10 points is relatively difficult because the questions are long and candidates have to be really fast to do them all,” said Mr. Nguyen Thanh Cong, a teacher at Hanoi National University of Education High School for the Gifted.

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Deputy Minister of Education and Training Pham Ngoc Thuong informed about the 2024 high school graduation exam. Photo: Tran Hiep.

In 2025, the first batch of students studying the new program will graduate. With the regulation of “one program, many textbooks”, the exam materials will come from many textbooks or from outside with the goal of forming students’ qualities and abilities, not memorizing lessons or books. This will also limit the situation of rote learning, lopsided learning, guessing questions...

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Pham Ngoc Thuong affirmed that the exam questions are increasingly oriented towards developing capacity, with increasing differentiation, so that schools with high requirements can still use high school exam results as a basis for admission.

Currently, 65% of universities still use the results of the high school graduation exam for admission, thus reducing costs for students, especially those in remote, isolated, and disadvantaged areas who do not have many opportunities to take the exam, and can apply to many universities.

26 candidates were suspended from the 2024 high school graduation exam . At the end of the high school graduation exam, 30 candidates nationwide violated exam regulations, of which 26 candidates were suspended for using documents and bringing phones into the room.