The truth about the new high school graduation literature exam program will "cause pressure and disadvantage for students"

Students believe that Literature has many good works but they are not included in the curriculum, and the way multiple choice questions are scored on high school graduation exams from 2025 is making it difficult for students to get full marks.

Will the high school graduation exam in Literature from 2025 cause difficulties for students?

More than half of the school year has passed, and there are only a few months left before the first batch of students studying the 2018 general education program officially graduate. The Ministry of Education and Training has also announced the sample exam questions for each subject and the exam structure. However, since this is the first year of implementation, many students are currently wondering about the exam questions, and some even said they feel pressured.

A student shares his thoughts on the upcoming high school graduation program and exam. Photo: CMH

A student expressed his thoughts on this year's curriculum and exam questions and many people shared the following: "I have a question to ask: why did the current curriculum and exam structure change? We students are currently under a lot of pressure to study when exposed to the new curriculum because the amount of knowledge from the upper grades is extremely difficult. For me, the old curriculum was very good and easy to absorb. In particular, Literature has very good works that are known to many students, but I don't understand why the Ministry of Education has eliminated good works that bring spiritual value to readers.

Not only that, the exam structure has also been renewed. It is very difficult for us to get full marks for the right and wrong part because 0.5 points are deducted for every wrong answer and 0.1 points are only deducted for every right answer. Doing so is like preventing us from passing the graduation exam. We hope that the Ministry of Education and Training will reconsider the scoring of the right and wrong part so that students can reduce some of the pressure when learning the new program."

What did the teacher say?

Regarding the above confusing information, talking to Dan Viet Newspaper reporter, Master Ha Van Vu, a Literature teacher at Le Thanh Ton High School, District 7, Ho Chi Minh City, said: "I am wondering whether this student is a student studying the 2006 program or not. Because he has not been exposed to the 2018 High School program since the beginning of high school, he does not understand the learning method and the way the questions are set in the new program.

In fact, the 2006 General Education Program is to learn what you learn. That means you have to take the exam on whichever work you learn, which is highly formulaic, memorizing the writing and limiting the creativity in students' perception of the work. Therefore, the answers and marking instructions are more emotional than rational.

In the 2018 General Education Program, students learn according to genre characteristics. When they have a firm grasp of genre characteristics, they can easily create new works, in the same genre that they have learned. Therefore, the Literature test with materials is completely not in the textbooks.

Master Ha Van Vu, Literature teacher at Le Thanh Ton High School, District 7, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: NVCC

Regarding the works in the new textbooks, Master Vu assessed: "The Literature textbooks of the 2018 program are built from the General Program and the Literature program. Therefore, textbooks are only materials to clarify the program. To select works for the new textbooks, it is necessary to go through many strict stages of criticism, both inheriting and being new, especially having to comply with the requirements of the General Program and the Literature program.

Therefore, you will see in the new textbooks, besides the new works, there are still some works from the 2006 program. However, if there are old works, they will also be taught and learned according to the new method, not according to the method of the 2006 program, which is heavy on content. Besides, there may be some works that you like and think are good, but they may not really be suitable for the requirements of the 2018 program and the compilation philosophy of the textbook authors.

Regarding the multiple choice answer sheet, Mr. Vu explained: "In the 2006 General Education Program, the multiple choice part with answers ABCD, 100% easily leads to random circling, not studying but still getting points, not studying but still doing the test normally. If you are lucky, random circling can still get a high score without studying.

The 2018 General Education Program, the multiple choice questions are completely different in design, including 3 parts:

Part 1: ABCD test (Math 3 points – 12 questions, each correct question is worth 0.25 points; Other subjects 4.5 points – 18 questions, each correct question is worth 0.25 points)

Part 2. True or false 4 points with 4 short answers, 1 question has 4 ideas. 1 correct answer gets 0.1 point, 2 correct answers gets 0.25 points, 3 correct answers gets 0.5 points, 4 correct answers gets 1 point - 1 wrong answer minus 0.5 points).

Part 3. Short answer (Math 3 points – 6 questions, each correct question is worth 0.5 points; Other subjects 1.5 points – 6 questions, each correct question is worth 0.25 points).

In this way of designing questions, it limits the case of randomly circling, without studying but still being able to get a high score in the 2006 program. The Ministry has limited the choice of ABCD answer from 10 points to 3 points. As for the true-false and short answer selections, if students do not really study and absorb the lesson well during the learning process, they will not be able to do it. Therefore, the questions and answer sheets of multiple choice subjects are quite good, overcoming the major drawback of the old form.

Sharing the same opinion, Master Phan The Hoai, Literature teacher at Binh Hung Hoa High School, Binh Tan District, Ho Chi Minh City said: "Students' reflection is incorrect. Firstly, the structure of the high school graduation exam still inherits the old program of Reading and Writing. The only thing is, the Writing part (literary argument) is a work outside the textbook compared to the old program.

Second, the old program did have some good works but they are not in the new program textbooks. However, students learn according to genre characteristics so the works are only used for illustration.

Third, the high school graduation exam for Literature is 100% essay-based. There are areas of knowledge that require students to answer correctly to get points, for example, the Reading comprehension question asks about poetic forms. However, both the Reading comprehension and Writing sections are very open, students can answer according to their point of view, as long as they do not violate ethical standards, laws, etc.

In short, to get a high score in Literature, students must have a firm grasp of the genre's characteristics; read books and newspapers diligently; practice writing paragraphs and essays...".

Previously, on October 18, the Ministry of Education and Training announced the sample exam questions for the 2025 high school graduation exam. The sample exam questions ensure compliance with the regulations on the structure and format of the high school graduation exam from 2025 announced by the Ministry of Education and Training, and closely follow the 2018 General Education Program and mainly grade 12.

Compared to previous years, this year the reference exam questions were announced nearly 5 months earlier; thereby, helping schools, teachers and students to be proactive in the process of teaching, learning and reviewing to prepare for the exam to achieve many goals as planned by the Ministry of Education and Training.

Link to sample exam questions for high school graduation exam from 2025: HERE

Source: https://danviet.vn/thuc-hu-de-thi-mon-van-tot-nghiep-thpt-chuong-trinh-moi-se-gay-ap-luc-va-thiet-thoi-cho-hoc-sinh-20241112063819689.htm