The Ministry of Education and Training has officially announced the high school graduation exam scores for 2025. According to statistics from exam score data, 8 candidates achieved 9.75 points in Literature, distributed in 5 provinces and cities.
Hue City leads with 3 candidates. Dong Thap has 2 students achieving this score. The remaining three localities include Hanoi, Hai Phong and Lam Dong, each with one candidate.
Although causing much debate immediately after the end of the exam with the social commentary question discussing how to have more "Vietnamese Steve Jobs", the score distribution of Literature announced on the morning of July 1 shows a clear differentiation ability.
According to the score distribution announced by the Ministry of Education and Training, Literature has an average score of 6.5, the score that many candidates achieved the most is 7.0. Nearly 44.1% of exam papers achieved 7 points or higher, while about 11.1% were below average (under 5 points). This year there were no exam papers scoring 10 points, the highest level stopped at 9.75.
Score distribution for all high school graduation exam subjects in 2026
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Duc Son - Rector of Hanoi National University of Education - said that the Literature score distribution this year is quite good, different from the predictions of many people before the results were announced.
According to him, the results reflect that the teaching process in high schools has adapted to the capacity assessment orientation of the new general education program.
He believes that after two years of implementing the new program, teachers have become accustomed to the rubric-based testing and evaluation method, and students are also taught in the direction of developing qualities and abilities. This contributes to creating a differentiated score distribution, while still ensuring a stable level of results.
From another perspective, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Duc (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) assessed that this year's Literature exam has made a clear shift in the ability to classify candidates. If last year about 65% of candidates achieved 7 points or more, this year it is only about 40%, showing that the exam no longer creates a "rain of excellent scores".
According to him, this is a positive sign for universities to feel secure in using exam results in admissions.
Meanwhile, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bui Thanh Hoa, senior lecturer at Northwest University, said that the Literature exam 2026 has "well completed its task" by simultaneously serving graduation consideration and university admissions.
According to her, the exam questions end the situation of rote learning when they no longer test students' knowledge memory, but focus on assessing language ability, thinking and literary perception.
Initial concerns about modern materials or characters like Steve Jobs that could create disadvantages for students in disadvantaged areas did not occur, because the score distribution and results between localities showed that the exam questions still ensured fairness.
She also appreciated the first time rubric was applied in grading the writing part. According to her, the set of clear scoring criteria helps reduce differences between examiners, while also giving space to record the creativity and expressive ability of candidates, in line with the competency assessment objectives of the new general education program.
