advantageous and ideal exam scores to classify candidates
On the afternoon of July 15, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) announced the scores for the 2025 high school graduation exam.
This year, 513 candidates have scored 10 in math subjects, 141 candidates have scored 10 in English subjects but have not scored 10 in Literature. Specifically:
Math has over 1.12 million candidates taking the exam, of which 513 candidates have scored 10. Literature has no score of 10.
The average score for English is 5.38. There are 141 points 10, 2 points 0. Physics has over 3,900 exams with a score of 10.
The average score for Chemistry is 6.06, including 610 points of 10. The subjects of study and high school are longer, with an average score of 5.78 points, with 82 candidates achieving a score of 10.
History has 1,510 points. The average score for the IT subject is 6.78. Geography has an average score of 6.63 points; 6,907 candidates have a score of 10. The industrial technology major has an average score of 5.79, with only 4 scores of 10.
Talking to Lao Dong reporter, Mr. Vu Khac Ngoc - education expert at the HOCMAI Education System - said: "Regarding subjects, if based on the standard deviation and the number of 10 points, it can be seen that subjects such as Math, English, Chemistry, Biology, History, Geography all have a good to good differentiation level".
According to Mr. Ngoc, Math and English have very clear common points - a balanced bell shape, ideal for classifying candidates.
"However, this exam has two goals: considering high school graduation and considering university and college admission. Therefore, although the general threshold is good for the differentiation of candidates, it is still necessary to consider whether it is suitable to ensure both of these goals at the same time" - Mr. Ngoc said.
Mr. Ngoc added that subjects such as Geography and History, although they have a fairly good differentiation, have too many schools on the right side - that is, too many high scores. This will affect the classification of candidates and the standard score - especially C block.
On the contrary, according to Mr. Ngoc, Math and English still have a certain level of difficulty. "Although the scores are beautiful, the average score and the number of high scores are still low. In fact, we cannot only look at the number of points 10, because this does not fully reflect the problem" - the expert commented.
The benchmark scores of top medical schools may decrease by 1 point
Regarding natural science subjects such as Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, according to Mr. Vu Khac Ngoc, the average score of about 6 to 7 shows that the exam has differentiated higher. In particular, this year's Physics seems a little easier than Chemistry and Biology.
"Based on this year's scores, the benchmark scores for B00 majors can decrease by 1 to 2 points. For top medical schools, the reduction can be about 1 point" - Mr. Ngoc said.
Need to standardize the difficulty to ensure fairness between subjects
Although his grades are good, Mr. Vu Khac Ngoc believes that the difference in difficulty between subjects is not good. This makes it difficult for students to choose the exam subject. Because university admission depends largely on whether the subject is easy or difficult, and whether it is easy to get a high score or not.
"12th graders will have to consider very carefully when choosing the exam subjects, and if the subjects are too different in difficulty, it will create unfairness" - Mr. Ngoc assessed.
In addition, the difference in difficulty between subjects also makes it difficult for universities in the admission process. Currently, many schools use many different combinations in the method of considering high school graduation exam scores, but apply the same standard score. If the difficulty between subjects in these combinations is too large, enrollment will become complicated and unfair.
"The Ministry of Education and Training needs to standardize the difficulty of the exams by building a bank of standardized questions, fully tested to check the difficulty and discrimination. From there, it is possible to build a suitable exam matrix, ensuring similarity in difficulty between subjects - both fair for students and convenient for universities" - Mr. Ngoc expressed his opinion.
