Candidates at the exam site of Nguyen Gia Thieu Secondary School (Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City) discuss after completing the 2025 high school graduation exam - Photo: NGUYEN KHANG
In the midst of the heated debate taking place about the 2025 high school graduation exam, according to many teachers and experts, the core of the graduation exam is whether or not it properly assesses students' foreign language proficiency.
Help students know where they are
Associate Professor Dr. Pham Vu Phi Ho - Deputy Head of the Foreign Language Department of Van Lang University - said that the problem does not lie in whether the test is difficult or easy, but in whether the English test must measure the students' language ability.
"International standardized tests like IELTS do this very well. After finishing the test, candidates will know what level they are at, how strong they are, and how well they can use English in communication, study or work," said Mr. Ho.
Meanwhile, high school graduation exams, if too difficult or too easy, do not reflect true ability.
"Candidates can score 6-7 or even 8-9 points, but still do not clearly understand their language ability. Every year the difficulty of the test changes, making the assessment of proficiency more vague and inconsistent," Mr. Ho commented.
He proposed to reorient the way English exams are designed, instead of just classifying students according to how well they answer difficult or easy questions, it is necessary to focus on assessing their ability to use foreign languages in practice. To do that, the exam needs to be carefully researched, widely tested and referenced to international competency frameworks.
The test library must also be continuously updated in this direction, avoiding designing tests based solely on the subjective feelings of a certain group of experts. "The test should be a tool to help students understand where they are on their language learning journey, not a quiz competition," he emphasized.
"There is a problem with the test"
Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen - bilingual and internationaleducation expert - believes that the debate on the current high school graduation exam should not revolve around whether the exam is "good" or "bad". According to her, that is an emotional way of calling it, lacking an academic basis.
"In academia, there is no criterion called 'good test'. A good assessment must accurately measure the ability that needs to be measured, be stable, fair, transparent, create motivation for learning and be linked to the teaching and learning process," she emphasized. Compared to those criteria, this year's English test has many problems.
She pointed out that the general education program only requires students to reach B1 level, while the exam contains many C1 level contents - such as readings on project farming and greenwashing - which are both long and challenging.
"About 30-35% of the content at C1 level is beyond the requirements," she said. This leads to unfairness, especially for public school students studying according to standard curriculum, teachers only stop at B1 - B2. "If teachers have not reached C1, what can students do to do this exam?", she asked.
In addition, the difference between the sample questions and the real exam makes students and teachers prepare in the wrong direction. On social media, she only sees responses of confusion and discouragement, instead of inspiration for learning. The exam also does not reflect the reality of teaching, when most high schools do not have the conditions to approach the C1 level.
According to Dr. Huyen, to improve the quality of exam questions, the important thing is not to start with the technique of making questions, but to start with the evaluation thinking. And especially, any exam questions need to be tested and evaluated on a large scale before being officially applied.
Measure student ability correctly
MSc. Nguyen Thuy Vuong Khanh - Director of the Admissions Center of Ho Chi Minh City College of Economics - analyzed that the problem does not lie in chasing after scores or achievements, but in reality, for many years, scores have been considered a "measure of students' ability". A student who gets 6 points can immediately be labeled as "poor student" or "incompetent".
Therefore, the important thing is not to make the test difficult or easy, but to make sure that the test truly measures the students' abilities, helping them understand where they are, what path is suitable for them - university, vocational training, or another direction - without falling into a state of self-consciousness and confusion.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/de-thi-tieng-anh-tot-nghiep-thpt-qua-kho-co-van-de-can-xem-lai-tu-duy-danh-gia-20250630081414174.htm
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