The 2025 high school graduation exam in Math and English is attracting attention and debate among experts, teachers, students and parents. Some say the exam is too difficult and puzzling; others support the new way of writing the exam. VietNamNet opens a forum to record diverse opinions, contributing to improving the exam and enhancing the quality of teaching and learning.
The following article is a perspective on the 2025 high school graduation English exam by Nguyen Kim Diem Quynh, an international student majoring in Journalism and Communications in Australia:
After the recent high school graduation exam, the English exam has become a hot topic of discussion among candidates and experts. On social networks, many candidates complained that the exam was difficult and that they did not have enough time to complete it. Many teachers, people with senior English skills, and even native speakers who tried this year's exam sympathized with the candidates.
As a student majoring in Communication - Journalism who studied for 2 years in Canada and 2 years in Australia, I was curious and took the test with code 1101. I completed the test in 40 minutes, with 35/40 correct questions, equivalent to a score of 9.
Even though I am fluent and use academic English every day, I still encounter many difficulties and feel stressed when doing my assignments.
The English test has 40 multiple choice questions, including 17 fill-in-the-blank questions, 5 sentence reorganization questions, and 18 reading comprehension questions, with a time limit of 50 minutes. The two long reading passages revolve around topics such as agricultural projects and the phenomenon of “greenwashing” which are not popular and not friendly to 12th graders.
The rest of the test was equally challenging with confusing questions, complex sentence structures and difficult vocabulary.
Candidates in Ho Chi Minh City take the 2025 high school graduation exam. (Photo: Nguyen Hue )
The "puzzling" nature of the exam mainly comes from the appearance of many abstract terms, requiring candidates to reason and analyze deeply, exceeding the B1 output standards according to the 2018 generaleducation program. Some specialized words and metaphors such as "sleight of hands" or "accelerate the decision-making process" easily confuse students with limited vocabulary at the B1 level.
In particular, with the reading comprehension about the phenomenon of "greenwashing", when comparing the original article, the edited version to be included in the exam is somewhat more confusing and less coherent.
As a candidate for the high school graduation exam 4 years ago, I couldn't help but wonder: If the exam that year was the same as now, would I have been able to get 8 points in 50 minutes?
To be honest, it was very difficult, even though at that time I had reached C1 level in English and was preparing to study abroad. Because in reality, in 12 years of studying, the way I approached and learned this language was quite general, not focusing on academic word processing skills like now.
With 8.0 IELTS Reading skill since grade 12, I found that IELTS is designed more clearly in terms of format, aiming to assess the ability to use language in learning and real life. In my opinion, although the IELTS reading comprehension section has a certain complexity with "traps" of questions or answers, it is still not as "tricky" as the recent high school exam.
Perhaps the biggest difference between IELTS and the 2025 High School English exam lies in the fact that IELTS helps me feel like I am being scored on my ability to use language, while the graduation exam makes me play the role of a linguist to "decode".
Even now, after 4 years of studying in Canada and Australia, I still only completed the test in the time limit, and got 5/40 questions wrong. Furthermore, during the test, I often doubted myself because I had to read the questions over and over again and still found them difficult to understand.
I sent this test to a friend, also an international student (from high school), who has been in Australia for nearly 10 years and is pursuing a degree in business administration. He spent 50 minutes to complete the test, and was amazed because “he has never encountered a text that is so difficult to understand by a native speaker”.
In general, I find that the 2025 high school graduation exam in English is too much for B1 level candidates, as they have limited vocabulary and understanding of social issues.
From a personal perspective, even though I am used to using academic English every day, I still feel pressured when approaching the 2025 high school graduation exam. This makes me understand more about the stress and confusion of candidates when reading and doing this exam.
I believe that, as a graduation exam, the English exam needs to be rebalanced between classification requirements and general suitability to ensure fairness for all candidates.
Source: https://vtcnews.vn/du-hoc-4-nam-toi-chi-lam-dung-35-40-cau-hoi-de-tieng-anh-thi-tot-nghiep-thpt-ar952608.html
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