More than 1.16 million candidates enter special graduation exam

Today, more than 1.16 million candidates nationwide began taking the 2025 high school graduation exam, a special exam because it is organized for two groups of candidates studying two different high school programs and takes place at the peak of administrative unit arrangement.

Students in Ho Chi Minh City are ready for the special exam. In the photo: one of the last review sessions of 12A1 students at Nguyen Huu Tho High School (District 4, Ho Chi Minh City) - Photo: NHU HUNG

Especially because this year's high school graduation exam will have two candidates, of which the majority - more than 1.13 million students - will take the exam according to the 2018 generaleducation program, while the remaining 25,000 students will take the exam according to the 2006 program. In addition, the exam takes place in the peak context of the administrative unit arrangement process.

This afternoon (June 25), candidates will go to the examination site to complete the examination procedures. June 26 and 27 are the two official examination days, and June 28 is the backup examination day.

Ho Chi Minh City completes preparation work

By the evening of June 24, high school graduation exam sites in Ho Chi Minh City had completed preparations for facilities, human resources, and backup plans...

Ho Chi Minh City has 171 schools and educational institutions requisitioned as high school graduation exam sites in 2025. These are all high schools with facilities that ensure safety standards and convenience for candidates.

At the Le Loi Secondary School (District 3, Ho Chi Minh City) exam site, the preparation of facilities for the exam went smoothly. The exam site has 20 exam rooms, each room can accommodate up to 24 candidates, 1 locker room for candidates 25m from the exam area and the exam site duty room.

At Bui Thi Xuan High School exam site (District 1, Ho Chi Minh City), on June 24, this exam site prepared 5 more exam rooms according to the request of the high school graduation exam steering committee in Ho Chi Minh City, bringing the total number of exam rooms to 30.

Although 5 more examination rooms were added, the preparation of facilities at this examination site was also urgently completed on June 24 so that on the morning of June 25, the examination supervisors could meet and in the afternoon of the same day, candidates could be welcomed to complete procedures.

Vo Van Kiet High School exam site has 97 staff members working as exam invigilators from many high schools and middle schools in the area. This exam site has a total of 576 candidates from Vo Van Kiet High School, Ngo Gia Tu High School, Nguyen Van Linh High School and no independent candidates.

The exam site has 25 exam rooms and all candidates at this exam site take all 4 subjects so no candidates go in or out of the waiting room.

A special point at this testing site is that for the elective subject test, there will be many testing rooms, so there will be 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 subjects in the same testing room.

"For exam rooms with candidates taking multiple subjects, even up to 8 subjects/room in different shifts, we have come up with a plan and agreed with the exam supervisors in these rooms, to make statistical papers for elective subjects and assign exam questions so that exam supervisors do not make mistakes" - Mr. Do Dinh Dao, head of the Vo Van Kiet High School exam site, informed.

Trang Thi Thu Trang, a 12C1 student at Viet Vinh High School (Bac Quang District, Ha Giang Province), is busy studying for the final exam in the last days - Photo: NGUYEN BAO

Candidates from Ha Giang highlands "sprint"

As the high school graduation exam approaches, many highland students in Ha Giang are busy preparing for the final exam, while local authorities are making plans to pick up and drop off candidates and arrange centralized accommodation for them before and during the exam.

Two days before the 2025 high school graduation exam, Trang Thi Thu Trang - a 12th grade student at Viet Vinh High School (Bac Quang district, Ha Giang province) - was still diligently sitting in her study corner at home to review the math - chemistry - biology combination.

Trang said that after finishing the main curriculum in class, she was able to attend free graduation review classes at school, 2 sessions per week for each subject. In addition to the time spent reviewing at school, Trang self-studied at home using online resources and exam questions.

"Because I am the first student to take the 2018 high school program, I am quite worried, both the curriculum and the exam are new. But I still believe in my own abilities and am ready to face this important exam," Trang shared.

Similarly, Do Xuan Quang (class 12C3, Viet Vinh High School) said he was quite nervous and worried when taking the exam according to the 2018 high school program for the first time with many changes, and not having many high school graduation exam review materials like previous years.

"At the end of the school year, the school still teaches each graduation exam subject for free, 2 periods/week, helping us consolidate basic knowledge. In addition, I find more documents online and take an online course," Quang shared.

During the last days of review, Quang said he only reviewed basic exam questions, did easy questions so that he wouldn't lose points on these questions in the real exam, and reviewed with a more relaxed mindset than usual.

In the 2025 high school graduation exam, the Department of Education and Training of Ha Giang province established an examination council with 34 examination sites, 346 official examination rooms with 7,524 candidates registered to take the exam, of which 7,154 candidates registered to take the exam according to the 2018 general education program; 370 candidates registered to take the exam according to the 2006 general education program.

In Bac Quang district (Ha Giang), there are 8 examination sites with 1,590 candidates registered to take the exam. To avoid unfortunate risks, the Bac Quang district examination steering committee also requested schools to prepare facilities, stationery, and check the electricity and water systems;

Survey the dining and resting places for the examination board; organize a conference for parents to discuss and agree on plans for picking up and dropping off students to ensure absolute safety before, during and after the exam.

Thanh Hoa : transporting exam papers to the farthest exam location

On June 24, the farthest high school graduation exam site in Thanh Hoa province in 2025 at Muong Lat High School (Muong Lat highland border district, nearly 250km from Thanh Hoa city) received exam questions from the authorities.

On the afternoon of June 24, speaking with Tuoi Tre , Mr. Le Van Minh - principal of Quan Son High School (Thanh Hoa), head of the examination site at Muong Lat High School - said: "Up to now, the delegation transporting the 2025 high school graduation exam papers mobilized by the Thanh Hoa Provincial Examination Steering Committee, including the escorting police force, has handed over the exam papers at the Muong Lat High School examination site, ensuring absolute safety and in accordance with regulations."

According to Mr. Minh, the security and confidentiality of exam papers, test papers, and exam locations are strictly implemented in accordance with regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training.

The exam storage area is tightly sealed, with police on duty 24/7, and the security monitoring system is activated, ensuring absolute safety.

Kien Giang: 142 candidates go to mainland to take graduation exam

At around 1:30 p.m. on June 24, 142 students from Hon Tre, Lai Son and An Son communes (Kien Hai district, Kien Giang province) arrived at Rach Gia city wharf with suitcases full of clothes, books, etc.

Officers and soldiers of Kien Giang Provincial Police mobilized many vehicles to take students to Huynh Man Dat High School for the Gifted to prepare for the 2025 high school graduation exam.

Ta Thi Son - a student at Lai Son Secondary and High School (Lai Son Commune, Kien Hai District) - said that learning conditions in Lai Son Commune are more difficult than those of her peers on the mainland, but Son is still determined and has a thorough review plan to pass the entrance exam to her desired major.

"Today, taking the high-speed train to the mainland to take the exam, I was both happy and worried. The police officers enthusiastically supported us with transportation and encouraged us, so my friends and I are confident that we will pass the exam," Son said happily.

Strengthening the fight against high-tech exam cheating

One of the examination tasks that the Ministry of Education and Training pays special attention to is strengthening the fight against high-tech exam cheating and strictly handling violations.

Cheating device as small as... a grain of rice

In May 2025, Deputy Prime Minister Le Thanh Long signed an official dispatch on the organization of the high school graduation exam and general education entrance exam in 2025. It noted that the use of high-tech devices to cheat in exams is becoming increasingly sophisticated and complicated.

At training conferences on inspection and examination of the 2025 high school graduation exam, police representatives warned about the increase in exam cheating using high-tech devices with increasingly sophisticated and difficult-to-detect methods.

Accordingly, on some private groups, many cheating-supporting technology devices are openly sold with super small designs, easily disguised in familiar items such as ATM cards, pens, eyeglasses, watches, belts, handheld computers...

Notably, there is a device as small as a grain of rice that can be placed neatly in the user's ear, acting as a super small wireless headset.

Not only stopping at physical devices, the exploitation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and virtual assistants such as ChatGPT has also been warned by authorities. Some cheating tricks have been discovered such as attaching hidden cameras to the soles of shoes and transmitting images of exam questions to ask AI or others to help solve them in real time.

This reality poses an urgent need to tighten prevention and control solutions at the national level, especially when high-tech cheating is becoming increasingly common, difficult to detect and has the potential to seriously affect the fairness and transparency of exams.

A representative of the Ministry of Public Security guides how to identify high-tech devices at a training conference on inspection and examination of the 2025 high school graduation exam in the Southern region - Photo: TR.H

Police increase surveillance

At the national conference on the organization of the 2025 high school graduation exam, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized the need to mobilize the synchronous and close participation of the entire political system to ensure the exam takes place seriously, fairly, effectively and smoothly.

The Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Education and Training to closely coordinate with the Ministry of Public Security and relevant agencies to organize training for localities on solutions to prevent cheating, especially the use of high technology and AI in exams.

Controlling cheating technology is considered one of the focuses to maintain fairness and transparency in this year's exam.

According to Mr. Pham Ngoc Thuong, permanent deputy minister of the Ministry of Education and Training, this year the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Public Security proactively signed a coordination regulation early to ensure absolute security and safety for the 2025 high school graduation exam.

The professional units of the Ministry of Public Security have closely coordinated with local police to monitor, grasp the situation, promptly detect and handle negative risks, exam fraud and violations of the law related to the exam.

In particular, the authorities focus on fighting against rings selling high-tech equipment for exam cheating, and strictly handle violators.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, said that the city has carefully prepared for the high school graduation exam. The department has organized tests at each testing site, closely coordinating with related departments and branches.

This year, Ho Chi Minh City mobilized nearly 13,000 invigilators and more than 2,900 personnel to serve the exam, along with police protection at all exam locations. All exam rooms meet the minimum area standard of 30m², with the correct number of exam tables arranged according to regulations.

The city pays special attention to preventing high-tech fraud, deploying many technological solutions for strict control.

The Department of Education and Training of Vinh Long province also said that the leadership and direction of the exam was carried out synchronously from the Provincial People's Committee to departments, branches and localities. The preparation of facilities, transportation and preservation of exam papers and exam papers were completed in accordance with the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training.

Special attention is also paid to ensuring security and safety for the exam. All exam rooms are thoroughly inspected, equipped with security cameras, cabinets to store exam papers, and police on duty 24/7.

MY DUNG - NGUYEN BAO - VU TUAN - HA DONG - CHI CONG - TRAN HUYNH

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/hon-1-16-trieu-thi-sinh-buoc-vao-ky-thi-tot-nghiep-dac-biet-2025062423151449.htm