Outstanding faces of the 2025 High School Graduation Exam

Nguyen Thi Thuy Tien (second from left), a student of Tran Dai Nghia Secondary School (Ho Nai Ward), became the runner-up of the 2025 High School Graduation Exam in the new Dong Nai province, and was also the candidate with the highest score among over 37,000 candidates in the old Dong Nai province. Photo: Cong Nghia

All-round good scientist

Nguyen Quoc Thai, a student at Binh Long High School for the Gifted (An Loc Ward), became the valedictorian of the 2025 High School Graduation Exam in the new Dong Nai province. Thai achieved the highest score in 4 subjects with 37.75 points (Math 9, Literature 9, Physics 10 and Chemistry 9.75).

As a student in the Math class, Thai's scores were almost even among all graduation exam subjects. Even in subjects that were not his strong points, such as Literature, Thai excelled with 9 points.

Nguyen Quoc Thai, valedictorian of the 2025 High School Graduation Exam in Dong Nai province.

Sharing about the moment he knew his exam score, Thai said that for the subjects: Math, Physics, Chemistry, he knew his score right after finishing the exams, because the exams for these subjects were all in the form of multiple choice questions. As for Literature, he was somewhat surprised, because this year's Literature exam was open-ended, not completely in the textbook, but it was an emotional exam, very topical.

Which schools are the top students in each exam group from?
DOAN NGUYEN THANG, a student at Ngo Quyen High School (Tran Bien Ward), has become the candidate with the highest score in the university entrance exam combinations in 2025. Thang's score for the three university entrance exam subjects is 29 points, including 9.75 in Math, 10 in Physics, and 9.25 in Chemistry. Thang wishes to apply for the Mathematics Education major at Ho Chi Minh City University of Education to realize his dream of becoming a math teacher, and at the same time help his mother reduce the pressure and burden of university tuition.

Having been an excellent student for many years, his academic ability has been convincingly proven by the results of the 2025 High School Graduation Exam, Thai said: “I have no secret other than serious study, hard work, the care and encouragement of my parents and the dedicated support of my teachers. When I encounter difficult exercises or difficult questions, I always stay calm and concentrate.”

“In the recent graduation exam, I found 2/3 of the math questions to be difficult to very difficult. The difficulty of some questions even made me feel “dizzy” for a few minutes before I calmed down, especially the probability questions. When I calmed down, I focused on solving each question one by one, determining which questions were easy and for sure correct, then I focused on solving them first, then the difficult questions later,” Thai shared.

Thai said that his parents are small traders, but their love and care for him is always great and above all. As the youngest child in the family, his parents and siblings always give him the best possible conditions to study, but they do not put any pressure on him regarding his academic performance. After each exam, especially the recent high school graduation exam, his parents never asked "How many points did you get?" but only gave him words of encouragement and a comfortable smile.

With her convincing high school graduation exam and study results, Thai shared her plan: “My older sister just graduated from Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics, so I am oriented to follow the path that my sister has taken. I am thinking about some new careers related to science and technology, which are the new development trends of the country, so that I can contribute to building the country in the new era in new fields such as: semiconductor design, artificial intelligence…”.

The candidate with the second highest score in the province comes from a private school.

Because there was no public high school near her house, after completing grade 9, Nguyen Thi Thuy Tien (living in Binh Minh commune) decided to study grade 10 at Tran Dai Nghia Primary - Secondary - High School (Ho Nai ward), about 9km from her house. Not only Thuy Tien but also her two older brothers studied at this school and both had excellent academic results, won many high prizes in provincial competitions for excellent students, and were admitted to top universities in Ho Chi Minh City.

Doan Nguyen Thang helps his mother sell rice in Bien Hoa ward.

In the recent 2025 High School Graduation Exam, Thuy Tien scored 36.75 points, including 8.5 in Math, 8.5 in Literature, 10 in Physics, and 9.75 in Chemistry. With this score, Thuy Tien became the candidate with the second highest score in the high school graduation exam in Dong Nai province (new), and also the candidate with the highest score in public and private high schools in Dong Nai province (old), because the 2025 High School Graduation Exam was the last exam before the province's merger.

Thuy Tien said that she knew almost 100% of her scores for 3 out of 4 graduation subjects, except for Literature, which she was not very sure about. However, she was very surprised that she passed the graduation exam with such a high ranking. Thuy Tien shared more: “When I heard that I was one of the candidates leading in terms of scores in this year's graduation exam, I was very surprised and happy. I always thought that this exam had a lot of candidates, so there would definitely be many candidates who were better than me from specialized schools or other top public schools.”

Thuy Tien plans to apply to Ho Chi Minh City University of Education and later become a Math teacher. Her desire to pursue this career was guided by her brothers who are studying at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology. Her parents encouraged her to follow this path because it was her dream, and it also suited the family's economic conditions, because if they had to raise two children to study at the same time, it would be too much for their parents.

Nguyen Thi Thuy Tien (right), a student of Tran Dai Nghia Secondary School (Ho Nai Ward), became the runner-up of the 2025 High School Graduation Exam in the new Dong Nai province, and was also the candidate with the highest score among over 37,000 candidates in the old Dong Nai province. Photo: Cong Nghia

Principal of Tran Dai Nghia Secondary School, Le Xuan Tho, shared that this is the first time the school has had a student achieve such excellent high school graduation exam scores. Immediately after knowing the exam results, the school invited the student to the school to share joy and learning experiences with students preparing to enter grade 12. The school will reward the student for this achievement, and at the same time commit to creating conditions for the student to come to the school for internship and work if he later graduates from the pedagogical major.

Dong Nai's high school graduation rate in 2025 is 98.37%
On the afternoon of July 16, information from the Department of Education and Training said that the high school graduation rate in 2025 of Dong Nai province remained stable, although this was the first year of high school graduation exams according to the 2018 General Education Program.
The exam was held over two days: June 26 and 27, before the merger of Binh Phuoc (old) and Dong Nai (old) provinces. Dong Nai (old) had over 37,000 candidates, while Binh Phuoc (old) had over 12,000 candidates.
The 2025 high school graduation exam results, Dong Nai province (old) reached 99.67% in the general education system, and 93.33% in the continuing education system. Binh Phuoc province (old), the general education system was 99.6%, and 87.5% in the continuing education system.
In general, the high school graduation rate in 2025 after the merger of the two provinces, in the general education system is 99.65%, and in the continuing education system is 92.62%, the average is 98.37%.

Justice

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/xa-hoi/202507/nhung-guong-mat-xuat-sac-cua-ky-thi-tot-nghiep-trung-hoc-pho-thong-nam-2025-3632b4f/