Candidates cried out in pain over new Math questions, 'reading the questions took half the time'

Many candidates left the exam room with a dazed look on their faces after finishing the Math test, saying that the test was difficult, with each question having less than 2 minutes to think and choose an answer.

On the afternoon of June 26, after finishing the Math subject of the 2025 high school graduation exam, many candidates left the exam room with a dazed look on their faces. Many students burst into tears right at the school gate because of the pressure from the exam questions, which were assessed as difficult and highly classified, while the time limit for the test was only 90 minutes for 50 multiple-choice questions.

At the Phan Dinh Phung High School exam site, many candidates left the room with unhappy faces, unable to hide their disappointment when they assessed the Math exam as "more difficult than imagined".

Nguyen Ngoc Dung, a student at Phan Dinh Phung High School, said that this year's Math test was "very difficult", especially because it incorporated a lot of 11th grade knowledge, which surprised and confused candidates. "With the sample test, it only took me about an hour to complete, but today, even though I used up all 90 minutes, I still couldn't finish the entire test. The test was too long, and reading and understanding the test took up half of the test time," Dung shared with regret. Dung said she only did about 75% of the test and calculated that she only got less than 8 points, because she wasn't sure she got many questions right. The female student said that she did quite well on the Literature test in the morning, but in the afternoon, her Math results were not as expected.

Nguyen Tuan Minh, a student at Huynh Thuc Khang High School, commented: “This year’s exam consists of three parts. Parts I and II are relatively easy, mainly in the textbook, and candidates who have studied carefully can do it. However, from Part III onwards, there is a clear differentiation, requiring high thinking and application skills.” With the average score of this year’s exam, the male student predicted that the score range will mainly fluctuate between 5 and 7. “I think scores above 8 will be very rare,” Minh said.

At the exam site of Nguyen Trai High School (Ba Dinh District, Hanoi ), candidates rushed out amid the cheers and encouragement of volunteers and parents.

Most of the students said they could do most of the questions in the test, except for one question in the Math test that was somewhat "difficult".

Ms. Nguyen Bich Hang, mother of candidate Ha Long, arrived very early, anxiously waiting for her son to finish the last exam. When she saw that her son had passed all the tests, her whole family burst into happiness.

A female parent was excited after her child finished the math test. “No matter what the result is, I still encourage my child to relax because he is just trying,” she said.

This afternoon, there was heavy rain in Ho Chi Minh City. Many parents stood in the rain waiting for their children outside the school gate.

Parents wait in the rain for their children in front of the exam site at Vo Truong Toan Secondary School, District 1.

After finishing the Math exam, candidate Manh Quan - the exam site of Vo Truong Toan Secondary School (District 1) said, "The Math exam was more difficult than the sample exam. I did quite well on the multiple choice and true-false questions, but the short answer part was quite difficult and took a lot of time to do. I predict about 7 points."

Heavy rain lasted for more than an hour, causing difficulties for candidates and parents in moving around. Local congestion occurred in front of the exam sites.

Many candidates went home in the rain after finishing the Math exam.

The 2025 high school graduation exam in Ho Chi Minh City has nearly 100,000 candidates taking the exam. The city has arranged 171 exam sites with a total of 4,242 exam rooms. Of these, 168 exam sites with 4,180 exam rooms are for candidates following the 2018 general education program and 3 exam sites with 62 exam rooms for candidates following the 2006 general education program.

"This year's Math exam has a very good differentiation, to get 7 points is relatively easy for me. However, to get 8-10 points, the exam has a high differentiation, the questions are relatively difficult. Compared to previous years, this year's Math exam is very different, the questions do not require much calculation but mostly focus more on practical aspects...", candidate Truong Minh Quang (living in Hue City) commented. (Photo: Quoc Binh)

"This year's Math exam was relatively moderate, not too difficult but quite long, the probability part was a bit more difficult than previous years. With this year's Math exam, I think I will get 7-8 points or more...", candidate Cao Thien Nhan (living in Hue City) confidently said.

The high school graduation exam took place on June 26-27 with more than 1.16 million candidates, an increase of nearly 100,000 compared to last year.

Students studying the new general education program (2018) take four exams, of which two are compulsory subjects: Literature and Mathematics. Two optional subjects are: Foreign Language, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, History, Geography, Economic and Legal Education, Information Technology, Technology (Agriculture, Industry). The 2025 high school graduation exam scores were announced on July 16. Students can start registering and adjusting their university admission wishes until July 28.

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/thi-sinh-khoc-thet-voi-de-toan-moi-doc-de-het-nua-thoi-gian-ar951160.html