After the recent high school graduation exam, the English test became a heated topic among candidates and experts in the country. On social media, many students complained about the difficulty and insufficient time to complete the test. 

Teachers with extensive English expertise and even native speakers who tried the 2025 exam empathized with the students.

"As a Media-Journalism student who studied 2 years in Canada and 2 years in Australia, I was curious and took a mock test with code 1101. I finished in 40 minutes, with 35/40 correct answers, equivalent to a score of 9," Nguyen Kim Diem Quynh,  international student majoring in Journalism - Communication in Australia said.

Despite being fluent in academic English and using English daily, I faced challenges and felt stressed during the test.

The English test has 40 multiple-choice questions, including 17 fill-in-the-blank, 5 sentence arrangement, and 18 reading comprehension, with a 50-minute time limit; and two long reading passages covered topics like agricultural projects and "greenwashing," which are uncommon and less accessible to 12th graders.

The remaining questions were also very challenging, with confusing distractors, complex sentence structures, and difficult vocabulary.

The challenging nature of the exam questions stemmed from abstract terms requiring deep reasoning and analysis, exceeding the B1-level output standard of the 2018 General Education Program. Specialized terms and metaphors like “sleight of hand” or “accelerate the decision-making process” could easily overwhelm students with limited B1-level vocabulary.

Notably, the reading comprehension on the subject of “greenwashing” was less coherent and clumsier than its original version.

As a candidate from the high school graduation exam 4 years ago, I wondered: If the test back then was like this, could I have scored an 8 in 50 minutes?

Honestly, it would have been tough, even with C1-level English and preparation for studying abroad. My 12 years of language learning were conventional, not focused on academic text analysis like now.

With an 8.0 IELTS Reading score gained in grade 12, I can see that IELTS is clearer in format, designed to assess practical language use in academics and daily life. While IELTS reading has its complexities and traps, it’s less “tricky” than the 2025 high school exam questions.

The biggest difference between IELTS and the 2025 English high school 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 in Canada and Australia, I barely completed the test on time and got 5/40 questions wrong. I often doubted myself, re-reading questions multiple times due to their complexity.

I sent the test to a friend, who has been a student in Australia for nearly 10 years, studying business administration. He had to spend 50 minutes to solve the questions and was stunned, saying, “I’ve never seen a text written so confusingly by a native speaker.”

Overall, I find the 2025 English high school graduation exam too challenging for B1-level students, who are limited in vocabulary and social issue awareness.

From my perspective, despite daily academic English use, I still felt pressured by the 2025 exam. This makes me empathize with the stress and confusion students faced.

I believe that, as a graduation exam, the English test should balance differentiation with suitability for the general student level to ensure fairness for all candidates.

Teacher evaluations of English high school graduation exam

Vu Ha Thanh Luan, an English teacher at M.V. Lomonosov Secondary and High School (Hanoi), said the questions cover four main types: filling in words or phrases in notices, advertisements, or flyers; arranging sentences to form dialogues, letters, or paragraphs; filling in clauses or sentences in passages; and reading comprehension with question answering.

The reading topics align with the 2018 curriculum, covering real-life themes like environmental protection, financial management, festivals, and technology. Grammar is easily recognizable and not overly tricky. However, the long reading passages include advanced vocabulary, posing challenges for students aiming for 8.5 or higher.

An Thuy Linh, a teacher at LuongTheVinh Secondary and High School, commented that 

the topics are diverse, similar to those in 12th-grade textbooks, but the vocabulary and grammar structures are significantly more advanced than the textbook content. With 50 minutes, careful and focused students may run out of time due to the extensive information and language.

Thuy Nga