Many high school students were glad to hear months ago that history would be an optional exam subject at high school finals, because it is seen as a difficult subject and students have to struggle to remember events and dates. This was why exam papers in history have always received low scores compared with other subjects.

At the 2019 high school finals, 70 percent of exam papers in history got 4.3 out of 10 score, below average, the lowest level among nine exam subjects.

In 2018, the average score that students got for history was 3.79. The figures were 4.6 in 2017 and 4.49 in 2016.

In the last three years, the situation was better, but the average score was still lower than other subjects. In 2022, 659,667 students registered to take the history test and got 6.34 score on average. The score that most students got was 7. The number of students who got 1 or lower was 83 (0.01 percent), while the number of students who got scores below average was 127,577 (19.34 percent).

In 2021, 637,005 students attended the history exam and got an average score of 4.97. The score that most students got was 4. The number of examinees who got scores below average was 331,429 (52.03 percent).

In 2020, 553,987 students attended the history exam and got an average score of 5.19. The score that most students got was 4.5. Meanwhile, 111 students got 1 or lower scores (0.02 percent), and 260,074 students got below 5 (46.95 percent).

However, the decision to provide an option was canceled when people and many educators warned that this was a wrong decision. 

Under the draft plan on high school finals organization from 2025 under the new general education program, history will be one of four compulsory exam subjects.

Experts, on one hand, applauded the decision, but on the other hand, stressed that it is necessary to change the method of teaching history and exam questions so that students are no longer "afraid" of history.

Pham Thai Son, enrollment director of the HCM City Food Industry University, thinks that exam questions should be designed in a way to require students to reason deductively, rather than force them to remember events mechanically.

“It is necessary to change the teaching method so as to make the learning subject interesting and attractive to students,” Son said. “The exam questions need to be open, evergreen and accurate”.

Le Huyen