Nathan Brooks, a 30-year-old Briton, was intrigued by Vietnam’s high school graduation English exam after hearing friends discuss its difficulty.
When he tried it himself, he was stunned by its difficulty and quickly realized he could not finish it in the 50 minutes allotted. His two other university-educated friends were also shocked by the exam’s level of difficulty.
Brooks, who taught for two years at an English center in HCMC before moving to an international school, had been following Facebook discussions about the challenge of the exam, with even native speakers struggling. It was then that he decided to download the test and give it a shot.
His first impression was that the exam layout was hard to follow, with many tricky questions and unclear sections. Some questions contained academic vocabulary and complex sentence structures, requiring a deep understanding of context and interconnections within the text.
“I couldn’t finish the exam,” he admits. “For a high school student in a country where English is a foreign language, the test is too difficult and stressful.”
Debra Mann, founder of TEFL Freedom, a platform for English teachers, also attempted the exam and found that many questions required multiple readings to fully understand. She says the sentence structures were unnatural, deviating from international standards and making it challenging for learners from the beginning.
“The exam is too advanced for high school students,” she says.
On TikTok, videos of foreigners attempting the exam have gone viral, garnering millions of views. A U.S. TikToker got six out of 40 questions wrong, while two British nationals, invited by a Vietnamese student, rated the difficulty level 7/10.
Discussions on social media, especially among expats in Hanoi and HCMC, have been heated. Some argue the exam was designed to assess students’ ability to think outside the box, while others believe the exam is too tough for the students and even difficult for native speakers.
“I can pick the correct answer but can’t explain why,” one user named John said, attracting hundreds of likes. “These questions are so complex that almost only a native speaker can answer them.”
Joshua Ryan, a U.S. national and founder of LingoPass English training center, says this year’s exam marked a significant shift from last year, particularly in vocabulary.
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Joshua Ryan teaching English at a center in District 3, HCMC. Photo courtesy of Ryan |
“There are many unfamiliar words, and even native speakers might not know them.”
He cites the term “greenwashing” as an example. It is an environmental term, and so students not interested in that field might struggle though they could guess its meaning from context, he says.
He believes the major challenge for Vietnamese students lies in their approach to learning English, which is still heavily focused on formulas for exams rather than real-world usage. He points out that the lack of practice in critical thinking and reasoning makes it difficult for students to understand new concepts.
When the exam format changes, rote memorization becomes ineffective, he points out.
However, the sections of the exam that test grammar and foundational skills are not particularly challenging. The challenge lies in the framing of the questions and the deeper language processing required, he says.
He thinks students should also be tested in communication skills and language use in real-life situations rather than just reading comprehension or filling in blanks as is done now.
Le Hoang Phong, academic director at YOUREORG, an English training and education consulting organization, believes that the debates surrounding this year’s exam stem largely from a shift in the approach from testing mere knowledge to evaluating language proficiency in a real-world context.
The questions now require students to select accurate words, use correct word combinations and organize information coherently rather than simply identify individual grammar mistakes. The exam makes an effort to assess students’ comprehensive language skills, more aligned with the demands of using English in academic and professional environments, he says.
“This reflects a strong alignment between the evaluation goals and the testing format.”
This type of testing can have a positive reverse effect, encouraging both teachers and students to adjust their teaching and learning methods to develop practical language skills, he adds.
