Overview of the "explosion" of university and college entrance exam combinations in 2025

The 2025 high school graduation exam will have many changes as this is the first generation of students taking the graduation exam according to the 2018 General Education Program.

Candidates take 4 subjects, including 2 compulsory subjects: math and literature, and 2 optional subjects from a group of 9 subjects: foreign languages (7 languages), history, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, economic and legal education, information technology, technology (2 options: agricultural technology and industrial technology).

At the same time, the Ministry of Education and Training still organizes separate exams for candidates studying the 2006 General Education Program.

Record of admission combination

According to regulations, each university admission group usually consists of 3 subjects/subject groups, of which math or literature is required, with a weighted score of no less than 25%.

From the high school graduation exam subjects, the university has built many new admission combinations, integrating subjects that have just been included in the graduation exam such as information technology, industrial technology and agricultural technology. This has caused an explosion in the number of admission combinations, far surpassing traditional blocks such as A00 (math, physics, chemistry), B00 (math, chemistry, biology), C00 (literature, history, geography), D01 (math, literature, English).

According to general records, this year, most schools still give priority to subject combinations such as: math, literature, foreign languages, physics, chemistry, biology, history, geography, and economic and legal education.

New subjects introduced into the first year's exams also began to be added.

Although it is the first time appearing in university admissions in 2025, IT has attracted some attention when it appears in the two groups X06 (math, physics, IT) and X26 (math, English, IT) which are widely used in many top universities in technology.

Not only limited to high school graduation exams, the subject groups also include groups of gifted subjects organized by training institutions themselves such as: drawing, fine art drawing, preschool talent, art talent, music talent, presentation talent, journalism talent, sports talent, cinema talent...

Notably, the special combination XX1 is used to name the average score of 6 semesters during high school (report card score).

In addition, many admission combinations are maintained from the old subjects in the 2006 General Education Program such as: A08 (math, history, civic education), A12 (math, natural science, social science), A13 (math, natural science, history), B05 (math, biology, social science)...

Universities use a combination of “storms”

A major change in the 2025 admission regulations is that there is no longer a limit of 4 admission combinations for a major. Universities have taken full advantage of this regulation to optimize the attraction of candidates.

Typical examples are the schools under the Vietnam National University, Hanoi. The School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts recorded a record increase of up to 49 combinations. Similarly, the University of Foreign Languages increased from 11 to 42 combinations, while the University of Natural Sciences tripled to 28 combinations.

Some majors of Hanoi University of Science and Technology have up to 19-20 admission combinations.

Southern schools are no exception. The University of Natural Sciences, Ho Chi Minh City National University has also boldly expanded opportunities for social subjects such as literature, history, etc.

Surprisingly, some majors such as environmental science, environmental and resource management, environmental engineering technology, etc. use up to 17 admission combinations, showing flexibility and efforts to ensure recruitment sources.

Last year, the University of Natural Sciences, Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City only recruited students using 9 combinations, each major only used a maximum of 4 combinations.

Explaining the “storm” of admission combinations, the leader of a southern university said: “Schools must be flexible to ensure recruitment areas, especially for majors that have long been selective of candidates. We cannot limit our own opportunities and those of candidates due to changes in the education program.”

According to the 2025 university and college admission regulations, when registering their wishes, candidates do not need to choose a method code, combination code... they only need to clearly identify the program, major, group of majors and training institution they wish to study in order to decide to register.

The general admission support system of the Ministry of Education and Training will use the method and subject combination with the highest results of the candidate for admission consideration.

Plan early, choose wisely

MSc. Truong Quang Tri, Deputy Head of Student Affairs Department, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, emphasized that choosing subjects, especially elective subjects at high school level according to the 2018 General Education Program, plays a consistent and strategic role in career orientation and university admission later.

"Choosing a subject is not only for studying, but also to "pave the way" for university admission. If students do not study and do not pass the high school graduation exam for a certain subject, they will lose the opportunity to be admitted to majors that use a combination of that subject," Mr. Tri explained.

According to him, students need to have career orientation early, right from grade 10. For example, if they want to pursue medicine, they need to study and do well in subjects in the B00 group (math, chemistry, biology) to maximize their chances of admission.

As one of the first schools to announce early enrollment 3 years ago, Associate Professor Dr. To Van Phuong, Head of University Training Department, Nha Trang University, said that this is practical.

“We want to give students the best orientation, so that they can be proactive, have a study plan and choose a suitable major, and avoid being passive when it comes to university admissions,” Associate Professor, Dr. To Van Phuong said.

Accordingly, Mr. Phuong believes that universities also need to have a clear orientation on the direction and method of enrollment that is stable and suitable for the characteristics of each industry and training program. In particular, it is necessary to announce the subjects that students need to equip/study at high school level so that they can proactively study from the beginning.

Dr. Le Viet Khuyen, former Deputy Director of the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Training, expressed that the announcement of university admission combinations should be done 3 years in advance, that is, right when students are preparing for the 10th grade entrance exam so that they can choose the appropriate combination of elective subjects and high schools for both high school and university orientation.

In the current context, advice from experts is that parents and students should proactively look up the official websites of universities, consider which majors they want to consider, and note down 2-3 popular combinations to have the most effective study and review plan.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/toan-canh-bung-no-to-hop-xet-tuyen-dai-hoc-cao-dang-2025-20250810021517312.htm