The Bac II Exam: Structure, Scoring and What It Means for University Admission in Cambodia

What the Bac II exam is

Bac II is Cambodia's Grade 12 national exam, run by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS). You need to pass it to get the high school leaving certificate that Cambodian public universities require for admission, and most private universities and scholarship programs also ask for your Bac II certificate and grade before they accept you.

When and how you take it

You register for Bac II through your high school during your final year of upper secondary, and MoEYS sets national exam dates each year, usually in August after the school year wraps up. Exam halls sit under strict supervision, with staff checking your identity and confiscating phones, calculators and any paper that is not exam material before you go in. Bring your student ID and any documents your school tells you to bring, since gatekeepers turn away students who cannot confirm their identity on the day.

Two tracks, seven subjects

You choose a science or social science track before you sit the exam, and each track tests seven subjects. Khmer Literature, History and a Foreign Language are common to both tracks, according to Khmer Times .

The science track carries a heavier math and lab-science load, which matters if you plan to apply to engineering, medicine or other science degrees, since some programs weight your science-track grades more heavily during admission review.

How grading works

MoEYS grades the exam on an A to E scale, with A the highest and E the lowest passing grade, per Cambodia's published grading scale . Anything below an E counts as a fail on that subject, and failing enough subjects means you fail the exam overall and need to resit it. A Grade A overall is a distinction that scholarship committees and top universities look for specifically, so it carries weight beyond a plain pass.

Why results are strict now

Bac II results reflect real ability more than they used to. Cambodia's Anti-Corruption Unit began monitoring exam halls directly after a 2014 crackdown on cheating, and MoEYS reported a pass rate of only 25.72 percent that year, down from around 80 percent the year before, according to Radio Free Asia . Independent education reviewers, including AACRAO , treat the exam as a credible measure of secondary achievement following that reform. Since then, pass rates climbed back up as students and schools adjusted to the stricter monitoring, but MoEYS has kept the anti-cheating measures in place.

What your result means for admission

• Public universities require a Bac II pass at minimum, and competitive programs such as medicine, dentistry and engineering set a minimum grade band, often needing a B or higher

• Some institutions add their own entrance exam on top of Bac II. The Institute of Technology of Cambodia, for example, runs a separate English-language entrance test in math, physics and chemistry, and logic, regardless of your Bac II grade

• Government and donor scholarships, including full-ride university scholarships, usually set a minimum Bac II grade as a first filter before they look at anything else on your application

• If you fail, MoEYS allows you to resit the exam in a later cycle, but check with your school on the specific resit process and any subject retake rules that apply to you