Traveling hundreds of kilometers, staying up late to study for university entrance exams

At this time, many tutoring centers continuously organize mock exams according to the structure of the competency assessment exam (ĐGNL) of Ho Chi Minh City National University or the specialized assessment of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education...

Pham Nguyen Nhat Tam, a 12th grade student at Lai Vung 1 High School (Dong Phap), recently took a bus to Ho Chi Minh City to participate in a mock exam for the National High School Graduation Exam organized by a private organization.

"FEAR OF NOT PASSING"

Nhat Tam said that where he lives, there is no organization that organizes similar activities, so to get used to the pressure of the exam room, he asked his parents and went with his friends to Ho Chi Minh City to take a practice test before entering the official exam on March 30. "Another reason is that I want to see how far my ability is," said the student who wants to enter universities specializing in engineering.

Students attend a mock exam organized by a tutoring unit.

PHOTO: NGOC LONG

Because the school only introduced and did not organize training for the National High School Exam, Tam signed up for an online course to review, and spent from 6 p.m. to 1-2 a.m. the next day to solve the questions and see what knowledge she was still lacking. "After the practice test, I found that I was still weak in geometry and finding errors in the English test. These are also the knowledge I am working on," Tam said, confiding: "I chose to consider my school report card, National High School Exam score and High School Graduation Exam score, but I was still afraid of not passing because my learning ability was not that excellent. I was worried about whether I would achieve the score I wanted or not."

Similarly, because there are no exam preparation classes in Duc Trong District (Lam Dong), Dong Lam Quynh, a 12th grader at Duc Trong High School, and her friends chose to register for online courses or study on their own. "In my class, most of my friends take the National High School Exam, except for those who want to enter the teaching profession or the police, who have to take separate exams," said the female student.

T PARTICIPATE IN MANY EXAMS

Kieu Minh Chau, a 12th grade student at Tran Phu High School (HCMC), is currently reviewing for the National High School Graduation Exam of Ho Chi Minh City National University and the specialized High School Graduation Exam of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education. A notable point, according to Chau, is that the school organizes free classes on Saturdays and Sundays for the National High School Graduation Exam subjects with exam questions prepared by the teachers themselves. "I have registered to study math, literature, and English because the number of questions in these subjects accounts for a high proportion," the female student shared.

Meanwhile, for the specialized national high school exam, Chau is taking extra classes and practicing three sessions a week at a tutoring center in Tan Phu District (HCMC). "The two exams are held quite close together, so I feel a lot of pressure and worry," Chau said.

"Currently, I just try to improve my knowledge and make efforts every day so that I won't have any regrets later," the female student added, adding that after school, she studies for exams held at the end of March and the beginning of April.

Nguyen Duc Huy, a 12th grade student at a high school in Hanoi, recently took the National High School Graduation Exam of Hanoi National University. Huy commented that the National High School Graduation Exam according to the new curriculum in the first round "contained some knowledge from the old curriculum" which has been reduced in the new textbooks. By only studying the textbooks and then taking the exam, the male student shared that this could be the reason why his results were quite modest.

In the near future, Huy will continue to take the National High School Graduation Exam of Hanoi National University of Education - an exam that the male student believes closely follows the structure of the high school graduation exam announced by the Ministry of Education and Training and is also the exam he has invested the most in. To prepare for the exam in May, Huy is currently taking extra classes in math, physics, chemistry and self-studying literature. "In class, teachers often ask practical questions, not just knowledge questions, to meet the trend of National High School Graduation Exams," Huy said.

Candidates taking the National University of Ho Chi Minh City's 2024 National High School Graduation Exam

Photo: Ngoc Long

CONCERNS ABOUT POINT CONVERSION

Mr. Dang Duy Hung, manager of the Lasan - Helius Education center system specializing in reviewing for private exams in Ho Chi Minh City, said that the unit is rushing to prepare students for exams by increasing the number of study sessions, increasing the amount of documents, and continuously giving mock tests so that students can gradually get used to the actual exam. In particular, the exam questions are designed by the team of teachers based on the content of the sample questions, specifically the knowledge chapters that have appeared in the questions.

"We mainly change and expand the type of exercises in that chapter, with the same difficulty level as the sample questions published by the universities organizing the exams, not following them mechanically but creating opportunities for students to review comprehensively," Mr. Hung shared.

A common concern of many high school seniors at Mr. Hung's centers is how the scores of the individual exams will be converted into a common score scale, because if a candidate takes the National High School Graduation Exam and gets 1,000 points but "the conversion is only equivalent to 25 points when taking the high school graduation exam, then it is clearly easier to achieve the high school graduation exam," according to Mr. Hung.

Master Bui Van Cong, a teacher specializing in online training for the National High School Exam in Ho Chi Minh City, also shared the same opinion. According to Mr. Cong, converting scores so that the scores of all exams are on the same scale is "extremely difficult" and the conversion formula must be scientifically based so as not to affect the rights of students. "Students are very worried about that," Mr. Cong expressed.

Similarly, Kieu Minh Chau's concern is that the requirement to convert exam scores to a common scale causes separate exam scores such as the National High School Graduation Exam to "drop significantly". Chau gave an example of a score of 900/1,200 (high score for the National High School Graduation Exam) if converted to only 22.5/30 (fair score for the high school graduation exam). "With this score, I cannot be admitted to the top schools and majors that I want", Chau commented.

Record number of candidates

This year, Ho Chi Minh City National University recorded more than 128,000 candidates registering and paying the exam fee for the first round of the 2025 National High School Graduation Exam, an increase of 34,000 students compared to 2024 and also the highest record of this unit since the organization. Meanwhile, Hanoi National University's National High School Graduation Exam had 95,000 candidates completing the exam session selection, an increase of more than 5,000 compared to 2024 and also the highest level ever.

With the Hanoi University of Science and Technology's thinking assessment exam, the number of candidates registered was more than 13,000, nearly 5 times higher than the same period last year, and the separate exams of some other universities also shared a similar upward trend. "The significant increase in number is due to the Ministry of Education and Training tightening the method of considering by academic records, forcing students to choose to increase their chances of being admitted to university by other exams, notably the National High School Exam," said Mr. Dang Duy Hung.

Tips for taking the DGNL exam

Master Bui Van Cong added that the preparation of exam questions for students is based on the spirit of the illustrated questions such as the selection of materials, the way of asking questions, the difficulty of the test sections... For example, in the scientific thinking test, the illustrated questions are said to not focus on knowledge but on reading comprehension and reasoning, so Mr. Cong has to find suitable information. "Usually the official questions do not "go too far" from the illustrated questions," Mr. Cong said.

In a message to students taking the upcoming National High School Exam, Master Bui Van Cong advised them to do the easy questions first and then the difficult ones, and to allocate appropriate time for each part, rather than dividing the time equally for each part, "because each student has their own strengths and weaknesses". To optimize their scores, students should also focus on 90 math, Vietnamese, English questions and 12 logic and data analysis questions.

"Before starting the test, you must take the time to go to the toilet, because even 5 minutes will affect the results. During the test, students should concentrate and do their best, avoid the mentality of taking the test just for the sake of it or following the trend, which will only result in half-hearted work, ultimately losing a chance to pass the exam," Mr. Cong advised.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/vuot-tram-cay-so-thuc-khuya-on-thi-tranh-suat-vao-dh-185250327171513318.htm