The Literature exam for grade 10 in Ho Chi Minh City in 2026 will integrate reading and writing, increasing critical thinking.

The 10th grade Literature exam in Ho Chi Minh City in 2026 will have two parts but will be designed to integrate reading and writing, enhancing students' critical thinking and expression skills.

According to the structure, assessment requirements and competency table, thinking levels of the subjects in the entrance exam for grade 10 in the 2026-2027 school year in Ho Chi Minh City, the Literature subject has many notable adjustments, aiming to assess students' comprehensive competencies through two main pillars: Reading comprehension and writing.

In the reading comprehension section, the test materials will be taken from outside the textbook, including literary texts and one of two types of texts: argumentative or informational. The total length of the test materials will not exceed 1,300 words.

The writing section consists of two forms: paragraph and essay. In paragraph form (about 200 words), candidates record their thoughts on a poem or verse, or analyze the content, theme, art and aesthetic effect of the work.

For the essay, students will do social argumentation in two directions: Presenting personal opinions and views (agreeing or disagreeing) on ​​a problem in life, or proposing a feasible and convincing solution to a problem that needs to be solved. This way of posing questions shows the orientation to develop students' ability to think critically, make logical arguments and express personal opinions.

Literature subject requirements for grade 10 exam in Ho Chi Minh City.

The test structure is clear, consisting of two parts (each part worth 5 points) linking reading and writing. Part 1 - Reading and understanding literary texts (3 points) and writing paragraphs (2 points). Part 2 - Reading and understanding argumentative or informational texts (1 point) and writing social argumentative essays (4 points).

The test is designed in an integrated manner. The content of the writing section is directly related to the reading text, helping students develop their comprehensive ability, instead of doing it in separate parts as before.

The questions will be based on the reading and writing requirements in the 2018 General Education Program, focusing on knowledge of grades 8 and 9.

An illustration exam for grade 10 in 2026 announced by the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City.

The test will also have a question about Vietnamese in the reading comprehension section, testing key content such as: Rhetorical devices (metaphor, metonymy, hyperbole, understatement, alliteration, inversion, rhetorical questions...), figurative words, onomatopoeia, explicit and implicit meanings, sentence types and isolated components, direct and indirect quotations, and the use of punctuation.

The new Literature exam aims to encourage students to actively read, understand, perceive and present their thoughts creatively and convincingly. The exam not only tests knowledge but also assesses thinking ability, argumentation ability and language expression - core elements of the current Literature program.

Starting from 2019, the 10th grade Literature exam in Ho Chi Minh City has been strongly renewed. The exam only has 3 questions corresponding to 3 parts: Reading comprehension (30%), Social commentary (30%), Literary commentary 40% (including 2 questions with choice 1).

Over the years, the Literature exam for grade 10 in Ho Chi Minh City has always been renewed, with a new topic each year.

In 2020, the exam system will follow the theme "Listening" (Listening to change, listening to love, listening to understand).

The 2022 theme is "A Message of Time" , guiding candidates to profound thoughts.

In 2023, the exam suggests a new direction with the theme " Letting thoughts speak out" .

In 2024, the theme "Heartbeat is not just for me" is considered close to the contestants, not challenging but still has a certain differentiation.

The 2025 Literature exam with the theme "On the journey to adulthood" was praised by many teachers as touching the heart, able to help candidates write innovative, creative essays with many unique ideas, but it is not easy to get high scores.

In the 2025 10th grade entrance exam in Ho Chi Minh City (old), 76,455 candidates took the Literature exam, the highest score was 9.5 and the lowest was 0.25. The score most candidates achieved was 7 with 5,936 students.

The whole city had 2 candidates with the highest score of 9.5; 22 candidates with 9.25; 179 students with 9; 766 students with 8.75 and 1,480 students with 8.5. The most common score was 7 with 5,936 candidates, followed by 6.5 (5,718 students) and 6 (5,491 students).

In the low-score group, more than 11,300 exams scored below 5 points. Of these, 7 candidates scored 0.25; 9 scored 0.5; 11 scored 0.75 and 11 scored 1 point. There were 2,272 candidates at level 4.5 and 1,919 at level 4.75.

The 10th grade entrance exam in 2026 is the first exam to take place after Ho Chi Minh City merged with Binh Duong and Ba Ria - Vung Tau . The scale of the exam is expected to expand, the number of candidates will increase significantly compared to previous years.

After the administrative boundary arrangement, Ho Chi Minh City has 490 public and non-public secondary schools, with over 750,000 students. According to statistics, Ho Chi Minh City currently has about 150,000 ninth graders - the highest number ever.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/de-mon-ngu-van-thi-lop-10-tphcm-2026-se-tich-hop-doc-viet-tang-tu-duy-phan-bien-2461936.html