To what extent should a Literature exam be open-ended?

On the morning of June 11th, candidates nationwide finished the Literature exam – the first subject of the 2026 High School Graduation Examination .

The writing section of the 2026 high school graduation exam in Literature requires students to answer the question, "How can we have Vietnamese Steve Jobs?"

Candidates taking the 2026 high school graduation exam. Photo: Le Khanh

While many praised the exam questions as excellent and highly relevant to current events, there were also quite a few concerns about the way the questions were framed and the choice of imagery in a national exam.

Commenting on the Literature exam, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu – a teacher at Hoang Mai Star Primary, Secondary, and High School – remarked that the social commentary question, "How can we have Vietnamese Steve Jobs?", was a good topic, highly relevant to current events, and inspired the spirit of innovation, creativity, and a desire to contribute among the younger generation.

Meanwhile, the literary essay question requiring an analysis of Nguyen Dinh Thi's poem "The Leaves" has the potential to differentiate well due to its new source material and multiple layers of symbolic meaning.

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Overall, the exam was of good quality, ensuring it met the requirements for assessing competence, was relevant to real-world situations, and had a reasonable level of differentiation.

From another perspective, Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh, former Director of the Department of Professional Education (Ministry of Education and Training), believes that the exam raises some issues that require reflection on the suitability of the materials for all students nationwide.

According to him, with a standardized high school graduation exam, consideration should be given to whether it should be assumed that all students fully understand famous tech figures like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, or Elon Musk.

He also wondered whether students in remote areas, where access to information and technology is limited, would be at a disadvantage when accessing this material.

Later that afternoon, candidates completed the Mathematics exam – marking the end of the first day of the 2026 High School Graduation Examination.

From June 13th to 30th, localities will grade exams according to the guidelines of the Ministry of Education and Training.

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