Recently, nearly 2,000 candidates participated in the 10th grade entrance exam at the High School for the Gifted in Natural Sciences . In the 2025-2026 school year, the school will enroll 525 10th grade students in 5 specialized groups including Math, Informatics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology; each specialized group has 105 students. Candidates applying for each specialized group must take all 3 conditional exams: Literature, English, and conditional Math (round 1). In which, the scores for Literature and English must be 4 points or higher. The admission score is calculated according to the formula: Math score (round 1) + specialized subject score (multiplied by a factor of 2).
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| Candidates taking the 10th grade entrance exam at the High School for Natural Sciences recently. Photo: University of Natural Sciences |
Talking about the Math exam (round 1) of the High School for the Gifted in Natural Sciences this year, Dr. Tran Nam Dung, Vice Principal of the Gifted High School (Ho Chi Minh City National University), initially thought that the Math exam was suitable because it had a high level of classification.
The exam had easy questions like question 1, question 2a, the first two ideas of the geometry problem; there were more challenging questions like the inequality question, the last idea of the geometry problem and the combination question. But after realizing that the conditional math question (a common question for all specialized blocks of the school) and this question only took 120 minutes, Dr. Tran Nam Dung was startled. According to him, such a general math question was as difficult as the specialized questions of strong provinces.
A math expert shared that the exam questions of this school are difficult but old, just "rehashed", without any new or breakthrough points. Difficulty seems to be the "specialty" of the exam questions of the High School for Natural Sciences. According to this expert, the general math questions for natural sciences should be easy, straightforward, testing basic knowledge and basic thinking skills. Advanced problems should only be included in specialized questions.
After the first round of this year’s Math exam of the High School for Natural Sciences appeared, many mathematicians expressed their concerns about the difficulty of the exam. According to them, the exam is aiming at negative learning methods, exam preparation, and tricks to become “solvers”, which goes against the goal of the 2018 generaleducation program, which is aimed at assessing students’ abilities.
"Test solver"
Prof. Dr. Le Anh Vinh, Director of the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences, Ministry of Education and Training (who has been the captain of the Vietnam Mathematical Olympiad team for more than 10 years leading the team to compete in the International Mathematical Olympiad) shared that it is undeniable that the basic specialized exam questions are elaborately designed, have a high level of difficulty and good "classification ability". However, when looking at the exam questions of a school, Prof. Le Anh Vinh was really concerned.
According to him, if we do not adjust the orientation of the exam questions, we will continue to maintain a learning environment where exam preparation becomes a burden, and technical preparation is equated with thinking ability. These types of questions favor students who have practiced hundreds of sample questions, not students who have a natural thinking ability, love mathematics but have not had access to advanced exam preparation programs.
“A specialized 10th grade entrance exam should aim to find students with potential and independent thinking, not just to select the best test-solver,” Professor Le Anh Vinh said.
Meanwhile, many scientists and former students of the High School for Natural Sciences said that the exam questions were not much different from 30 years ago in terms of difficulty, structure, and types of math problems.
Speaking to reporters, Prof. Dr. Vu Hoang Linh, Chairman of the University Council, University of Natural Sciences, affirmed that in response to public opinion, the school will accept and forward it to the proposal committee for consideration, and can draw lessons for the following years.
Source: https://tienphong.vn/de-thi-tuyen-sinh-lop-10-chuyen-kho-den-soc-nhiet-post1748071.tpo
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