Candidates taking the 2024 Ho Chi Minh City National University's competency assessment exam - Photo: DUYEN PHAN
Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Thu Thuy - Director of the Department of Higher Education ( Ministry of Education and Training ) - affirmed that the draft university admission regulations from 2025 do not restrict any admission methods and candidates participating in capacity assessment exams, thinking assessment exams... are not affected.
Adjust the exam structure
In 2025, Ho Chi Minh City National University will continue to organize the V-ACT, with two scheduled exams on March 30 and June 1 in 25 provinces/cities, similar to 2024.
According to Dr. Nguyen Quoc Chinh - Director of the Center for Testing and Training Quality Assessment of Ho Chi Minh City National University, the structure of the V-ACT test from 2025 will be adjusted to suit the 2018 GeneralEducation Program.
Accordingly, the test still consists of 3 parts, but with adjustments compared to the current test, focusing mainly on the problem-solving part; keeping the structure of the language and mathematics parts, while increasing the number of questions in these two parts to increase the reliability and discrimination of the test.
The logic section – data analysis and problem solving – is restructured into a scientific thinking section to assess candidates' ability in logic and scientific reasoning when solving real-life situations in the fields of science, technology, economics and society.
The questions in the scientific thinking section are designed to provide information, data, facts, experimental planning, and experimental results, thereby requiring candidates to demonstrate their ability to understand and apply information, determine experimental results, and predict laws.
The exam still consists of 120 objective multiple choice questions with 150 minutes to complete and is done on paper. The exam results are determined by modern multiple choice methods according to the question response theory. The score of each question has different weights depending on the difficulty of the question.
The test score is converted by section. The maximum score of the test is 1,200 points, in which the maximum score for each component of the test is shown on the score sheet including: Vietnamese is 300 points, English is 300 points, mathematics is 300 points and scientific thinking is 300 points.
Adjust the way you ask questions
The Hanoi National University (HSA) Aptitude Test in 2025 will have 6 rounds, with about 85,000 candidates, of which the first round is expected to take place in mid-March 2025. On February 8, 2025, the registration portal for the 2025 HSA will open. On March 15, 2025, candidates are expected to take the first round of the test, and on May 17, 2025, the 6th round, which is also the final round of the year 2025.
According to Prof. Dr. Nguyen Tien Thao - Director of the Testing Center, Hanoi National University, the structure of the HSA exam in 2025 is adjusted to suit teaching and learning according to the new general education program, the exam questions are comprehensive, linked to practical problems.
The structure consists of 3 parts, including mathematics and data processing (50 questions, 75 minutes); language - literature (50 questions, 60 minutes); science (50 questions, 60 minutes).
The 2025 HSA exam will be adjusted mainly in the science section and the way questions are asked. After completing the first two parts, in the third part, candidates will be able to choose 3 out of 5 topics in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, history, and geography to complete the exam within 195 minutes (not including extra time for trial questions).
The HSA exam questions are about 75% multiple choice questions with 4 options and 25% fill-in-the-blank questions. The way the questions are asked and the content of the questions in the HSA exam will also change a lot, each exam topic will have cluster questions in all sections.
Cluster questions include general questions and specific questions that develop and assess candidates' abilities from low to high levels. Cluster questions will exploit rich data sources, assess students' thinking in each field and across fields; it can be a new topic with given material, requiring candidates to identify, analyze and propose solutions to the given problem.
The foreign language selection section will be developed into a separate component to replace the science section to assess specialized competencies.
In particular, in 2025, the questions in the exam will not be arranged from easy to difficult but will be randomly shuffled according to a fixed matrix.
Candidates in the thinking assessment exam room of Hanoi University of Science and Technology in 2024 - Photo: NGUYEN BAO
New structure for specialized competency assessment test
According to Master Nguyen Ngoc Trung - Vice Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, the school's specialized competency assessment exam from 2025 will have a new structure.
“The school’s specialized competency assessment exam from 2025 will have many improvements in the exam structure of math, physics, chemistry, biology and literature. As for English, the exam structure will remain the same as in previous years. This adjustment is to match the new general education program,” Mr. Trung added.
The test is designed in which the knowledge content of the grade 12 program accounts for 70 - 80%, the rest is the knowledge content of the grade 10 and 11 programs.
Math, physics, chemistry, and biology include 40 questions divided into 3 parts: Part 1 includes 25 objective test questions (divided into 2 different formats: multiple choice objective test, with 1 correct answer, and multiple choice objective test, with more than 1 correct answer).
Part 2 consists of 5 objective multiple choice questions using synthetic data; and part 3: 10 fill-in-the-blank questions.
The literature subject will consist of 22 questions and be divided into 3 parts: part 1 – reading comprehension with 20 multiple-choice objective test questions; part 2 – writing a short paragraph with 1 essay question; and part 3 – writing an essay with 1 essay question.
For English, the exam structure remains the same as in previous years, with an approach to the format of the test assessing proficiency from level 3 to level 5 according to the 6-level foreign language proficiency framework for Vietnam. The language used in the exam is diverse, taken from many different fields.
The test time for math, physics, chemistry, biology, literature is 90 minutes and for English is 180 minutes. Candidates read and do the test on the computer.
Hanoi National University of Education: Each exam session can only register for a maximum of 1 exam.
The 2025 Hanoi National University of Education (SPT) Competency Assessment Test will take place on May 17 and 18, 2025, at four testing locations: Hanoi National University of Education, Vinh University, Quy Nhon University, and University of Education (University of Danang).
Register for the SPT exam from March 15 to April 15, 2025. Candidates can choose to register for 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 exams. For each exam session, candidates can only register for a maximum of 1 exam.
Candidates can register for exams in the following subjects: math, literature, English, physics, chemistry, biology, history, and geography to use the exam results to apply for admission to majors according to the requirements of each university.
Hanoi University of Science and Technology has 3 rounds of thinking assessment exams.
In 2025, Hanoi University of Science and Technology plans to organize 3 rounds of Thinking Assessment (TSA) exams on weekends, each round will have 3-4 testing teams at 30 locations (reducing the number of testing rounds compared to 2024).
In addition to the previous testing sites, Hanoi University of Science and Technology will open a new testing site to support students in the Northwestern provinces (test site in Lao Cai province).
Phase 1 will take place on January 18 and 19, 2025, registration opening date June 1, 2025; phase 2 will take place on March 8 and 9, 2025, registration opening date June 1, 2025; phase 3 will take place on April 26 and 27, 2025, registration opening date June 1.
According to Hanoi University of Science and Technology, to conform to the new general education program, the content and format of the TSA exam have been implemented according to the design and will remain stable for many years to come.
The test consists of three parts: mathematical thinking (60 minutes), reading comprehension (30 minutes) and scientific thinking/problem solving (60 minutes). These are three independent parts, the test questions will focus on assessing the candidate's thinking ability in each part, not directly testing knowledge of any subject.
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