Ho Chi Minh City: More than 76,000 candidates complete 10th grade entrance exam procedures

On the morning of June 5, more than 76,000 9th grade students in Ho Chi Minh City went to 142 examination councils to complete procedures and participate in the regulations for the 10th grade entrance exam for the 2025-2026 school year.

The official exam will take place on June 6 and 7 with three subjects: Literature, Math (120 minutes each) and Foreign Language (90 minutes). Candidates registering for specialized schools and integrated classes will take an additional specialized or integrated subject exam for 150 minutes.

According to the Ho Chi Minh City Departmentof Education and Training, this year there were 76,435 candidates registered for the exam, while the total enrollment target for public high schools was 70,070 students, equivalent to an admission rate of about 79%. This is a much higher rate than previous years, when each year there were about 20,000 students who failed to pass the exam. This year, this number has dropped to more than 6,000 candidates, significantly reducing the pressure on students and parents.

Candidates were taken by relatives to the exam site at Vo Thanh Trang Secondary School, Tan Phu District.

The reason is said to be due to the significant decrease in the number of 9th grade students this year, leading to a decrease in competitive pressure in the entrance exam to public 10th grade. This is clearly shown through the sharp decrease in the "competition" ratio at many schools. In particular, Tran Dai Nghia Secondary and High School is the school with the highest competition ratio in Ho Chi Minh City at 1/2.9 if counting both regular and integrated classes. For regular classes alone, the competition ratio is 1/3.14, which is also the highest and only one exceeding the 3.0 threshold this year.

Another notable point is that some public schools that have always been at the top in terms of competition rates such as Nguyen Thuong Hien High School, Gia Dinh High School... are absent from the top 10 schools with the highest "competition" rates for the first time this year.

On the contrary, there are 44 public high schools with a competition ratio of less than 1, meaning the number of candidates registering is less than the enrollment quota, opening up a higher chance of admission for students applying to these schools.

According to the Department of Education and Training, the 2025 Grade 10 Entrance Exam is the first Grade 10 exam under the 2018 General Education Program. There are important changes in the structure and language of the exam that candidates need to pay special attention to.

The 2018 General Education Program aims to assess students' abilities and their ability to apply learned knowledge to solve specific life situations. Therefore, in this year's 10th grade entrance exam, the distribution of knowledge levels in the exam questions in all 3 subjects has also been adjusted to reduce the level of recognition and understanding and increase the application rate. The most obvious change in this year's 10th grade literature exam is that the exam materials will not be included in textbooks.

Ho Chi Minh City currently has nearly 19,500 quotas in the system of private schools, continuing education and secondary schools, ready to meet the learning needs of students who are not admitted to public schools.

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training said that the exam marking is expected to take place from June 8 to 25. The exam scores, benchmark scores and review time will be announced later, based on the progress of the exam marking and actual results processing.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/giao-duc/tp-ho-chi-minh-hon-76-000-thi-sinh-hoan-tat-thu-tuc-thi-vao-lop-10-i770630/