10th grade admission in Ho Chi Minh City: What will the exam be like?

2025 is the first year that 9th graders will take the 10th grade entrance exam according to the 2018 General Education Program. Therefore, the structure and content of the exam will also change.

Candidates complete procedures for the 10th grade entrance exam at the Ho Chi Minh City exam site in 2024 - Photo: DUYEN PHAN

Mr. Nguyen Bao Quoc, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, said: "The 10th grade entrance exam will focus on the requirements of the subjects in the 2018 GeneralEducation Program for secondary schools, mainly grades 9 and 8."

Increase application questions

According to Mr. Quoc, the knowledge distribution ratio in the 10th grade entrance exam this year will be adjusted. Specifically, questions at the level of recognition and understanding will be reduced and the ratio of application questions will be increased.

For entrance exams from 2024 and earlier, due to the application of the 2006 General Education Program, the number of questions at the recognition and comprehension level will account for 70 - 75% of the knowledge in the exam.

From 2025, the number of questions requiring recognition and understanding will be reduced to 60%, and the number of questions requiring application will increase to 40%. This adjustment aims to assess candidates' ability to apply acquired knowledge to solve practical problems - according to the orientation of the 2018 General Education Program.

"The literature test will be designed in an integrated manner between assessing reading comprehension and writing skills. The materials are completely outside the textbook. The content in the writing section is related to the text in the reading comprehension section.

Therefore, students need to grasp the genre characteristics of literary texts, informational texts, argumentative texts, common reading comprehension questions with these types of texts and how to answer those questions.

In the writing section, candidates need to have the skills to write paragraphs and essays. They can use the knowledge section of the essay type and checklists to check and review their writing to form and strengthen writing skills," said an official from the Department of Education and Training.

Similarly, the math exam will include knowledge of geometry and measurement; numbers and algebra; statistics and probability. The exam content aims to assess mathematical abilities such as mathematical thinking and reasoning; mathematical problem solving; mathematical modeling.

The English exam aims to assess language proficiency not only based on students' memorized knowledge of grammar and vocabulary.

This year’s exam will include questions that assess the ability to understand and apply language knowledge in appropriate contexts, especially real-life situations. The English exam is expected to have 40 questions.

What is new this year is that the exam will have two questions about writing appropriate phrases based on the given information. This question is to test the candidate's ability to read dictionary notes to find linguistic information and apply knowledge.

10th grade entrance exam process

According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, the council that creates the 10th grade entrance exam questions will have a chairman who is a department leader; the vice chairman of the council will be a department leader or a leader of a department under the department.

In addition, the department will assign and mobilize staff to work as secretaries, council members, security guards, medical staff , service staff, etc. The police force working at the exam council will be mobilized by the City Police.

"The test questions will be made in accordance with the requirements on content and form; ensuring scientificity , accuracy and suitability with the program. In which, the secretary and test question committee members must be specialists, managers, lecturers and teachers with good professional capacity and understanding of the secondary school subject program.

Each exam subject will have at least one secondary school teacher participating in creating the exam questions," an official from the Department of Education and Training informed.

Regarding duties and powers, the exam council will develop a master plan for drafting and reviewing exam questions; printing and copying exam questions; directing and coordinating the activities of exam questions and printing and copying exam questions; resolving issues arising during the implementation process; ensuring security, safety and confidentiality of exam questions according to regulations; approving official exam questions, reserve exam questions, and guiding the grading of official exam questions and reserve exam questions; handing over exam bags to the exam transportation committee.

"The 10th grade entrance exam question board will work in a concentrated manner according to the principle of strict isolation from the beginning of the opening of the original exam bag seal until the end of the last exam session.

Even members who have entered the first round of the exam printing area must be completely isolated. Equipment and machinery that are damaged during the printing process can only be moved out of the printing area after the final exam session ends," the Department of Education and Training said.

It is known that when mobilizing cadres and teachers to perform tasks in the 10th grade entrance exam, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training selects people who meet the following conditions: have good moral qualities, have a sense of law compliance and a high sense of responsibility; have a firm grasp of regulations and professional skills in performing examinations; are not currently subject to disciplinary action or are under disciplinary review or are being prosecuted for criminal liability or have been convicted but have not yet expired the period of disciplinary action or criminal record removal.

In addition, officials and teachers whose relatives are taking the exam are not allowed to participate in organizing the 10th grade entrance exam.

Exam on June 6 and 7

The 2025 Ho Chi Minh City 10th grade entrance exam will take place on June 6 and 7. Candidates will take three subjects: literature, math, and foreign language. Candidates taking the specialized/integrated exam will take an additional specialized/integrated exam.

From the 2025-2026 school year, Ho Chi Minh City will only conduct specialized enrollment at two specialized high schools: Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted and Tran Dai Nghia High School for the Gifted.

Graphics: NGOC THANH

9,548 exam invigilators

Mr. Ho Tan Minh, chief of office of the Department of Education and Training of the city, said that this year's 10th grade entrance exam had 76,435 candidates registered, a decrease of 27,330 students compared to last year.

"To ensure the exam takes place seriously and safely, the department has mobilized 9,548 teachers to supervise the exam and 1,846 support staff, and organized inspections of facilities at exam sites on June 4 and applied security procedures similar to those for the high school graduation exam," said Mr. Minh.

Traffic police use special vehicles to take candidates to the exam site

Traffic police of Bac Giang Provincial Police pick up a student at the Bac Giang Provincial Convention Center in front of 3-2 Square (Bac Giang City) which was deeply flooded after heavy rain - Photo: Bac Giang Provincial Police

After the heavy rain on the morning of June 4 in Bac Giang City (Bac Giang Province), images of special traffic police vehicles going to flooded streets and roads to take students to the 10th grade entrance exam were shared by many social media accounts.

Many parents expressed that the 10th grade entrance exam is very important in their children's lives, but due to the deep flood, it was difficult to move. Fortunately, specialized traffic police vehicles arrived in time to take the children to the exam site on time.

Binh Dinh: essay topic about preserving traditional values ​​in the integration trend

After finishing the 10th grade literature exam on the morning of June 4, many candidates in Binh Dinh shared that this year's exam was very open, requiring high and close connections to life, but it was difficult to achieve a perfect score. The exam consisted of two parts: reading comprehension (4 points) based on the poem "Homeland" by Nguyen Binh and writing (6 points).

Candidate Le Kieu Anh (Quang Trung Secondary School) said that the reading comprehension section requires the application of basic knowledge such as identifying topics, listing, rhetorical devices... but from question 4 to question 5 the difficulty increases gradually.

"From the two verses in the excerpt, I draw the message that each person's hometown has its own beauty, a source of pride every time they go far away," Kieu Anh said.

"Question 2 requires you to present your thoughts on preserving and promoting traditional national values ​​in the integration trend. You give examples of pop songs that incorporate traditional instruments, ancient melodies... even though society has changed a lot and is more modern, young people still try to preserve national values," contestant Lam Anh Kiet (Luong The Vinh Secondary School) shared.

HOANG HUONG - HA QUAN - MINH CHIEN

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tuyen-sinh-lop-10-o-tp-hcm-de-thi-se-ra-nhu-the-nao-20250604224355489.htm