Notable changes in the 2016 National High School Exam

Specifically: In 2016, the Ministry of Education and Training adjusted the organization of the National High School Exam in all provinces and centrally-run cities , avoiding the situation where candidates had to travel to other provinces to take the exam like last year, causing expense and hardship for candidates and their families.

All 63 provinces and cities can have exam clusters and two big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City can have many exam clusters to disperse exam takers into many exam clusters.

Depending on the province or city, it can organize a separate examination cluster or merge with another province or city, or vice versa, it can have many examination sites.

Candidates submit application for admission to Thuyloi University in 2015

Exam scores will also be announced at all exam clusters, not concentrated at a few locations like in 2015, for the convenience of candidates and to avoid network congestion.

Another point worth noting is that this year candidates will not be allowed to withdraw or change their application for admission to universities and colleges. Therefore, candidates need to consider and calculate carefully.

Applications for admission to universities and colleges will be submitted by post or online, instead of many forms including direct submission as in 2015.

In 2016, the admission period for universities and colleges was shortened to only 12 days, instead of 20 days as in 2015.

In the first round, candidates can apply to a maximum of 2 schools and a maximum of only 2 majors/school and cannot withdraw their application. Candidates have a total of 4 wishes and cannot withdraw their application once submitted.

This requires candidates to calculate their wishes as well as schools and majors that match their scores to ensure safety.

In the near future, the Ministry of Education and Training will announce software for students to access the Internet to register online. Candidates can only register for 2 schools; if they register for a third school, the system will reject them.

Deadline for application is October 30 for university and November 30 for college.

If not admitted, candidates can apply in the next round. The following rounds will be organized to receive applications within 10 days and each candidate can register for admission to 3 schools, each school with 2 wishes.

Each candidate who takes the high school graduation exam is given a single certificate of results by the school that organizes the exam. The candidate will then submit that single certificate to whichever university or college they choose to study at, even if they are admitted to many schools. The schools that receive this certificate will assume that the candidate will attend the exam.

Regarding the exam questions, the structure of the 2016 National High School Exam remains unchanged compared to 2015. The Ministry of Education and Training will announce the sample exam questions after Tet.