New points about the 10th grade exam of Ho Chi Minh City after the merger

After the merger, the HCM City Department of Education and Training will conduct the 10th grade enrollment, expected to begin in early June, using a common exam format with three compulsory subjects: math, literature, and foreign language. At the same time, the department is planning to conduct the enrollment exam in some specific areas.

GENERAL QUESTIONS WITH APPROPRIATE LEVELS OF DIFFERENTIATED THINKING

The 2026 grade 10 entrance exam is the first entrance exam of Ho Chi Minh City after merging with Binh Duong and the old Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

Candidates take the literature exam for the 10th grade entrance exam in Ho Chi Minh City in 2025

PHOTO: NHAT THINH

After the merger, Ho Chi Minh City currently has 458 public secondary schools with about 683,000 students, including about 150,000 grade 9 students. Mr. Nguyen Bao Quoc, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, said that all students, regardless of region 1 (former Ho Chi Minh City), region 2 (former Binh Duong) or region 3 (former Ba Ria-Vung Tau), will take the same exam.

Yesterday, the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City announced the structure and sample questions of 3 subjects for grade 10. In addition to maintaining the stability of the subjects and structure of the exam, the leader of the Department of Education and Training said that the content of the exam is still oriented towards testing the ability to apply knowledge to solve practical problems. As for the level of differentiation of questions, the department will calculate to suit the actual situation after the merger. Therefore, in the process of teaching, testing and evaluation, schools and teachers need to continue to innovate methods, linking teaching with practice. Encourage and guide students in self-studying ability, not to learn by rote...

CONTENT AND REQUIREMENTS OF THE LITERATURE EXAM

In literature, the 10th grade entrance exam will include 2 parts: reading comprehension of literary texts, writing paragraphs and reading comprehension of argumentative or informational texts and writing social argumentative essays. Of which 40% requires testing reading ability and 60% requires testing writing ability with the thinking level being 20% ​​recognition, the remaining is divided equally between understanding and application, each level is 40%.

The members of the literature test compilation board shared that the test was built according to the integrated orientation between assessing reading comprehension and writing ability, the content in the writing section is related to the text in the reading comprehension section. There is a question about Vietnamese in the reading comprehension section of the literary text.

In addition, members of the editorial board also pointed out some Vietnamese knowledge that students need to pay attention to during the learning and reviewing process: metaphor, metonymy, hyperbole, understatement, inversion, rhetorical questions, alliteration, rhyme: characteristics and effects; figurative words and onomatopoeia; isolated components in a sentence; explicit and implicit meanings of a sentence; imperative sentences, exclamatory sentences, shortened sentences and special sentences; the difference between direct and indirect quotation; how to use punctuation when quoting directly and indirectly.

THE MATH TEST HAS 4 REAL-LIFE PROBLEMS

For math, the exam will have 7 papers, of which 4 are practical math papers. The test content aims to assess mathematical abilities such as: mathematical thinking and reasoning, mathematical problem solving, mathematical modeling. The assessment basis is the requirements to be achieved in the 2018 General Education Program - math at secondary school level, mainly grades 8 and 9.

The math curriculum committee members said the assessment scope includes the following knowledge strands: geometry and measurement; numbers and algebra; statistics and probability.

Regarding the ratio of questions corresponding to the thinking level, the person in charge of compiling the exam said that there will be 30% of questions at the recognition level, 40% of questions at the comprehension level and 30% of questions at the application level.

The test will be oriented to assess students' ability to apply the knowledge they have learned to solve practical problems. Encourage self-study and creativity, avoid rote learning. The assessment content is to help students orient themselves on some necessary knowledge and skills when entering high school.

The Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City has announced the structure and sample questions of three 10th grade exam subjects for the 2026 exam.

Photo: Ngoc Long

Go to the English section

If literature and math, according to Mr. Nguyen Bao Quoc, are basically stable, similar to last year, then English will balance the level of thinking to suit the regions.

In terms of orientation, the English exam will assess language proficiency not only based on students' memorized knowledge of grammar and vocabulary but also their ability to understand and apply language knowledge in appropriate contexts, especially real-life situations.

The test has 40 questions in 4 parts: phonetics; vocabulary; grammar, communication; writing the correct form of words, writing appropriate phrases according to the given information; reading comprehension, reading and filling in words, reading comprehension and answering questions. There are 2 new questions about writing appropriate phrases according to the given information. This question tests the ability to read notes in the dictionary to find linguistic information and apply knowledge.

Specifically about the scope of assessment, the English exam compilation council member said that the phonetics knowledge content will test students' ability to pronounce basic vowels and consonants, and how to place word stress correctly.

In the vocabulary and grammar sections, students are required to have a variety of vocabulary types and word semantics according to the curriculum framework. Grammar points according to the curriculum framework, communication, connection to real-life situations, the ability to understand and respond to simple situations of real-life language.

In the writing section, students are required to write the correct word form to complete meaningful sentences, write simple sentences based on given information, and write sentences using their ability in grammatical structure and word combination.

And to test reading comprehension skills, the test will test students through a 180 - 200 word text and find information; read and fill in the blanks in a 80 - 100 word text.

Combination of entrance exam and selection

Mr. Nguyen Bao Quoc said that the first 10th grade entrance exam in Ho Chi Minh City after the merger is expected to combine both admission and entrance exams to suit reality.

Specifically, the 10th grade admission form for public high schools will be implemented in some specific areas. Public high schools in the remaining areas will enroll 10th grade students by entrance exam with 3 subjects: literature, math, foreign language. This is to maintain stability, create convenience for parents, students and schools after the merger of 3 localities.

The specialized departments will calculate and develop specific plans for each region and each school for admission and entrance exams in a reasonable manner to submit to the Director of the Department of Education and Training and carry out the steps according to regulations.

As Thanh Nien reported, immediately after the merger of the Department of Education and Training of 3 provinces and cities including Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau in July, Dr. Nguyen Van Hieu, Director of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, gave instructions on professional work. In which, he emphasized the development of a plan for admission to the first level of the 2026-2027 school year for the new Ho Chi Minh City.

The Director of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City directed the Department's General Education Department to take the lead and coordinate with the Quality Management Department to advise on the 10th grade enrollment plan for the 2026-2027 school year as soon as possible so that students and teachers of educational institutions can know and orient themselves in teaching and learning.

In addition, the Department of Education and Training is implementing a plan to synchronize student and teacher information on the industry database. The head of the Ho Chi Minh City education sector assigned the Department Office to preside over and coordinate with departments to review the database, ensure synchronization of the database of educational institutions in the 3 regions, and fully update it on the industry database. Take the lead in developing a plan to determine the coordinates of all educational institutions to prepare for the enrollment work at the beginning of the 2026-2027 school year.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nhung-diem-moi-ve-de-thi-lop-10-cua-tphcm-sau-sap-nhap-185251022230124675.htm