Double pressure: The 10th grade entrance exam.
(Baonghean.vn) - The competition rate for admission to 10th grade this year is not unexpected, as the pressure weighs heavily on students in the city and the central areas of suburban districts and towns. This is the reality in Nghe An in particular.
Pressure in suburban areas
Le Hong Phong Secondary School is considered a gifted school in Hung Nguyen district. For many years, the school has consistently achieved a 100% success rate in getting students admitted to public schools. In addition, many of the school's students have been admitted to specialized schools at the provincial level.
This year, according to statistics from Le Hong Phong Secondary School, over 90% of students registered for Thai Lao High School - a public high school located in the center of Hung Nguyen district town. The remaining students registered sporadically at Pham Hong Thai High School, Le Hong Phong High School, and some students registered for schools in Nam Dan district.
Many students shared that, compared to previous years, the 2024-2025 admissions season brought more pressure due to the entrance exams for primary and secondary schools.
In my most recent mock exam, I scored 20 points, very close to the entrance cutoff score for Thai Lao High School last year. I'm not very confident, so in addition to applying to Thai Lao High School as my first choice, I also registered Anh Son 2 High School as my second choice.
To create a positive mindset for students, Le Hong Phong Secondary School has recently intensified its review sessions. In addition, it has organized numerous exams and tests to help students accurately assess their abilities, providing a basis for applying to university entrance exams.
Although our school has a higher quality of students compared to many other schools in the area, we are not complacent, because we recognize that the entrance exam for 10th grade is becoming increasingly difficult. Besides the competition within the district, students from Hung Nguyen also have to compete with students from Vinh City who register to study in the district.
As expected, after the Department of Education and Training announced the admission method for 10th grade, Hung Nguyen was one of the localities with the highest number of applications and competition rate in the province. For example, at Thai Lao High School, this year the school only admitted 360 students but received 658 applications, resulting in an admission rate of only 54%.
Ms. Luu Thi Thanh Tra, the school's Vice Principal, stated: "Among the candidates registering for the entrance exam to Thai Lao High School, 131 are from schools in Vinh City, a higher number than in previous years. This will certainly create difficulties for students in the district, as the quality of students in Vinh City is higher than that of students in our district. This is also one of the reasons why the cut-off score at our school has increased rapidly in recent years. Last academic year, the school's cut-off score was 19.3 points, placing it among the schools with the highest cut-off scores in the province and exceeding 6 points compared to previous years."
According to statistics from 4 high schools in Hung Nguyen district this year, the entire district has 2,009 registered candidates. Of these, 1,549 are students from the district and 460 are students from outside the district, mainly from Vinh City.
Notably, Nguyen Truong To High School, despite being the furthest school in the district (in Hung Trung commune), had 133 students register for the entrance exam. With a total enrollment quota of 1,395 students, the average acceptance rate in Hung Nguyen district is approximately 69%.
At Nghi Loc 3 High School in Nghi Loc district – located near several communes in Vinh City such as Hung Loc, Nghi Duc, and Nghi An – this year there are also 94 students from Vinh City registering to take the entrance exam. Previously, anticipating the pressure of this year's enrollment season, the Department of Education and Training increased the school's enrollment quota by one class and subsequently increased class sizes to 45-48 students, but the enrollment figures for the first year of high school at the school remain difficult to predict.
I believe the figure of 94 students from Vinh City registering to take the entrance exam for the school is not the final number. Because after the exam, students will be able to change their preferences, and we anticipate that even more students will register for the school.
Like last year, initially we only had fewer than 90 students registering for the school as their first choice, but in reality, after the results were announced, 105 students from Vinh City were admitted. If the number of students from Vinh City continues to increase, students from the communes in Nghi Loc district will simultaneously face "double" pressure: competing with students from within the district and with students from Vinh City – where the quality of candidates is much higher.
Difficult to predict
The social media group "Nghe An Students" has over 49,000 members. Currently, interaction on the group is increasing, and the participants are mainly 9th-grade students in their final year. Monitoring shows that every day, the fan page receives dozens of questions from students related to the 10th-grade entrance exam, such as competition ratios, cut-off scores, exam predictions, and study discussions.
Earlier, more than a week ago, a debate also took place when some students from districts such as Hung Nguyen, Nghi Loc, Nam Dan, and Cua Lo town expressed concern about the large number of city students registering for entrance exams at district schools. The problem is that many students, after being admitted, only study for a short time before transferring back to schools in the central areas. Meanwhile, students from the districts are not able to study because they cannot compete with city students in terms of scores. After a school year, many schools lack students but are not allowed to recruit new ones.
For various reasons, in order to stabilize student enrollment, most public schools have stopped accepting second-choice applications in recent years, limiting the number of students from other regions applying. However, with the continuous increase in the number of 9th-grade students and the pressure of enrollment in central schools, students continue to flock to district schools in increasing numbers. The actual number of applications this year shows that most district schools, especially those near Vinh, have competition ratios ranging from 70-75%.
Each year, nearly 700 students from Vinh City register to take the entrance exam in the district. With the advantage of having good learning conditions from the junior high school level, these candidates subsequently occupy nearly 500 of the school's enrollment slots. This means that hundreds of students from the district lose the opportunity to attend public schools.
This is also one of the reasons why, in recent years, many junior high schools in Nghi Loc district have been aggressively implementing streaming, even to the point of "forcing" students not to take the entrance exam for grade 10 for fear of not being able to compete.
Regarding the Entrance Exam10th gradeThis year, one of the issues causing many parents and students anxiety is the difficulty in predicting the number of applicants, the competition ratio, and the admission scores. This is because, according to the regulations of this exam, students can change their preferences after completing the three exams. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that the number of students applying to schools will fluctuate significantly.
In this context, top-tier schools may see higher admission scores due to the large number of high-scoring students applying. Conversely, for lower-tier schools, calculations are difficult because the number of students entering and leaving is unpredictable, and students in the lower group will have little chance of being admitted as they will have to compete with students from the same examination center as well as many candidates from other examination centers transferring in.
Due to these specific characteristics, even though the Department of Education and Training has announced the enrollment quotas, the number of candidates, and the admission methods of schools, the 10th grade entrance exam remains "unpredictable." With over 44,000 students taking the exam, the race for places in public schools is expected to remain intense, as only about 75% of students will be admitted, with many schools having admission rates ranging from only 60-65%.
