Vietnam THPT

Overview

The National High School Graduation Exam (Ky thi tot nghiep Trung hoc Pho thong, commonly shortened to THPT exam) is Vietnam's nationwide exam at the end of grade 12. It is run by the Ministry of Education and Training (Bo Giao duc va Dao tao, MOET) through the Departments of Education and Training of each province and city. A single sitting serves two purposes at once: it decides whether a student is awarded the high school graduation certificate, and its scores are used by universities and colleges as one of their main admission routes.

Who can apply

• Students completing grade 12 in the current school year, registered through their school.

• "Free candidates" (thi sinh tu do): people who finished the general-education or continuing- education programme in an earlier year but have not yet obtained the graduation certificate, and people who already hold the certificate but want to sit the exam again to get a score for university admission. Free candidates register directly with their provincial Department of Education and Training rather than through a school.

Exam pattern

Since the 2025 exam (the first cohort under the 2018 general-education curriculum), candidates sit four papers instead of the earlier six: two compulsory subjects and one elective paper made up of two subjects chosen by the candidate. This structure continues for the 2026 exam.

Candidates choose their two elective subjects from whichever of those subjects they studied in grade 12; a common way to describe the choice is picking subjects weighted toward the natural sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Biology) or toward the social sciences (History, Geography, Economic and Legal Education), though mixing across the two groups is allowed. For 2026, MOET has said the exam's overall structure, format and the balance of knowledge/comprehension/ application questions stay stable compared with 2025, with no official sample questions released ahead of the exam.

Marking and results

Each subject is marked on a 10-point scale. For candidates taking the 2018-curriculum exam (2025 onward), a candidate's result used for graduation recognition combines two parts, each weighted 50%:

• The average of the exam scores for the four papers sat (plus any priority/encouragement points), and

• A weighted average of the candidate's in-school results across grades 10, 11 and 12, with grade 12 weighted most heavily (grade 10 counted once, grade 11 twice, grade 12 three times, then divided by six).

A candidate must meet minimum conditions set out in the exam regulations (for example, not failing any compulsory subject outright) to be recognised as having graduated; a candidate who does not meet them can resit in a later exam.

For university admission, the exam score is one input among several that institutions may use (see "After the exam" below); each university sets its own combination of subjects and weighting within the rules MOET publishes each year.

Important dates

For the 2026 exam, MOET's published schedule sets:

• Online registration (for both school candidates and free candidates): 24 April to 5pm on 5 May 2026.

• Exam days: 11-12 June 2026. Literature is sat on the morning of 11 June (120 minutes); Mathematics on the afternoon of 11 June (90 minutes); the two elective-subject papers are sat on the morning of 12 June (50 minutes each).

• Results: candidates can check their scores from the morning of 1 July 2026.

Exact timings for each session and any resit dates are confirmed by MOET closer to the exam and can change from year to year, so candidates should check the current year's official notice rather than relying on a previous year's schedule.

How to apply

• Grade-12 students register through their school, which collects registration forms and supporting documents and submits them to the provincial Department of Education and Training on the student's behalf.

• Free candidates register directly with the Department of Education and Training (or a registration point it designates) in the province where they live, rather than through a school.

• A typical application includes the printed registration form (signed by the candidate, and for free candidates confirmed by the local authority), a copy of the school transcript or an earlier graduation certificate depending on the candidate's situation, a recent passport-style photo, and any documents supporting priority or encouragement points.

• Free candidates who have not yet graduated must still sit both compulsory subjects (Literature, Mathematics) plus one elective paper of two subjects drawn from what they studied in grade 12.

After the exam

Candidates who meet the graduation conditions receive the high school graduation certificate. The same exam results also feed into university and college admissions: MOET allows each institution to use the graduation-exam score, the high-school transcript, its own entrance exam or assessment, or a combination of these, as long as the combined approach follows MOET's published rules for that admission year. For 2026, MOET's rules set a minimum eligibility bar for admission (a combined score across the three subjects of the chosen admission combination), and a separate, slightly higher minimum where a university admits mainly on the school transcript. Universities publish their own subject combinations, weightings and cut-off scores for each programme after results are released.

Preparation tips

• Decide on the two elective subjects early, based on both personal strength and the subject combinations required by the university programmes of interest, since this choice affects which papers are sat on 12 June.

• Work through MOET's released exam structure description and any officially published sample or reference materials for the current year, since format and difficulty balance are set out there rather than in a fixed syllabus document.

• Keep track of in-school results across all three grades, since grade 10-12 transcript marks make up half of the combined score used for graduation, under the weighting that favours grade 12.

• Confirm registration documents and deadlines with the school (or, for free candidates, the provincial Department of Education and Training) well before the registration window closes, since the registration period is short.

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