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TN THPT
Kỳ thi tốt nghiệp Trung học Phổ thông (National High School Graduation Examination)
🎓 High School Graduation and Undergraduate University Admission Offline, paper-based, administered at designated provincial examination sites. ⏱ Valid: A given year's TN THPT result is used for that year's university admission cycle; the graduation certificate itself, once awarded, does not expire, though the score's use for a specific year's admissions is generally… Since 2015 ⚡ Regarded as demanding less because any individual question is unusually obscure and more because the exam must simultaneously discriminate among a huge range of student ability — from those just aiming to graduate to…
🕐 Last updated: September 8, 2026
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Quick Summary

TN THPT is Vietnam's national Grade 12 exam, administered once a year by MOET since being merged into its current dual-purpose form in 2015, and its defining structural trait is serving two separate functions from a single sitting — legally certifying high school graduation while simultaneously feeding into university admission rankings. Students take four subjects — compulsory Literature and Mathematics plus two chosen electives — with Literature alone still graded as a full written essay while every other subject uses objective, machine-scored item formats that were restructured again in 2025 to include true/false clusters and short-answer items alongside standard multiple-choice. Because the same subject scores must both clear a graduation threshold and produce enough spread to rank competitive university applicants, MOET calibrates the exam unusually carefully, and most Vietnamese universities convert a student's chosen three-subject combination into their own admissions aggregate rather than relying on one uniform national cutoff. This makes TN THPT distinct from every other exam in this comparison set, since Pakistan's MDCAT, Indonesia's SNBT, and Thailand's TGAT each serve admission alone, with no legal graduation function attached.

📋 Exam Overview
🎯
Score Range
0 to 10 per subject for graduation purposes; university admission calculations typically scale a chosen three-subject combination up to a 0-30 aggregate.
💳
Fee
📅
Valid For
A given year's TN THPT result is used for that year's university admission cycle; the graduation certificate itself, once awarded, does not expire, though the score's use for a specific year's admissions is generally tied to that same year.
🖥
Mode
Offline, paper-based, administered at designated provincial examination sites.
🗓
Frequency
Once a year
🏛
Conducted By
Ministry of Education and Training (Bộ Giáo dục và Đào tạo, MOET), coordinated with provincial Departments of Education and Training
⚡
Difficulty
Regarded as demanding less because any individual question is unusually obscure and more because the exam must simultaneously discriminate among a huge range of student ability — from those just aiming to graduate to those competing for the most selective university programs — within the same paper. Literature in particular is considered challenging because its essay prompts deliberately draw on text passages outside the standard textbook, requiring genuine independent literary analysis rather than recall of a memorized model answer.
🌍 Accepted By
Used to varying degrees by the large majority of Vietnamese public and private universities as one input into their admission formulas, alongside other pathways like standardized competency-assessment exams and academic transcript review.
Vietnam's dual-purpose national exam, where a single sitting decides both whether a student graduates high school and how they rank for university admission
👤 Who Should Take This Exam?
Every student completing Grade 12 in Vietnam's general education system must sit TN THPT, since passing it is the sole legal route to receiving a high school graduation certificate, regardless of whether that student plans to attend university at all. A student who intends only to graduate and enter the workforce or vocational training still takes the same exam as a student aiming for a top university, which is precisely what makes TN THPT structurally different from most other countries' exams in this batch — nearly all of them serve either graduation or admission, not both simultaneously. Students targeting competitive universities additionally need to research each specific institution's own weighting formula ahead of time, since Vietnamese universities increasingly blend TN THPT scores with separate aptitude tests and academic transcripts rather than relying on the graduation exam score alone. Adult learners completing an equivalent continuing-education program also sit a version of this same exam to obtain their graduation certificate.
🎓 Education Level
Secondary Education Graduation and Undergraduate University Admission
🌍 Accepted In
Vietnam
📝 Exam Structure & Format
Question Types
Multiple-choice format for most subjects (including multiple-choice, true/false-set, and short-answer item types under the current structure), while Literature alone remains a written essay exam.
Language / Medium
Vietnamese, with a separate Foreign Language paper (commonly English)
Total Duration
Varies by subject: Literature runs 120 minutes, Mathematics 90 minutes, the combined Science or Social Science group 150 minutes (50 minutes per component subject), and Foreign Language 60 minutes.
Total Questions
Varies by subject and paper; question counts differ across Mathematics, the Science/Social Science component subjects, and Foreign Language, while Literature is scored as an essay rather than a fixed question count.
Sections
Literature (compulsory), Mathematics (compulsory), plus two elective subjects chosen from Foreign Language, History, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography, Economic and Legal Education, Informatics, and Technology
⚙️ More format details (timing, marking, equipment)See all ▾
Time Per Section
Literature: 120 minutes. Mathematics: 90 minutes. Science/Social Science elective subjects: 150 minutes combined, split into roughly 50 minutes per component subject. Foreign Language: 60 minutes.
Negative Marking
No — objective (multiple-choice-style) questions award positive marks for correct answers with no deduction for incorrect ones; Literature is graded qualitatively by examiners against an official marking rubric rather than through negative marking.
Calculator Allowed
Yes — a basic non-programmable calculator is generally permitted for Mathematics and relevant science subjects, subject to specific model restrictions set by MOET each year.
Scratch Paper
Rough-work space is provided directly within the answer booklet for calculations and planning, particularly for the Literature essay and Mathematics.
Breaks Allowed
Breaks are scheduled between different subject papers across the exam's multiple sessions, though there are no breaks within a single subject's continuous testing time.
Home Edition
No — TN THPT is administered only at designated provincial examination sites under direct government supervision.
📑 Section Details
Literature is the only subject still tested through a full written essay rather than objective questions, and its prompts deliberately use text passages from outside the standard textbook to test independent literary analysis rather than memorized interpretation. Mathematics and the elective subjects use a structured item mix — standard four-option multiple-choice, a true/false-statement cluster scored together as one question, and short-answer items with no answer options provided — a format introduced in the exam's most recent structural overhaul. Since 2025, students take only two elective subjects rather than the previously required broader combination, narrowing the total exam load to four subjects overall (Literature, Mathematics, plus two electives) compared to the wider subject combinations required in earlier years.
🎯 Scoring System
Score Range
0 to 10 per subject for graduation purposes; university admission calculations typically scale a chosen three-subject combination up to a 0-30 aggregate.
Good / Passing Score
A student must achieve a passing weighted average combining exam scores and in-school assessment, with MOET-defined minimum conditions per subject, to be awarded the high school graduation certificate; the precise…
See all ▾
A student must achieve a passing weighted average combining exam scores and in-school assessment, with MOET-defined minimum conditions per subject, to be awarded the high school graduation certificate; the precise numeric threshold is set through MOET's official graduation recognition formula rather than a single flat pass mark.
How Scoring Works
Each subject is scored on a 0-10 scale, with Literature graded by trained examiners against an official rubric while objective subjects are machine-scored from answer sheets. For university admission, most institutions convert a student's chosen three-subject combination (a "khối thi" such as Math-Physics-Chemistry or Math-Literature-English) into a combined score out of 30, which then feeds into that university's specific admission formula alongside other possible components like academic transcripts or a separate competency-assessment exam score. Because the same underlying subject scores serve both a pass/fail graduation decision and a competitive admissions ranking, MOET calibrates the exam to distinguish clearly among high performers while still keeping the graduation bar reasonably attainable for the general student population.
🏆 Minimum Scores for Top Universities
For graduation purposes, a student generally needs an average score across their subjects (weighted with in-school continuous-assessment marks) above a defined minimum threshold, with no individual subject typically allowed to score at the very bottom of the scale. For university admission, minimum entry thresholds ("điểm sàn") are set independently by each university and program based on that year's applicant pool, and top programs at institutions like Vietnam National University, Hanoi, or Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology have historically required combined three-subject aggregates well into the upper end of the 0-30 scale. Because these thresholds are set fresh by each university every year rather than fixed nationally, published cutoffs shift meaningfully year to year based on how the applicant pool performed overall.
📊 Section / sub-scoresSee all ▾
Writing
Carried entirely by the Literature essay paper, which examiners grade by hand against an official rubric rather than machine-scoring it.
Reading
Assessed as part of the Foreign Language paper's overall score for students taking a language as their elective subject.
Grammar
Assessed within the Foreign Language paper's overall score for students choosing that subject as an elective, though not broken out as a fully separate figure.
Quantitative
Reported directly through the Mathematics subject score, a compulsory component for every student regardless of their intended university track.
Subject
Reported individually for each of the four subjects taken — Literature, Mathematics, and two chosen electives — each scored on its own 0-10 scale.
All Sub-Scores
Individual subject scores (Literature, Mathematics, and the two elective subjects) are reported separately on a 0-10 scale each, which students and universities then combine into different three-subject aggregates depending on the specific admission combination required.
🔼 Score Improvement
MOET does not publish a standardized retake-improvement statistic, and because TN THPT is held once per year in a fixed national window, a student generally cannot resit within the same academic year.
💳 Registration & Fees
Fee (USD)
Fee (INR)
📝 Register Now →
📋 Policies (rescheduling, cancellation, verification, waivers)See all ▾
⏰ Register in Advance
Registration for Grade 12 students is typically coordinated through their own high school several months ahead of the June exam date, following a nationally set MOET timeline.
🔄 Rescheduling Policy
TN THPT runs on fixed nationally set dates each year with no individual rescheduling option; a student unable to sit generally must wait for the next annual cycle or a specifically arranged makeup session for documented emergencies.
🔍 Score Verification
Yes — students may formally request a rescoring (phúc khảo) of their answer sheet or essay within a set window after results are announced if they believe an error occurred.
📋 Score Audit
Handled through the official phúc khảo (rescoring) request process, where a student can have a specific subject's answer sheet or essay formally re-examined within the published window after results are released.
↩ Reinstatement Policy
No
🎁 Fee Waiver Criteria
Fee exemptions have historically applied to students registering solely for graduation recognition rather than for university admission purposes, along with other need-based or policy-based exemptions MOET periodically defines.
📅 Exam Dates & Schedule
📆 Available Months
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
🔁 Frequency
Once a year
📊 Results Declared
Results tend to surface within a few weeks of the exam dates, timed ahead of university admission application deadlines for that cycle.
🔄 Retake Policy
Because TN THPT is held only once per year on a fixed national schedule, a student who does not pass or wants a better score for admission purposes generally must wait for the following year's cycle to retest.
⏰ Register By
Registration for Grade 12 students is typically coordinated through their own high school several months ahead of the June exam date, following a nationally set MOET timeline.
✅ Eligibility & Access
🎂 Age Limit
No upper age limit; both current Grade 12 students and adult learners completing an equivalent continuing-education program are eligible to sit the exam.
🎓 Education Required
Completion of the Grade 12 general education curriculum, or an equivalent continuing-education program recognized by MOET, is required to register.
🛂 Citizenship
Primarily intended for Vietnamese students completing secondary education within Vietnam's national curriculum; separate pathways generally apply for foreign students or those completing an international curriculum seeking Vietnamese university admission.
More on accommodations, ID, and special versionsSee all ▾
🪪 ID Required
A valid student ID card or national ID, along with the official exam admission slip issued through the student's school, is checked before entry to the examination site.
♿ Accessibility
Extended time and other accommodations are arranged for students with documented disabilities through their school and provincial education authorities ahead of the exam date.
🔀 Special Versions
A parallel version exists for adult learners completing an equivalent continuing-education (giáo dục thường xuyên) program, differing slightly in elective subject options from the standard general-education track.
📐 Subject Variants
Students choose two elective subjects from a defined list — Foreign Language, History, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography, Economic and Legal Education, Informatics, and Technology — alongside the compulsory Literature and Mathematics papers, a structure introduced with the exam's most recent overhaul.
🤝 Disability Accommodations
Accommodations such as extended time or assisted arrangements are available for students with documented disabilities, coordinated through their school and the relevant provincial Department of Education and Training ahead of the exam.
🗓 Exam Day Guide
✅ What to Bring
Exam admission slip, valid student or national ID, and permitted stationery along with an approved calculator model for relevant subjects.
🚫 Prohibited Items
Mobile phones, smartwatches, unauthorized reference materials, and any recording or communication device are strictly barred from the examination room.
📋 Exam Day Rules
Students must arrive at their assigned provincial examination site ahead of each subject's scheduled session, since late arrival beyond a short grace window typically forfeits that subject's attempt, and strict rules govern permitted items inside the exam room.
After the exam: score reporting and deliverySee all ▾
⏱ Score Reporting
Typically within a few weeks of the exam dates.
📤 Score Sending
Results are entered into MOET's national database and accessed directly by universities during their admission process, alongside the student's own ability to view results through the official portal; there is no separate manual score-sending step required for most admission pathways.
🎓 Score Recipients
Provincial education authorities record results for graduation certification, while universities access the same scores directly through MOET's centralized system for admission ranking.
📚 Preparation Guide
🗓 Avg Prep Months
10 months
Because TN THPT must serve both a graduation threshold and a competitive admissions ranking at once, preparation strategy differs meaningfully depending on a student's goal — a student aiming only for graduation can focus on covering baseline content across all four subjects, while one targeting a competitive university program needs to push well beyond that baseline in their specific three-subject admission combination. Literature preparation in particular benefits from practicing analysis of unfamiliar text passages rather than memorizing model essays, since MOET has deliberately shifted prompts to draw on material outside standard textbooks. Because Mathematics and the electives now use a mixed item format — standard multiple-choice, true/false clusters, and short-answer items — students need targeted practice with each specific format rather than assuming multiple-choice test-taking skills alone will transfer.
💡 Top Tips & Tricks
Because the objective-subject item format now includes true/false clusters scored as a single question, students should specifically practice that format rather than assuming standard multiple-choice strategy transfers directly, since a single misjudged statement within a cluster affects the whole item's score. For Literature, practicing structured analysis of genuinely unfamiliar passages under timed conditions tends to build more transferable skill than memorizing a model essay for a specific known text.
Full study plan, resources, and common mistakesSee all ▾
📅 Study Plan
A typical approach spans the full final year of secondary school, with early months focused on comprehensive content review across all compulsory and chosen elective subjects, and the final few months narrowing toward intensive practice in the specific three-subject combination relevant to a student's target university programs. Since Literature's essay format rewards analytical skill built over time rather than last-minute cramming, sustained practice with varied unfamiliar texts throughout the year tends to matter more there than for objective subjects, where late-stage timed drilling can still meaningfully raise scores. Many students supplement school instruction with private tutoring or after-school prep centers specifically for their admission-combination subjects, since the exam's admissions function pushes competitive students well beyond the school curriculum's baseline coverage.
📖 Recommended Books
MOET-approved textbooks for each subject remain the core syllabus reference, supplemented by widely used private-sector review guides and practice-question compilations tailored to each common three-subject admission combination (khối thi).
🏫 Popular Prep Courses
Private tutoring centers and after-school prep programs organized around common admission combinations (khối thi) are widely used across Vietnamese cities, alongside school-organized supplementary review sessions in the final term.
📱 Popular Prep Apps
Various Vietnamese exam-prep platforms and mobile apps offering subject-specific practice questions aligned to MOET's official reference exam structure are commonly used by Grade 12 students.
✅ Official Practice Tests
MOET releases an official annual reference exam structure (đề thi tham khảo) for each subject ahead of the real exam, giving students and teachers a concrete preview of that year's format and difficulty calibration. — Free — MOET's official reference exam papers and structure guidance are published without charge.
🆓 Free Online Resources
MOET publishes the official reference exam structure (đề thi tham khảo) for each subject ahead of the exam, and past years' official papers and answer keys are made publicly available through MOET and provincial education department channels.
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid
Treating TN THPT preparation as purely a graduation formality is a common mistake for students who later realize they need a strong admissions-combination score, since by then there's limited time left to close the gap between baseline graduation-level preparation and competitive university-level performance. Relying on memorized model Literature essays rather than practicing genuine textual analysis is another frequent misstep, since MOET's current approach specifically tests unfamiliar material to discourage exactly that kind of rote preparation.
💡 EduAtlasHub Exclusive Insights
🔍 Insider Tips
Understand the regional and ethnic priority point system as it can significantly boost your admission chances. Always double-check that the code on your question paper matches the code on your answer sheet immediately upon receipt.
⭐ Unique Features
TN THPT's defining structural feature, unlike most other national exams in this comparison set, is genuinely serving two separate functions from one sitting — legally certifying high school graduation and simultaneously ranking students for university admission — rather than being built for one purpose alone. Literature's continued use of a full written essay format, even as every other subject has moved toward objective item types, is also a distinctive holdout reflecting the subject's emphasis on independent analytical writing. The exam's periodic large-scale restructuring, including the 2025 shift to a narrower two-elective-subject model and a mixed multiple-choice/true-false/short-answer item format, further shows MOET actively recalibrating the exam's dual graduation-and-admission balance over time rather than leaving the format static.
🎓 How This Score Impacts Your Application
TN THPT results serve two entirely distinct functions from the same sitting: MOET uses a weighted combination of exam scores and in-school assessment to decide graduation, while universities separately convert a student's chosen three-subject combination into an admissions aggregate under each institution's own formula. Because Vietnamese universities increasingly supplement this with their own competency-assessment exams and transcript-based review, a strong TN THPT score alone doesn't guarantee admission to the most selective programs the way it more directly determined admission in earlier years before universities diversified their evaluation methods. This dual function is also why the exam's difficulty calibration is unusually delicate — MOET must keep the graduation bar reasonably attainable for the general population while still producing enough score spread at the top to meaningfully rank competitive university applicants.
More insights: country notes, comparisons, myths, examiner tipsSee all ▾
🌍 Country-Specific Notes
TN THPT is unique to Vietnam's education system and reflects a deliberate policy choice — formalized when the graduation exam and university entrance exam were merged into one national sitting in 2015 — to reduce the number of separate high-stakes exams students previously had to sit. The exam and its format have continued to evolve since, including a significant 2025 restructuring of subject choices and question-item types tied to Vietnam's broader curriculum reform.
⚖️ Comparison with Alternatives
Unlike Pakistan's MDCAT or Indonesia's SNBT, which exist purely for admission purposes and have no graduation function at all, TN THPT is unusual in this group for simultaneously deciding high school graduation and feeding directly into university admissions from the same exam sitting. Compared to Thailand's TCAS system, where TGAT and TPAT scores are separate, optional-by-program tests layered on top of an already-completed secondary education, TN THPT is compulsory for every graduating student regardless of their university plans, making its reach across the student population considerably broader than a purely admissions-focused test would have.
🆕 Recent Changes
The biggest structural shift took effect from 2025, narrowing the elective-subject requirement to two chosen subjects (down from the broader combinations required in earlier years) and introducing a new mixed item format across objective subjects — standard multiple-choice, a true/false statement cluster scored as one question, and short-answer items with no options — replacing the previous four-option-only format.
🔜 Upcoming Changes
MOET has indicated the exam's structure and question-item calibration will continue to be refined in coming cycles as part of its broader ongoing curriculum reform, with officials stating the aim of better balancing the exam's dual graduation and university-admission functions.
🧐 Myths vs Facts
A common misconception is that TN THPT functions purely as a graduation formality with little bearing on university admission; in fact, for most Vietnamese universities it remains one of the primary admission inputs, with a student's three-subject combination score often converted directly into a competitive admissions aggregate. Another frequent assumption is that all subjects are tested identically; in reality, Literature alone is graded as a full written essay by human examiners, while every other subject uses objective, machine-scored item formats — a structural difference that changes how each subject should be prepared for.
📋 Post-Exam Steps
After results are released, students should first confirm their graduation status, then calculate their relevant admissions aggregate for each specific three-subject combination required by their target university programs, since the same four subject scores can combine differently depending on which khối thi a program requires. Students who suspect a scoring error can file a formal phúc khảo (rescoring) request within the published window, and comparing that year's results against previous years' published university-specific admission thresholds helps calibrate realistic expectations before application deadlines.
🎯 Score Uses Beyond Admission
Beyond university admission, the TN THPT result is also the formal basis for the high school graduation certificate itself, a legal document required for many subsequent employment and further-education pathways in Vietnam regardless of whether a student pursues university at all.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
How long is the TN THPT score valid?+
A given year's TN THPT result is used for that year's university admission cycle; the graduation certificate itself, once awarded, does not expire, though the score's use for a specific year's admissions is generally tied to that same year.
How much does the TN THPT cost?+
Please check the official website for current fee information.
How often can I retake the TN THPT?+
Because TN THPT is held only once per year on a fixed national schedule, a student who does not pass or wants a better score for admission purposes generally must wait for the following year's cycle to retest.
When are TN THPT results declared?+
Results tend to surface within a few weeks of the exam dates, timed ahead of university admission application deadlines for that cycle.
Which universities accept the TN THPT?+
Used to varying degrees by the large majority of Vietnamese public and private universities as one input into their admission formulas, alongside other pathways like standardized competency-assessment exams and academic transcript review.
Is a calculator allowed in the TN THPT?+
Yes — a basic non-programmable calculator is generally permitted for Mathematics and relevant science subjects, subject to specific model restrictions set by MOET each year.
How should I prepare for the TN THPT?+
Because TN THPT must serve both a graduation threshold and a competitive admissions ranking at once, preparation strategy differs meaningfully depending on a student's goal — a student aiming only for graduation can…
📝
Register for TN THPT
Vietnam's dual-purpose national exam, where a single sitting decides both whether a student graduates high school and how they rank for university admission
Register Now →
📊 Quick Facts
Official Site →
Conducted ByMinistry of Education and Training (Bộ Giáo dục và Đào tạo, MOET), coordinated with provincial Departments of Education and Training
Year Started2015
CategoryHigh School Graduation and Undergraduate University Admission
Last UpdatedSeptember 8, 2026
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