Review reading and writing skills, avoid mechanical rote learning
The entrance exam to 10th grade public high schools in Hanoi in the 2026 - 2027 school year will take place in two days, May 30 and 31, 2026 with 3 compulsory subjects including Mathematics, Literature and Foreign Language.
Sharing before the exam, Ms. Van Trinh Quynh An - Literature teacher, Hocmai education system - said that with Literature, students need to prioritize reviewing skills instead of learning scatteredly.
In the reading comprehension section, she emphasized practicing identifying elements in the text such as topic, image, details, tone, rhetorical measures, characters, perspective...; and at the same time paying attention to the characteristics of each genre: poetry needs to follow emotional flows, suggestive words; stories pay attention to characters, situations, details; argumentative texts need to identify the thesis, arguments, reasons and evidence.
For reading comprehension questions, students are advised to write concisely, in the right focus, without needing to explain too long but must have enough ideas. If the exam is not limited to form, it can be presented with bullet points to be clear.
In the writing part, she requires students to standardize the structure of literary essay paragraphs with full opening paragraphs - body paragraphs - ending paragraphs, in which the body paragraph must closely follow the requirements of the exam and be analyzed based on artistic elements. A mistake to avoid is turning the analysis into recounting the content of the text.
For social essays, she pointed out two main types of questions according to the structure of the topic: discussing life issues or discussing issues that need to be resolved. Each type needs to be implemented in specific steps such as explaining, discussing, giving evidence or stating the current situation, causes, solutions. She reminded students to use specific evidence, avoiding general and unconvincing writing.
According to Ms. An, current exam questions do not encourage mechanical rote learning but aim for reading comprehension and expressing personal opinions. Therefore, it is important to understand the problem correctly and present thoughts logically and clearly.
Do the test with strategy, allocate time reasonably
From the perspective of doing the exam, teacher Nguyen Phi Hung - Literature teacher, Hocmai Education System - believes that in the final sprint stage, students need to systemize core knowledge and practice skills instead of learning new content.
One of the important factors is to allocate time. The teacher suggests that students spend about 30 minutes on the reading comprehension part, about 40 minutes on the essay paragraph and 50–55 minutes on the essay essay, and leave at least the last 5 minutes to review the work errors.
In the process of doing the test, the teacher especially pays attention to reading the question carefully, correctly identifying the type of question, issue and scope of discussion by underlineing keywords. Identifying the wrong requirements can cause the test to go off-topic and lose points.
He also encourages students to quickly cross out ideas in drafts before writing to ensure that the essay has a clear structure, does not miss ideas and avoids situations of unlogical deployment.
In addition, many common errors were pointed out by the teacher such as answering too short in application questions, using general examples, unclear presentation, spelling errors or using symbols and diagrams in official exams.
In particular, the teacher reminds students not to write long but rambling. "A just enough, convincing, and coherently expressed essay" will be more effective than a long but lacking focus essay" - teacher Hung said.
