According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training (GDĐT), at this stage, the system only allows students to adjust their aspirations or change their priority order. Candidates are absolutely not allowed to register newly or withdraw from the exam list.
The adjustment takes place after the Department announces the number of students registering for nguyện vọng 1 of each high school. From this data, parents and students can know the competition ratio of each school to consider changing nguyện vọng to suit their abilities and chances of admission.
This year, the whole city has 24 high schools with a competition ratio of 2 or more. Leading is Bui Thi Xuan High School with a ratio of 1/2.84; followed by Tran Dai Nghia Secondary and High School with a ratio of 1/2.79 and Thu Duc High School with a ratio of 1/2.57.
Many other schools also have high levels of competition such as Nguyen Thuong Hien High School, Le Trong Tan High School, Mac Dinh Chi High School, Nguyen Huu Huan High School or Le Quy Don High School.
In the opposite direction, more than 40 schools have a competition ratio below 1, meaning the number of students registering for nguyện vọng 1 is lower than the enrollment quota.
Some schools have low rates such as Nguyen Van Linh High School, Nguyen Van Tang High School, Ngo Gia Tu High School or Tran Huu Trang High School. This is also a group of schools with low competitiveness for many consecutive years.
According to records from secondary schools, the time close to the adjustment deadline is when many parents and students fall into the most "brain-wracking" state.
However, many teachers believe that students should not only look at the competition ratio to change their aspirations. Because in reality, the benchmark score also depends on the exam score distribution, the difficulty of the questions and registration fluctuations in the final stage. There are schools where the competition ratio is high but the benchmark score does not increase sharply, on the contrary, there are also schools where the competition ratio is low but the benchmark score is still high due to the good registration level of candidates.
One of the factors that the education sector especially noted this year is the distance from home to school. For cases of registration of aspirations with a distance of over 10 km for the Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong areas before the merger, or over 13 km for Ba Ria - Vung Tau before the merger, the secondary school must work directly with parents to advise and make a confirmation record.
In addition to the distance factor, practical learning ability is still considered the most important basis when choosing aspirations.
In 2025, the benchmark score for 10th grade in Ho Chi Minh City (region 1) is highest at 24.5 points, equivalent to an average of more than 8 points per subject. Meanwhile, many schools only take about 10.5-111 points, creating a very large gap between schools.
In Binh Duong (region 2), the benchmark score mainly fluctuates in the range of 10-20 points. Meanwhile, in Ba Ria - Vung Tau (region 3), some schools take a benchmark score of only about 5-6.5 points, equivalent to an average of less than 2.5 points per subject.
This year, students register and adjust their aspirations online on the 10th grade entrance gateway in Ho Chi Minh City.
The 10th grade entrance exam for the 2026-2027 school year will take place on two days, January 1st and February 2nd. 6. Candidates taking three compulsory subjects including Literature, Mathematics and Foreign Language; students registering for specialized or integrated classes will take additional subjects accordingly.
Each student is allowed to register a maximum of 3 aspirations for regular public high schools; 2 aspirations for specialized classes at 4 specialized schools or 3 aspirations for integrated classes at 10 high schools with this type of enrollment.
For students studying the integrated English program under Project 5695 at the secondary school level in Ho Chi Minh City, they can register 2 more aspirations for specialized English classes at Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted and Tran Dai Nghia High School for the Gifted.
This year's 10th grade entrance exam has more than 151,000 registered candidates, while the total target for public high schools is more than 180,000 students. This means that more than 30,000 students may not be admitted to the 10th grade public school and have to choose other directions such as private schools, continuing education centers, vocational training or studying abroad.
