This morning (May 23), candidates participating in the 10th grade high school entrance exam for the 2026 - 2027 school year in Da Nang completed the Literature exam with a test time of 120 minutes. At the exam sites, most candidates left the exam rooms with excited moods, assessing that this year's exam was manageable, with a familiar structure but still reasonable differentiation.
This year's exam structure retains the two traditional parts: Reading Comprehension (4.0 points) and Writing (6.0 points). In the Reading Comprehension section, the chosen material is the story "Minh Chau Pearl" by writer Trung Sy. The story borrows the image of Ma Thi mussels having to learn to endure sharp grains of sand stuck in their skin after the storm, thereby secreting hyacinth to turn pain into bright pearls, in parallel with the image of an old soldier carrying shrapnel in his body.
Candidate Nguyen Dang Khoa, a student of Tran Dai Nghia Secondary School (residing in Ngu Hanh Son ward), shared that he spent quite a lot of time in the writing part but overall did well on the test. Dang Khoa assessed that the exam question had a writing part about "affirmation of oneself" that was very good and consistent with what he had reviewed, confident that he could get about 7 points.
From a similar perspective, candidate Nguyen Khanh Hoang, a student of class 9/2 of Tay Son Secondary School (residing in Hoa Cuong ward), expressed his appreciation for the quality of this year's exam questions. According to Khanh Hoang, the exam questions are printed clearly, the content is not too strictly differentiated but creates conditions for students with good and above academic performance to cope well.
I think this year's benchmark score level will be higher than last year. With my work, I am confident in aiming for a score of 8 points or higher," Khanh Hoang excitedly shared.
Although the exam was assessed as manageable, to achieve absolute scores, candidates must go through questions with deep differentiation. In the Reading Comprehension section, the question requires analyzing the nuance of the word "run rẩy" or presenting lessons about choosing fate, requiring sharp argumentative thinking in limited volume.
Khanh Hoang admitted that he was a bit confused in the meaning analysis question. At first, when I flipped through the questions, I saw that the social commentary and literary commentary sections were up to two pages long, I felt quite worried. However, after calmly reading carefully and analyzing each question, I regained confidence to complete the exam completely.
The focus of the Writing part lies in the 2-point literary essay question, which requires analyzing the character of the old soldier, and the 4-point social essay question discussing what young people need to do to confidently affirm themselves. The connection between the metaphorical image from the natural world of Ma Thi's son to the image of the old soldier, and then directly related to the mission of the young generation, has created a consistent emotional flow.
