Parents and students have been intensively preparing for the race to high schools, the race which is no less stressful than the university entrance exam.

Students and parents race to public high schools

State owned high schools are always the top choice of the students in big cities like Hanoi and HCM City. However, the existing state owned schools can just meet 60-70 percent of the demand. This means that students would have to compete to obtain the seats at the schools, while others would have to go to people-founded schools, where they have to pay high tuitions.

The high school entrance exams would take place in a couple of weeks, but exam preparation classes have heated up already.

Having lunch on the way to school

It is estimated that 80,000 secondary school graduates would attend the high school entrance exams. Meanwhile, state owned schools have offered 51,189 seats for them only. Only the students, who prepare for the exams intensively, would have the opportunities to enroll in the school.

Attending extra classes and taking mock exams are the things students do everyday these days. An exam preparation center in Ba Dinh district has organized the fifth mock exam for the learners.

An officer of the center said that the first mock exam was organized before Tet, in January 2012, and that a mock exam has been organized in every two months until the exams. To attend the mock exams, every student has to pay the fee of VND40,000-60,000 for every exam subject.

Nguyen Tuan Minh, a student of the Tay Son Secondary School in Hai Ba Trung district, said that he began preparing for the exam last year, when he entered the ninth grade.

“After the school hours, I have to go to private tutoring classes, four times a week. I get up at 6 am and only go to bed at noon,” he said.

Minh said that he is considered a good student in the class; therefore, he decided to attend the exam to the Tran Phu High School, one of the most prestigious schools in Hanoi. However, he now feels a little worried.

Meanwhile, Phuong Anh from Chu Van An Secondary School, said she plans to enroll in a high school for the gifted. As the schools always set high requirements on students, she has to learn hard for the last year. Anh’s parents have to pay VND300,000 a day just for Anh’s tutoring lessons.

Thuy Nhi, a student in HCM City was seen eating her breakfast on the motorbike when her father carried her to school.

Nhi’s parent, the “driver,” said his daughter does not have enough time to have breakfast at home.

“She has breakfast on the way to school. Later, I would bring other food to school for her, which she would eat while she is on the way to the exam preparation center,” he explained.

Both students and teachers gear up for exams

In order to help students prepare well for the high school entrance exams, a lot of secondary schools tried to finish the 2011-2012 academic year sooner than expected, so as to spend time on preparing students for the next exams.

A representative of the Dong Da Secondary School in Dong Da district in Hanoi said 554 students would attend the final exams and 20 percent would attend the exam to the schools for the gifted.

He also said that the school kicked off the exam preparation program on May 14, while the lesson review would last four weeks. The school plans to organize two mock exams for students, so that their parents can have information about their children’s capability, which help them make right decisions when choosing high schools.