The 2022 national high school graduation examination started on July 7 morning.

This year’s examinees are the ones affected by the COVID-19 pandemic for all the three high school years. In particular, they spent about 70 percent of their 12th grade’s time on learning online.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Huu Do said this is their disadvantage, so the ministry had ordered localities to make use of the few days of face-to-face learning to help students reinforce knowledge.

Questions will focus on fundamental knowledge and also contain certain queries that can help classify exam sitters so that universities can use test results to recruit students, he noted.

The 2022 exam includes five tests: mathematics; literature; foreign languages; natural sciences (physics, chemistry, biology); and social sciences (history, geography, citizen education) for students following the general education curriculum, or history and geography for those following the continuing education curriculum.

Students can choose either natural sciences or social sciences tests to take.

While mathematics, literature, foreign languages, natural sciences, and social sciences tests are held in the multiple-choice format, literature is in the writing one.

As many as 989,863 examinees, equivalent to 98.75% of the registered, came to examination sites nationwide to handle procedures on July 6 afternoon, according to the Ministry of Education and Training.