On August 9, the Hanoi National University Examination Center (VNU) announced the reference test for the 2025 high school student assessment test (HSA).

The new point of the 2025 capacity assessment exam of Hanoi National University is to add a cluster of questions including a general topic and specific questions to develop and assess candidates' capacity from low to high levels.

Cluster questions will exploit rich data sources, assess students' thinking in each field and across fields. These are changes in building a question bank for competency assessment exams.

Specifically, the sample exam structure for the 2025 competency assessment includes 50 math and data processing questions and 50 literature and language questions. These are two mandatory parts of the HSA exam.

The third part allows candidates to choose between Science or English. The time limit for the third part is 60 minutes. Candidates choose 3 out of 5 topics: physics, chemistry, biology, history, geography; each topic has 17 questions (including 1 test question) to complete the Science part.

The English option consists of 50 objective multiple-choice questions designed to serve admission to foreign language training programs.

The HSA exam questions are approximately 75% 4-choice objective multiple choice questions and 25% fill-in-the-blank questions.

If last year, cluster questions only appeared in the language test, from 2025, the Hanoi National University's competency assessment test will add cluster questions in all test sections and exam topics. Cluster questions include general topics and specific questions that develop and assess candidates' competencies from low to high levels.

Cluster questions will exploit rich data sources, assess students' thinking in each field and across fields. These are changes in building a question bank for competency assessment exams.

The sample test provides question formats and test structures for students to develop a study plan that meets the requirements of the exam.

From September 1, candidates can access the address https://hsa.edu.vn/ of Hanoi National University to do the test on computers.

In the sample test as well as the official test, the questions are not arranged from easy to difficult but are randomly shuffled according to a fixed matrix. Candidates take the sample test to get familiar with the test format, review and supplement knowledge and skills, and practice time control when taking the test.

The test score is calculated based on the total number of correct answers, with no deductions for incorrect answers. In the official test, the score obtained on the computer will appear after the candidate finishes the test. Most universities that use the results of the competency assessment test can accept applications based on the total score of the test.

However, some schools may have additional requirements for selected topics in the Science section (part 3). The English section is designed to assess foreign language proficiency for admission to foreign language training programs.

In 2024, the Hanoi National University's capacity assessment exam will be held in 6 sessions, starting from March 23 to June 2, 2024 at 19 testing locations.

Statistics on the number of candidates in provinces and cities taking the exam in 2024 show that, except for Hanoi, Nam Dinh is the province with the largest number of registered candidates, followed by Thai Binh, Thanh Hoa, Hai Duong, Nghe An, Hung Yen, Hai Phong, Vinh Phuc, Bac Ninh, Bac Giang, etc.

The total number of registrations in 2024 was more than 104,000, of which 96.2% of candidates attended the exam and 21 candidates were disciplined for violating regulations.

Reference test for assessing the capacity of Hanoi National University in 2025 HERE