From 9:00 a.m. on February 18, Hanoi National University (VNU) officially opened the registration portal for the first round of the 2024 capacity assessment exam. However, right from the opening of the registration portal at 9:00 a.m., many candidates and parents were unable to access the system to register for the exam. The network congestion situation recurred similar to last year, but this year it was even more severe.

Many parents said that it was not until 3:30 p.m. that day that they successfully registered.

Ms. Trinh Thi Huong, Viet Hung urban area (Long Bien, Hanoi) whose daughter is taking the university entrance exam this year, said that from 9am her whole family including father, mother and daughter sat on 3 computers, even went to an internet cafe hoping for better network to register but still could not register.

“At noon, the whole family ate lunch and waited on the phone, hoping that many people would be discouraged and give up, and take a lunch break to register, but they were unsuccessful. It wasn’t until 3:30 p.m. that my daughter successfully registered. Luckily, she successfully registered to take the exam at Thang Long University in Hanoi and didn’t have to go to another province to take the exam. It was really hard and frustrating,” Ms. Huong shared.

During the day, on many groups and forums about education, parents encouraged and shared with each other to try their best to successfully register their children for the exam. Many parents said that at the time of successful registration, due to network congestion, they were not assured of paying the exam fee, so they had to "wait" to pay at all costs.

Prof. Nguyen Tien Thao, Director of the Testing Center - VNU, confirmed that candidates could not access the website to register for the Competency Assessment exam today. The VNU Competency Assessment (HSA) registration portal opened at 9:00 a.m. on February 18, receiving applications from candidates taking the exams in March and April 2024. The first three exams of 2024 (401, 402 and 403) are designed to serve over 51,500 exams at 17 exam locations. By 9:25 a.m., the number of accesses was over 96,200, leading to network congestion. The VNU Testing Center recommends that candidates line up to register or come back to register later, because the connection can only handle about 85,000 accesses, but there are about 100,000 candidates accessing at the same time. Many students registered later, but did not exit the page, causing an overload and the connection could not handle it.

It was not until the afternoon that the network congestion was cleared.

Although the Aptitude Test Registration Portal will remain open until the number of candidates is sufficient or closes 14-18 days before the official exam date, parents and candidates are in the mood to quickly register for an exam spot to “make sure” they have a spot, especially if they have a spot right in Hanoi. Many candidates also want to register for the exam early in March or April so that if the results are not as expected, they can continue to take the exam in the next round.

The registration portal opened on February 18 only serves 52,000 exams, so more than 1/3 of candidates will choose the exam session at the registration portal opened on March 6 for the May and June 2024 exams.

The first round of exams (HSA 401) of the 2024 VNU Aptitude Test will take place on March 23 and 24.

In 2024, VNU plans to organize 6 exam sessions and serve 84,000 registrations. VNU Examination Center will organize the exam from March 23 to June 2 in Hanoi, Thai Nguyen, Hung Yen, Hai Duong, Nam Dinh, Thai Binh, Hai Phong, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh.

The system allows candidates to register for a maximum of 2 exams per year (as of December 31, 2024). The two exams must be at least 28 days apart. The exam session will automatically close when all registration slots are full.

The exam fee is 500,000 VND/candidate/exam and is non-refundable for any reason. After 96 hours, the exam will be automatically canceled if the candidate does not complete the fee payment. For detailed instructions on how to pay the exam registration fee, please visit http://khaothi.vnu.edu.vn/.

Regarding the Competency Assessment test, high school students take it on a computer, lasting 195 - 199 minutes, consisting of 3 parts with objective multiple choice questions (choosing answers) and fill-in-the-blank questions in the fields of Mathematics (50 questions, 75 minutes), Literature - Language (50 questions, 60 minutes), Natural and Social Sciences (50 questions, 60 minutes).

Part 1 and Part 3 will have 1-3 additional test questions that are not scored. For details, see the article "Reference test questions" at the testing portal - http://khaothi.vnu.edu.vn/.

Candidates can check their exam results and receive their Certificate of Exam Results 14 days after taking the exam. The Certificate of Exam Results will be sent via registered mail to the address and phone number declared in the Competency Assessment exam registration account.

VNU also provides candidate support phone number: 19.00.8668.91 (office hours) or email: [email protected].

This exam result can be used for admission to many universities, including top universities, so it is of particular interest to candidates.

PHAN THAO