This year's admission season, Pham Quang Truong, a student at Truong Dinh High School (Hanoi), chose to take the third round of the Hanoi National University's aptitude test to get the results for admission to universities. Realizing that the knowledge of the exam is very broad, the level of competition is high, and many friends in the class are studying hard, Quang Truong also asked his parents for money to register for a preparatory course. The male student believes that studying in class and reviewing will help him consolidate his knowledge more thoroughly.

Searching online, with just the keyword "competency assessment test review", Quang Truong received thousands of results advertising quick exam review services, buying and selling review materials, and providing mock exams for competency and thinking assessment tests.

" According to the advertisement, when taking these courses, candidates will be equipped with quick solving skills, tips for handling multiple choice questions in the exam, double their test-taking speed, master methods for solving common types of questions in the exam and achieve high scores," Truong said.

These exam preparation courses are constantly recruiting students with attractive promotional policies. Tuition fees are divided into many levels from a few hundred thousand VND to a few million VND/course, the most expensive is over 5 million VND/10-session course. The main form of learning is via livestream or through pre-recorded video lectures by teachers.

In addition to the intensive exam preparation courses, many places also sell exam preparation books: Comprehensive intensive exam preparation for Hanoi National University's competency assessment exam, Accelerated exam preparation for Ho Chi Minh City National University's competency assessment exam... with prices ranging from 200,000 - 300,000 VND/book.

After thinking it over, the male student decided to choose a 25-day intensive exam review course. The tuition fee for the entire course was 3.5 million VND. However, after finishing the course, Quang Truong realized that the knowledge he received was not new, it was all taught in class, even making him waste time reviewing and solving questions.

Similarly, Pham Thai Son, a 12th grade student at Hoang Van Thu High School (Hanoi) shared: " Because I wanted to supplement my knowledge from grades 10 and 11 to prepare for the competency test, I signed up for an online exam preparation course, the original price was 2.6 million but was discounted to 2 million VND. However, after completing the course, I did not notice any change in my knowledge, all the content was vague, nothing more than textbooks," Thai Son commented.

Do not practice for aptitude tests.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Tien Thao, Director of the Examination Center of Hanoi National University, affirmed that the school is not affiliated with any organization or center in providing test sets and practice tests for candidates to take the competency assessment exam. The team of lecturers participating in making the test questions have all signed a commitment not to participate in tutoring or practice tests for candidates. Hanoi National University only publishes information and instructions related to the exam on the school's website.

“Reviewing for exams is necessary, no matter what exam, candidates need to have a serious plan. Candidates can review in any form, but they need to determine that reviewing and memorizing are different. If you only decide to review, most of you will fail the competency assessment test," said Prof. Dr. Nguyen Tien Thao. Exam preparation is only suitable for routine exams, exams with 1-2 questions. As for the competency assessment test, the question bank is relatively large, wide enough and covers the high school program, so there will be no memorizing.

Mr. Thao advised that to achieve high results in the exam, candidates do not need to participate in any form of exam preparation but only need to familiarize themselves with the exam format through the published reference exam questions, and at the same time consolidate their knowledge of high school subjects.

Sharing the same view, Associate Professor Dr. Tran Thanh Nam, Vice Principal of the University of Education (Hanoi National University) said that candidates should not follow classes to prepare for the competency assessment exam, because these classes only teach content but do not help form competencies. The proliferation of exam preparation classes only makes candidates "overthink", wasting time, increasing pressure, and even affecting exam results.

According to Mr. Nam, capacity is not something that can be trained in a short time. The philosophy of capacity assessment is knowledge that has been formed over a long period of time to be applied and solved problems.

The courses are only designed to guide candidates on test-taking techniques, while this is already available from the organizing units. Candidates can completely familiarize themselves with the test method by referring to sample tests on the school's public website, reading the instructions of universities where the competency assessment test is held, and then thinking more deeply about test-taking strategies, Associate Professor Tran Thanh Nam advised candidates.

This year, three more universities will hold their own entrance exams, bringing the number of separate exams to 11, including: exams of Ho Chi Minh City National University, Hanoi National University, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Hanoi Pedagogical University, Ho Chi Minh City Pedagogical University, Ministry of Public Security, Can Tho, Viet Duc, Banking, Saigon, Finance and Marketing. Of the 10 exams assessing capacity and thinking, about half of the exams are held on computers. The rest are done directly on paper.