Do 12th-grade students participating in the Olympic team selection exam get exempted from the high school graduation exam in Vietnam?

Do 12th-grade students participating in the Olympic team selection exam get exempted from the high school graduation exam in Vietnam?

Based on Article 35 of the Regulations on the national excellent student examination promulgated together with Circular 17/2023/TT-BGDDT, the benefits of students who win prizes in national excellent student exams are as follows:

Benefits of students winning prizes in national excellent student exams

1. Students who win prizes in the national excellent student exam are granted Certificates and are rewarded.

2. Students who win prizes in the national excellent student exam and have graduated from high school are directly admitted to universities and colleges according to the current regulations of the university entrance exam and the college entrance exam for Early Childhood Education.

3. 12th-grade students attending the selection exam for the Olympic team are exempted from the high school graduation exam.

4. Students who are members of the international and regional Olympic teams are directly admitted to universities according to current regulations and are given priority for university training abroad with state budget scholarships.

Thus, according to the regulation, 12th-grade students attending the selection exam for the Olympic team are exempted from the high school graduation exam.

Do 12th-grade students participating in the Olympic team selection exam get exempted from the high school graduation exam in Vietnam?​ (Image from the Internet)

Can lower secondary school students in Vietnam participate in the Olympic team selection exam?

Based on Article 4 of the Regulations on the national excellent student examination promulgated together with Circular 17/2023/TT-BGDDT, the participants for the exam are regulated as follows:

Participants for the exam

1. For the national excellent student exam:

a) Students are attending high school, having a conduct rating (or behavior) and academic performance (or learning capacity) of good or higher according to the results of the semester (or academic year) immediately preceding the exam and have been selected into the team of the examining unit;

b) Each contestant is only allowed to participate in one subject exam in a school year.

2. For the selection exam for the Olympic team:

Students are attending high school and belong to one of the following categories:

a) Selected by the Ministry of Education and Training from among the students who have won prizes in the national excellent student exam in the same academic year, according to the principle from highest to lowest score, ensuring that the number of students selected for each subject does not exceed eight (08) times the number of students needed for the national team to participate in the international Olympic exam for that subject;

b) Not participating in the national excellent student exam in the same academic year but have been members of the national team participating in the regional Olympic exam; members of the national team participating in the international Olympic exam in the preceding school year.

The participants for the selection exam for the Olympic team are high school students selected by the Ministry of Education and Training from among the students who have won prizes in the national excellent student exam in the same year or have participated in training for the regional and international Olympic exams in the previous year.

Thus, lower secondary school students do not have an organization and cannot take the selection exam for the Olympic team.

What are methods for selecting students in Vietnam for the Olympic teams?

Based on Article 33 of the Regulations on the national excellent student examination promulgated together with Circular 17/2023/TT-BGDDT, the selection of students for the Olympic teams is regulated as follows:

- After completing the scoring of the exam papers for the selection exam for the Olympic team, arrange the unsealed exam papers in descending order of exam scores to select candidates for the national teams to participate in the regional and international Olympic exams (for subjects that do not have a regional Olympic team), ensuring the number of selected students equals the number of members of each national team.

- Students in the national team participating in the international Olympic exams for subjects that have a regional Olympic team are selected from among the students who participated in the regional Olympic exams in the same year, according to the following principles:

+ Rank the students by the total score of the selection exam for the Olympic team and the regional Olympic exam (scores from the two exams converted to the same scale) in descending order to select, ensuring the number of selected students equals the number of members of the national team participating in the international Olympic exams;

+ In case of a tie in the total scores of both exams above, the student with the higher score in the regional Olympic exam will be selected; in case of a tie in the scores in the regional Olympic exam, the Ministry of Education and Training will organize a test for those students to make the selection.

- The Director of the Department of Quality Management is responsible for submitting to the Minister of Education and Training for approval the list of students for the national teams participating in the international and regional Olympic exams.