VietNamNet Bridge – The competition of 11-year-old students to obtain seats at prestigious secondary schools is as fierce as the race for universities.

About 5,000 students who finished primary school one month ago in HCM City took the entrance exam to obtain 360 seats at the Tran Dai Nghia School for the Gifted on June 29-30.

The exam has finished, but the students still feel nervous because they are not sure if they can enroll in the honorable school. With a high competition ratio of 1:13, there are not many opportunities for the students to be admitted into the school.

Thuy Trang, a student from Luong The Vinh Primary School, told Mot The Gioi’s reporters that the English exam questions were very difficult.

“I tried to solve all the questions, but I am not sure if the answers were correct,” Trang said.

When asked how many marks Trang expected, the  girl said she thought only 30 percent of the answers were correct.

Anh Thu, a student from Hoang Van Thu Primary School, said she surely failed the exams. “The English questions were too difficult for me,” she complained. “There were so many new words and I even did not understand the request”.

Students also complained that math questions were too difficult for them. “There were too many questions, and questions were too difficult, especially question 2 and 4,” Nguyen The Anh from Nguyen Van Lich Primary School said.

Other students shook their heads when asked if they were satisfied with their exams.

Meanwhile, only the students recognized as excellent students for five years at primary school and get a mark of 10 at the year-end exam are eligible for sitting the exam to Tran Dai Nghia School.

Many parents are worried about their children’s exam works, and believe that the exam questions are getting more and more difficult because more and more students wish to study at the school.

Bich Ngoc, a parent in Binh Tan District, said she feels sorry for her daughter if she fails the exams.

“My daughter crammed for the exams day and night. She only went to bed at midnight,” Ngoc said.

The race for Tran Dai Nghia School is always fierce and students have to begin preparing for the school entrance exams when they enter third grade of primary school.

The students have to attend lessons at school and go to the exam preparation centers to deepen their knowledge.

A lot of exam preparation centers have been established in HCM City, which just focus on preparing students for the exam to Tran Dai Nghia School.

“Only the most clever students can enroll in the school,” noted Nguyen Tuan Hung, a parent, who is an architect. “My 9-year-old son, a third grader, is even busier than me because he needs to prepare for the entrance exam”.

“He has lessons all day and he has to review the lessons at night,” Hung said. “The only free time is spent on bathing”.

Mot The Gioi