Professor Nguyen Ngoc Ha, deputy director of quality management at the Ministry of Education and Training, shared his perspective on the literature exam at a press conference for the 2026 high school graduation examination on the afternoon of 12/6.
Ha stated that after the literature exam concluded on the morning of 11/6, the Ministry received numerous comments regarding the social commentary question (2 points), which asked:
The United States has Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk,... whose technological innovations have helped change the world.
Based on this prompt, as a young person, write a discursive paragraph (approximately 200 words) answering the question: How can we have "Steve Jobs Vietnam"?
According to Ha, this question assesses candidates' understanding and reasoning abilities. A key difference in this year's exam is that the social commentary question is worth only 2 points, instead of 4 points as last year, because it is designed for differentiation and novelty.
He stated that every phrase and word in the exam question was carefully selected by the drafting committee. For example, initially, the authors considered phrases like "the inventions of", but later chose to use "with inventions" and mentioned three individuals, all of whom are icons in technology and leaders of major corporations.
Addressing concerns that Steve Jobs and other famous American figures might be unfamiliar to students in mountainous regions, Ha stated that regional factors were considered. The prompt was designed to be "extremely clear and complete", not requiring students to mechanically recall personal information about Steve Jobs.
Furthermore, the phrase "Steve Jobs Vietnam" is placed in quotation marks, serving as a metaphor. Recognizing this metaphorical content is part of the assessment and grading for candidates.
"Literature as a subject has both scientific and artistic characteristics. Understanding and analysis create the distinction of this subject," Ha said.
Literature exam - suggested answers for high school graduation literature exam
The literature exam took place on the morning of 11/6, marking the first subject of the 2026 high school graduation examination. The social commentary question about Steve Jobs in the literature exam quickly became a trending topic on social media, garnering hundreds of thousands of discussions and searches.
Many wondered, "Why use a foreign role model for Vietnam to seek, instead of a national talent?" Additionally, the three individuals mentioned in the prompt are not inventors, but founders and operators of technology corporations. Meanwhile, many expressed, "I don't know who Steve Jobs is."
In a VnExpress survey of over 8,300 readers conducted until 16h today, approximately 58% found the Steve Jobs exam question unfamiliar to candidates. 29% found the question "interesting but difficult to provide solutions."
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Professor Nguyen Ngoc Ha at the press conference on the afternoon of 12/6. *Photo: MOET* |
The high school graduation examination took place over two days, 11-12/6, involving over 1,2 million candidates. Candidates will receive their graduation exam scores on 1/7 and can register their university admissions preferences until the afternoon of 14/7.
University admission cut-off scores, along with pass-fail results for each candidate, will be announced after 17h on 9/8.
Thanh Hang - Duong Tam
