541,413 out of 763,828 students who registered to take university entrance exams held at testing locations nationwide sat for the first phase on July 4-5. The actual turnout reached 70.88 percent, down 2 percent compared to the 2006 figure.

According to the initial statistics from the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET), after two-day examination, the number of students and exam supervisors who violated the rules reduced by 119 and 19 compared to the last year’s figure of 252 and 23, respectively.

Head of MoET’s Department for Examination and Quality Verification Nguyen An Ninh said this year’s exam had contents from the schoolbook with questions based on training programmes, which were suitable for different groups of candidates so the result was a real reflection of student study habits. The exam questions in maths, physics and chemistry met the requirements of multiple-choice tests.

In addition, traffic security, electricity and water supply were ensured during the past two days in such big cities as Hanoi, Da Nang, and HCM City. Teams of young volunteers were mobilised to give students useful guidance on finding boarding houses and testing locations as well as following procedures of examination centres.