The question anchored the writing section of an exam that has traditionally tested students on poetry, classic fiction and moral reflection. This year it leaned hard into technology. The social-argumentation prompt named the three American founders and the inventions that helped change the world, then asked candidates to write a short essay on how Vietnam could nurture its own Steve Jobs.
The reading-comprehension section reinforced the theme. It drew on an excerpt from "Code and Sand," a 2026 book by Vietnamese author Phan Tuan that traces how technology giants from Google and Apple to chipmakers like Nvidia and TSMC reshape the modern world. The passage reached back to the invention of the printing press around 1440 and the role that spreading knowledge played in human progress. The section's final, open-ended question pushed students into the present, asking how artificial intelligence should be used to create what the exam called "intellectual resonance."
Tech icons Steve Jobs (L) and Elon Musk. Photos by Reuters
Teachers read the shift as deliberate. Duong Thi Thanh Thuy, who heads the literature department at the M.V. Lomonosov school in Hanoi, said the paper made a clear statement that studying literature is no longer about memorization but about learning to read, to think and to argue a position. Where the 2025 exam centered on humanistic values and personal experience, she said, this year's widened the lens to a student's capacity to reason as a citizen about the development of the country and the world.
