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Over 800,000 Vietnamese students took standardized tests prepared by the Ministry of Education and Training to gain admission to the college of their choice on July 4 and 5. An equal number of candidates will do similar tests on July 9 and 10.

Early last month more than nine million of their Chinese peers did so in the national college entrance exam, or gaokao.

Unlike many other countries that recruit students for higher education based mainly on their high school performance, Vietnam and China annually require those bound for college to pass tests in national exams.

Vietnamese students are required to sit for papers on a set of three subjects chosen from math, physics, chemistry, literature, history, geography, biology, and foreign languages to be admitted to the school of their choice.

In China, university aspirants must do mandatory tests on Chinese, math, and a foreign language, usually English, and three other subjects selected from physics, chemistry and biology, history, geography, and political education.

The following illustrations show similarities between the two exams.

Vietnamese parents are seen nervously waiting for their children outside an exam center in Hanoi on July 4, 2013. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Chinese parents stand outside testing centers while their children take the 2013 gaokao. Photo: Reuters

A Vietnamese student prays for success at the Temple of Literature in Hanoi on July 2, 2013, two days before her college entrance exam. Photo: Tuoi Tre

A Chinese student and her family hold burning incense as they pray for the daughter's success in the national college entrance exam at a Taoist temple in Shenyang, Liaoning Province on June 6, 2012. Photo: Reuters

A mother hugs her daughter in front of Vietnam’s Saigon University after she finishes a math test on July 4, 2013. Photo: Tuoi Tre

A Chinese woman reacts as her son leaves the Shanghai No.1 High School after finishing the first part of the gaokao in Shanghai June 7, 2013. Photo: Reuters

Vietnamese parents are looking anxiously for their children at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology on July 4, 2013. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Chinese parents wait as their children take the tough gaokao in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei province on June 7, 2012. Photo: AFP