A candidate was dismissed Thursday from Vietnam’s national college admission exam for bringing a knife into his exam room to intimidate another candidate.

Tran Van Cuong, a 19-year-old student from the central province of Nghe An, brought a 20-centimeter-long knife with him when he went to take the chemistry part of the three-subject admission exam, the country’s method of selecting students for higher education, at the Nguyen Trai High School exam council situated in the provincial capital Vinh City.

Though local exam proctors discovered the weapon right away, they only asked for help from police when Cuong threatened to slash the candidate sitting next to him if the latter refused to let him copy the answers.

The student was then forced to hand over the knife to police before exam administrators nullified all of his exam papers.

Yet Cuong kept intimidating and insulting the proctors as he was being escorted out of the exam room.

He was handed an administrative fine by the police later on.

In the exam that began Wednesday, candidates sat for tests on math, chemistry and physics to seek admission to their university of choice.

Unlike developed countries, which admit college students based on their high school performance, Vietnam uses standardized admission tests prepared by the Ministry of Education and Training to enroll students at the undergraduate level.