The national high school exam taking place in major towns and cities across Vietnam ended Saturday afternoon with the last test on biology.

Instead of taking part in the traditionally separated high school graduation and university entrance exams like previous years, from this year on, students will only sit for one national exam, called the national high school exam.

During the 2015 exam contestants were required to take tests on four subjects, including the three compulsory papers on mathematics, literature, and a foreign language; as well as another subject selected from physics, chemistry, biology, history and geography.

Candidates were allowed to do extra tests chosen from the specified subjects for a better chance to get into their favorite universities and colleges, as the results of the national exam will be used for both high school graduation and university admission.

The exam which is considered the most important of the school student life this year began on July 1, taken in major towns and cities by more than one million students.

Understanding how hard it is to stay in strange places, those students who are enrolled in universities and colleges located in the towns and cities volunteered to provide help and ease the difficulties for the contestants and their parents.

Let us take a look back at how these volunteer students treated the candidates like their blood sisters and brothers.

Huynh Le Thai Bao leads contestants to cross the street to Tay Nguyen University, located in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak, for their exam. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Volunteer students from the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education ride contestants home from their exam venues. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Students get in line to split An Duong Vuong Street in front of Saigon University in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City into two clear parts to prevent traffic jams so that contestants could enter their exam venues easily. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Huynh, a fifth-year student from the Thai Nguyen University of Medicine and Pharmacy in the northern province of Thai Nguyen carries contestant Nguyen Thi Men on his back to the exam venue because Men could not walk due to a road accident. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Volunteers prepare free meals for contestants and parents in front of Thuy Loi (Irrigation) University in Hanoi. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Students boil 500 eggs to cook a dish called “pork braised with eggs” for contestants in Dak Lak Province on June 30, 2015. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Tran Nhat Giang, a senior from the faculty of food technology of Dong Thap Community College, prepares meals for contestants on June 30, 2015. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Volunteer students from the Hanoi University of Science and Technology give water to parents waiting for their children under the hot weather on the first day of the exam, July 1, 2015. Photo: Tuoi Tre

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