How does Vietnam choose its IBO team?

Provinces and units select students, who sit the national excellent student exam in December. Strong results lead to an Olympic team selection exam in Hanoi in March, and four students represent Vietnam at the IBO. The sources we could read do not say how the four are chosen from that exam.

Who organises the programme?

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), through its Quality Management Department, organises the national exam. The IBO lists the department's Quality Control Department as the appointing body for the Vietnam Biology Olympiad (VBO).

The IBO says high school students. The ministry notice we read does not give grade levels, and registration goes through schools and provincial education departments rather than individual sign-up, which is our inference.

Is this guide written by a Vietnamese participant?

No. It is an outline of the official picture from published sources, with tips from BiOGuide. We are looking for a Vietnamese olympiad participant or coach to write a firsthand guide and replace this one.

Vietnam National Excellent Student Exam in Biology (VBO): Official Outline of the Path to IBO

Vietnam sends four students to the International Biology Olympiad (IBO) and has done well in recent years. Vietnamese news reports say the 2026 team won four silver medals at the IBO in Vilnius, Lithuania (12 to 19 July 2026), the 2025 team won one gold, two silver and one bronze, and the 2024 team won three gold and one silver.^4,5,6 This page outlines how the path to that team works according to the sources we could read. It is a map of the structure, not an insider’s account of what the exams feel like. Vietnam has no dedicated biology olympiad website that we could find, and the national pages are in Vietnamese, so many details rest on our own translation.

Programme: The IBO lists the Vietnam Biology Olympiad (VBO), established 1994; in practice it is the national excellent student exam in Biology (Kỳ thi chọn học sinh giỏi quốc gia THPT, môn Sinh học) followed by an Olympic team selection exam^1,2
Organiser: Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), Quality Management Department^1,2
Who can enter: High school students; the ministry notice we read gives no grade levels¹
Stages: Provincial selection, national exam, Olympic team selection exam, IBO team of four
Official website: None found for biology; the IBO links hcmus.edu.vn, a university site we did not open
Language: Vietnamese for the national programme; the IBO itself is in English

The path at a glance

Stage	What happens	How sure we are
Provincial selection	Provinces and units choose and enter their students; some hold their own team selection exam first	Medium: inferred from the ministry notice
National exam	Held over two days in late December at several provinces and cities	Good for 2025 to 2026, from a legal database copy of the ministry notice
Olympic team selection exam	Held in Hanoi in March for the strongest students	Good for 2026 from a news schedule
IBO team	Four students, led by a team leader	Good: news and the IBO agree on four

Stage 1: provincial selection and the national exam

The national exam for the 2025 to 2026 school year was held on 25 and 26 December 2025 at 34 provinces and cities, according to a news report on the ministry’s schedule, with results expected on 21 January 2026.³ The ministry’s notice of 10 November 2025 sets out the arrangements; we read it through a legal database that reproduces the official text, not on the ministry’s own site.² It asks provincial units to report candidate numbers and lists by set dates, which is why we infer that students are entered by schools and provincial education departments rather than signing up themselves. Biology’s duration and format are not stated in the pages we read.

Stage 2: the Olympic team selection exam

The same schedule report gives an Olympic team selection exam in Hanoi from 24 to 26 March 2026, with the list of students for regional and international teams called on 3 April 2026.³ The IBO’s directory describes three rounds ending in March and April and says the IBO team prepares for about two weeks at universities or institutes.¹ It describes the earlier rounds differently from the current notice, which the box below records.

Stage 3: the IBO team

Four students have represented Vietnam each year from 2022 to 2026, according to news reports.^4,5,6 The IBO exam itself is reported as two 180 minute theory papers and four 90 minute practical lab stations over two days.⁴ Vietnam has taken part in the IBO since 1996 and hosted the 27th IBO in Hanoi in 2016.⁷ Results are announced by the ministry, and the 2026 announcement was on 19 July 2026.⁴

Points for an Author

If you went through this programme yourself, these are the points we most need you to settle. They are grouped here so that nothing uncertain is buried in the text above.

Where the sources disagree

The stages. The IBO’s directory describes a provincial round around October and November, a ministry round in January and February, and a third round in March and April, with short answer essays early and a practical in the last.¹ The current ministry notice and schedule describe a national exam in late December and a team selection exam in March.^2,3 The IBO page looks out of date, so we follow the ministry.
The programme name and website. The IBO calls the programme VBO and links a university site as its official website.¹ The ministry calls the national exam by a general name and covers all subjects.² Which of these is the right name for “the Vietnam Biology Olympiad” is for an author to settle; the Vietnamese terms rest on our translation.
The ministry text. We read the 2025 notice through a third-party legal database, not on the ministry’s site, so we cannot confirm that it matches the official original word for word.

Gaps a firsthand author could fill

Grade levels, the format and length of the biology exam, and the language and scoring of each stage.
How many students enter at each level and how the four team members are chosen from the March exam.
How long the training camp is, and what it covers.
What the exams feel like, and what students wish they had known.
How students outside the big gifted schools find their way into the process.

A firsthand author can settle every one of these points. If that could be you, email us or read how it works.

BiOGuide tips for students aiming at this path

These are general tips from BiOGuide, not advice from a Vietnamese participant, and they apply to any student aiming at an IBO team.

Train for the international format early. The IBO papers are in English and test reasoning on data and experiments, not only recall. The IBO preparation guide explains the format, and past IBO papers are in our practice papers.
Practise the practical side. The IBO has four practical stations, so learn the lab techniques as well as the theory. Our notes on practical skills are a start.
Build the core theory. Work through cell and molecular biology, animal physiology and bioinformatics first.
Learn the English terms. Even if you study in Vietnamese, learn the English names of structures, processes and methods, because the IBO papers are written in English.
Use the official channels for anything dated. Exam dates, eligibility and the team selection process change every year. Your school, your provincial education department and the ministry decide, not us.

Official links and sources

International Biology Olympiad, country page for the VBO. ibo-info.org. The page is undated and its stage description looks out of date, so we use it for background only.
Ministry of Education and Training, dispatch 7246/BGDDT-QLCL of 10 November 2025 on the national exam, as reproduced by a legal database (in Vietnamese, our translation, not the ministry’s own site). luatvietnam.vn
People’s Representative newspaper, report on the 2025 to 2026 exam schedule (in Vietnamese, our translation). daibieunhandan.vn
VietnamPlus, report on the 2026 IBO result (in Vietnamese, our translation). vietnamplus.vn A second report from the same newspaper as source 3 gives the exam format: daibieunhandan.vn.
Tuoi Tre News, report on the 2025 IBO result (in English). news.tuoitre.vn
Voice of Vietnam, report on the 2024 IBO result (in English). kynguyenvuonminh.vov.vn
Viet Nam News, report on the opening of the 27th IBO in Hanoi, 2016 (in English). vietnamnews.vn

We did not reach any page on the ministry’s own site, so no figure here comes directly from it.

This outline was last checked on 8 October 2026 and will age. Spotted an error or out-of-date detail? Email r6394175@gmail.com.