VSTEP

VSTEP.3-5 has four skills and Speaking comes last. Per the ULIS format page: Listening takes about 40 minutes (3 parts, 35 multiple-choice questions), Reading 60 minutes (4 passages, 40 questions), Writing 60 minutes (a letter or email of at least 120 words for one third of the mark and an essay of at least 250 words for two thirds) and Speaking 12 minutes in three parts. ULIS’s guide to the computer test runs them in that order.

At ULIS the whole test is taken on a computer. Its step-by-step guide says each Speaking part plays an audio introduction, gives you time to read and prepare, then switches on the microphone and records you, with the time for each part shown on screen. The format page does not split the 12 minutes by part, so the timer column is our practice split, not an official one. You speak to a microphone, not to a person, so nobody rescues a silence, and the guide asks you to speak loudly enough for the volume bar to rise. Other licensed universities organise their own sittings; check how your centre runs Speaking before you book. Each part has its own guide: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. ULIS’s site also has a separate page called VSTEP Apple, Green Level; this module covers VSTEP.3-5 only.

One test covers three levels, and your final score out of 10 decides which one you get, per the ULIS scores and levels page:

The ULIS conversion table calls the final score the average (điểm TB) of the skills. ULIS does not publish its rounding rule or a raw-mark conversion on the pages we read, so anyone telling you "you need so many correct answers for B2" is estimating. Two things follow. A strong skill can carry a weak one: Listening 6.5, Reading 7.0, Writing 5.5 and Speaking 5.0 average exactly 6.0. And an average just under 6.0 depends on a rule you cannot see, so aim for a clean 6.0. If a result looks wrong, the re-mark form on the ULIS portal lets you choose which skills to re-mark, at 800,000 VND per request, within 3 days of the results.

Three groups sit VSTEP, and each should check a different document before booking.

University students (chuẩn đầu ra). Your university sets the English level you need to graduate and the certificates it accepts, often Level 3 (B1) or Level 4 (B2) depending on the programme. Read your own faculty’s regulation rather than a summary on a prep site; it also tells you how recent the certificate must be and whether a VSTEP certificate from another licensed university counts.

Master’s applicants and students. MOET’s master’s regulation, Circular 23/2021/TT-BGDĐT, asks applicants for Level 3 (B1) or above, Level 4 (B2) for programmes taught in a foreign language, and Level 4 before graduation. Its annex lists equivalents for master’s purposes only: IELTS 4.0 to 5.0 for Level 3 and 5.5 to 6.5 for Level 4; TOEFL iBT 30 to 45 and 46 to 93. Your university’s admission notice is the final word, so read it too.

Public-sector candidates. Language rules for civil servants and public employees are set by the recruiting body and have changed over the years. We did not verify a national rule this week, so take the level from your recruitment notice.

If a notice asks for Level 5 (C1), you need 8.5 on the same test; there is no separate C1 paper to book. Whether IELTS or TOEIC would serve you better depends on what the certificate is for, which the comparison page works through.

ULIS’s 2026 administration plan lists ten sittings, all on Saturdays. Two are left: 14 November 2026, with registration and payment from 14 October to 23:59 on Wednesday 4 November, and 12 December 2026, with registration from 12 November to 2 December. The 2027 plan was not published when we checked on 21 October 2026; the 2026 plan came out on 15 December 2025.

The ULIS fee is 1,800,000 VND, per the 14 November notice, paid by bank transfer after you fill in the online form with a portrait photo and both sides of your CCCD or passport. Registration counts only once the fee has arrived. Two rules catch people out: a session needs at least 100 registered candidates or it moves to the next date, and the system stops taking forms once a session is full. If you withdraw at least 10 days before the test, ULIS refunds half the fee; after that, nothing.

After the test, results appear on the ULIS portal 3 to 5 days later, and the certificate is ready 14 working days after the test, not counting holidays and weekends. A fee of 1,200,000 VND or more means you do not register separately for the certificate. Employers and universities can check a ULIS certificate on its verification page, which covers tests held since 1 January 2017; ULIS says the online data is for reference and issues written confirmation on request. Other licensed universities set their own dates and fees, which we do not quote here; the dates and fees page explains how to check them, and the dates block on this page updates weekly.

VSTEP is a Vietnamese test sat in Vietnam, mostly by Vietnamese speakers, so the Speaking habits that cost marks are predictable, and they come from the way Vietnamese builds a syllable. Final consonants are dropped or swallowed, and with them the -s and -ed endings that carry plurals and past tenses. Consonant clusters such as "str" and "-sts" get an extra vowel or lose a consonant. The th of "think" is read like the Vietnamese th. Regional habits add their own pairs: sh and s or tr and ch in the north, l and n for some speakers in parts of the northern delta, final n and ng or t and k in the south and much of the centre. Tones get carried onto English syllables in place of word stress, and statements rise at the end. Add missing articles, present tense for the past and one-sentence answers, and in our judgement a B2 answer can sound like B1 on the recording. Pronunciation is one of the five Speaking criteria in the ULIS criteria summary, with grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and content and organisation, and it names clear sounds, word stress, sentence stress and intonation. Each habit has a fix and a ten-minute drill on the pronunciation and grammar page, and the six-week plan works through them in order.

Six weeks, six days a week, 45 to 60 minutes a day. Speaking comes first every day, because the 12-minute recorded test rewards habits you can only build by talking, not by reading about talking. Listening, Reading and Writing rotate so that each gets timed practice before the full mock in week 5. Start on a Monday six weeks before your sitting: for the 12 December 2026 test at ULIS that is Monday 2 November, and registration (12 November to 2 December) falls in weeks 2 to 5. The six-week plan page explains every week and what to cut if you have less time.

Ten tasks for each of the three parts, written by TalkDrill in the shape the ULIS format page describes. Each task starts with the Vietnamese instruction line as the official format PDF words it, then the task in English and a practice timer (our split of the official 12 minutes, not an official one). The counterpart is the follow-up line, so a study partner can play the examiner. Record your answer first, then read the B2 model, then the note, which names the official criterion the task leans on most. ULIS lists five for Speaking: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, fluency, and content and organisation (bố cục nội dung). The models are one good route through each task, not scripts: an answer you memorised sounds memorised, and it rarely fits the question you actually get.