The plan in one paragraph
To get VSTEP B2 you need a final score of 6.0 to 8.0 out of 10 (Level 4 of Vietnam’s six-level framework, B2 on the CEFR), per the ULIS scores and levels page, and that score is an average of Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. This plan gets you there in six weeks of six days, 45 to 60 minutes a day: a diagnostic week, three weeks that each take one Speaking part and one other skill, a full mock in week 5 that tells you whether to sit, and a light final week that ends on test day. Speaking is practised every day, because the 12-minute recorded test is the one skill you cannot cram. Registration is built into the plan: at ULIS it closes 9 or 10 days before the test, so for the 12 December 2026 sitting you register in week 2, not after you feel ready. The day-by-day grid is on the VSTEP hub; this page explains why each week looks the way it does and what to cut if you have less time.
- One test, three possible levels: 4.0 to 5.5 is B1, 6.0 to 8.0 is B2, 8.5 to 10 is C1. Below 4.0, no level.
- Listening about 40 minutes (35 questions), Reading 60 minutes (40 questions), Writing 60 minutes (two tasks), Speaking 12 minutes (three parts).
- Next ULIS sittings: Saturday 14 November 2026 (register by 23:59, Wednesday 4 November) and Saturday 12 December 2026 (register 12 November to 2 December).
- ULIS fee 1,800,000 VND. Results 3 to 5 days after the test, certificate 14 working days after it.
- Our dated example: start Monday 2 November 2026, sit on Saturday 12 December 2026, the last day of week 6.
What 6.0 needs, skill by skill
The ULIS conversion table heads its score column Điểm TB, the average score. So 6.0 is not a mark you need in every skill; it is the average you need across four. That changes how you plan. A Speaking score that will not move past 5.0 in six weeks can be carried by a Reading score of 7.0, and the hours you spend lifting Reading from 6.0 to 7.0 may buy more than the same hours on Speaking. The ULIS pages we read set no minimum per skill. Some universities write their own rules into their graduation regulation, so read yours once before you start.
| Skill | What you sit (ULIS format page) | What the B2 description asks for | Where this plan trains it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Listening | About 40 minutes, 3 parts, 35 multiple-choice questions: announcements, dialogues, lectures and talks | Understand the main ideas of talk on concrete and abstract topics, including your own field | Weeks 1, 2, 4 and the week-5 mock, one full test each time |
| Reading | 60 minutes including transfer time, 4 passages, 40 multiple-choice questions | The same, for written passages | Weeks 1, 2, 3, 6 and the mock, timed at 15 minutes a passage |
| Writing | 60 minutes: Task 1 letter or email, at least 120 words, one third of the mark; Task 2 essay, at least 250 words, two thirds | Compositions on various topics with reasonable examples and explanations | Weeks 1, 3 (Task 1), 4 (Task 2), 6 and the mock |
| Speaking | 12 minutes: social interaction, solution discussion, topic development | Fluent communication with native speakers without obstacles | Every day, one part a week in weeks 2 to 4, two full mocks |
The B2 wording in the middle column is ULIS’s own description of Level 4 on the scores page. Notice the Speaking line: "without obstacles". In our reading, that puts the weight on keeping going and being understood without effort. Grammar is one of the five ULIS Speaking criteria, not the whole mark.
Worked example: how the average decides the level (written by TalkDrill)
| Candidate | Listening | Reading | Writing | Speaking | Average | Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 6.5 | 7.0 | 5.5 | 5.0 | 6.0 | B2 |
| B | 6.0 | 6.0 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5.75 | Depends on rounding |
| C | 5.0 | 5.5 | 5.0 | 4.5 | 5.0 | B1 |
Candidate B is the reason to aim higher than 6.0. Whether 5.75 becomes 6.0 depends on a rounding rule that ULIS does not publish on the pages we read. Plan for a clean 6.0 average and treat rounding as luck. The scale page covers what is and is not official about the calculation.
Week 1: the diagnostic
The first week answers one question: how far are you from 6.0? You sit one practice test in each skill under exam time and make one full Speaking recording. Day 1 is the scale page and Part 1 answers aloud. Days 2 and 3 are a Listening test and a Reading test, each with a short Speaking warm-up first. Day 4 is Writing: a Task 1 letter in 20 minutes and a Task 2 essay in 40, because Task 2 carries two thirds of the Writing mark (the split of minutes is ours). Day 5 is a 12-minute Speaking test from the practice bank, all three parts back to back, recorded, no restart. Day 6 is listening back.
Two honest notes on materials. First, the official sample test on the ULIS format page is embedded as a Google Drive preview, and when we tried to download it on 21 October 2026 Drive said the owner has not allowed downloads. Open it on the page. Second, TalkDrill does not publish VSTEP Listening, Reading or Writing tests. For those, use the ULIS sample and the practice tests from your own university’s testing centre. Our part is Speaking.
For the Speaking recording, use the five criteria in ULIS’s Speaking criteria summary (Khái quát tiêu chí chấm bài thi Nói VSTEP.3-5, a Word file linked from the ULIS format page, read 21 October 2026). ULIS gives no weights and no band descriptors, so the questions in the right-hand column are ours. Give each line a tick, a half or a cross:
| ULIS criterion | The question you ask while listening back (TalkDrill’s) |
|---|---|
| Content and organisation (bố cục nội dung) | Did I answer what the part asked? In Part 2, did I choose one option and argue against the other two? Could a listener follow the order: a point, a reason, an example, a link to the next point? |
| Fluency (độ lưu loát) | Did I keep talking in long stretches, or stop after every sentence? |
| Vocabulary (từ vựng) | Did I use topic words and a fixed phrase or two beyond the prompt, or only repeat the prompt’s words? |
| Grammar (ngữ pháp) | Past tense for past events, articles in front of singular nouns, -s on plurals and on he and she verbs, and more than one kind of sentence? |
| Pronunciation (phát âm) | Final consonants, clusters, one strong syllable per word, a fall at the end of statements? |
Then take the two habits you hear most and write them on the card you see every day. The pronunciation and grammar page for Vietnamese speakers lists the usual ones by region, with a drill for each.
Weeks 2 to 4: one Speaking part a week
Each of the middle weeks takes one Speaking part, one sound or stress habit, and one other skill. The order follows the test, so by the end of week 4 you have practised every part separately and twice together.
| Week | Speaking part | Sound or stress habit | Other skill | Week ends with |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Part 1, social interaction: 3 to 6 questions on 2 topics | Final consonants, -ed and -s endings | Reading technique, a second Listening test, registration | A full Part 1 played next to the week-1 recording |
| 3 | Part 2, solution discussion: one situation, three solutions, choose and argue | Consonant clusters and th | Writing Task 1, two Reading passages | An AI examiner pushing back on your choice |
| 4 | Part 3, topic development: a talk, then follow-up questions | Word stress and falling intonation | Writing Task 2, a full Listening test | The second full 12-minute Speaking mock |
Week 2 starts with the Part 1 guide and a single rule: every answer is a direct answer, a reason and one detail, then stop. Two or three sentences fit the clock; in our judgement, one sentence sounds like B1. The sound work is the -ed endings drill and the -s endings drill, because a dropped final consonant is also a dropped tense or plural, and the listener hears a grammar mistake.
Week 3 is the Part 2 guide. The ULIS format PDF says you must give your view on the best of the three solutions and argue against the other two. A four-move answer does exactly that: the situation in one line, the first option you reject and why, the second option you reject and why, your choice and what it gains. On day 6 the TalkDrill AI plays the examiner in role-play practice and challenges your choice twice, so you practise defending it without repeating yourself.
Week 4 is the Part 3 guide: one minute to plan on a three-branch mind map, about three minutes of talk, then the follow-up questions. The intonation day uses our intonation practice sentences: fall at the end of every statement, rise only on yes or no questions. A long talk that rises at the end of every sentence sounds unsure, however good the content.
About timing: the ULIS format page gives 12 minutes for Speaking as a whole but no time per part. ULIS’s step-by-step guide to the computer test says that in each part an audio introduces the question, you then get time to read and prepare, and then the microphone switches on; the time for each part is shown on screen during the test. In practice we use 3 minutes for Part 1, 4 for Part 2 (one to plan, three to talk) and 5 for Part 3 (one to plan, about three to talk, about one for the follow-ups). That split is ours, so on the day follow the timer on the screen.
The registration checkpoint
Most study plans leave registration to the end. At ULIS that does not work. In the 2026 administration plan, registration opened about four weeks before each sitting and closed 9 or 10 days before it. The plan also says the system stops accepting forms once a session has the number of candidates it needs, and that a session with fewer than 100 registered candidates is not held; the 14 November notice adds that those registrations move to the next sitting. So the safe day to register is the first week of the window.
| ULIS sitting | Registration and payment | Where it sits in this plan | Status on 21 October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday 14 November 2026 | 14 October to 23:59, Wednesday 4 November | Too close for six weeks: use the four-week version below | Detailed notice published 4 October 2026 |
| Saturday 12 December 2026 | 12 November to 2 December | Start Monday 2 November; register Thursday 12 November, day 4 of week 2 | Dates from the 2026 plan; the detailed notice was not yet out |
| 2027 sittings | Not announced | Use the same plan, counted back from your date | The 2026 plan was published on 15 December 2025 |
What registration involves, per the ULIS notice for 14 November 2026 and the English version of the same plan: a portrait photo (4 by 6 cm, taken within the last six months), photos of the front and back of your CCCD or passport, the online form on the ULIS registration portal, and a bank transfer of 1,800,000 VND following the portal’s instructions. Your registration is valid only once the form is filled in and the fee has arrived. The ID you upload is the one you take to the test. Other licensed universities run VSTEP with their own dates and fees; the dates and fees page explains how to check them. We do not quote other centres’ fees here.
Week 5: the full mock and the decision
Week 5 is a full mock spread over three days, so it fits into evenings: Listening and Speaking on day 1, Reading on day 2, Writing on day 3. Day 4 is scoring. Estimate each skill out of 10, take the average, and compare it with week 1. You will not get an official score from a mock, and nobody can convert your raw marks into ULIS scores, because ULIS does not publish the conversion. What the mock gives you is a direction: which skills moved, and which did not.
The decision has a deadline. The 14 November notice says ULIS refunds half the fee if you withdraw at least 10 days before the test, and nothing after. On the 12 December timetable that point falls in week 5, which is why the plan puts a decision checkpoint on day 2, Tuesday 1 December in our dated example, after Listening, Reading and Speaking are marked. If all three are still near their week-1 level, moving to a later sitting before the cut-off costs you half the fee; moving after it costs you all of it. If they have moved, sit the test.
Days 5 and 6 go to the weakest skill and to the results page, so you know the timetable after the test: where results appear, the 3-day re-mark window and the 800,000 VND re-mark fee.
Week 6 and test day at ULIS
The last week is lighter on purpose: 40 minutes falling to 15. Keep Speaking every day, outline three Task 2 essays without writing them, and spend 10 minutes a day on read-aloud practice for the two habits you circled in week 1. On day 4, check your candidate number and room: ULIS posts them three days before the test, per the 2026 plan. On day 5, listen to your best recording from weeks 4 and 5, so the voice in your head on the day is your good one.
On the day, the test at ULIS is computer-based, in Building B3, University of Languages and International Studies, 2 Pham Van Dong Street, Cau Giay, Hanoi. What the ULIS room notice for the 10 October 2026 sitting asked of candidates, which is the best guide to what yours will say: bring the original of your CCCD or passport (without it you do not get in), arrive 20 minutes early to leave your belongings, and take nothing into the room, not even a watch; the pen is provided. Read the notice for your own sitting when it appears, because times and floors change.
ULIS’s step-by-step guide to the computer test (dated 12 December 2019 and still linked from the room notice for the 10 October 2026 sitting) adds what the screen will do. The skills come in the order Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking. Each Listening recording plays once: you press play one time and cannot replay it. In Listening and Reading you answer with the mouse only; the guide warns that using the keyboard or clicking outside the answer area can get your test cancelled. Speaking starts with 60 seconds to put on the headset and set the microphone close to your mouth, and you use neither mouse nor keyboard until the end. The guide tells candidates to speak loudly enough for the volume bar to rise. Practise at that volume at home: a quiet voice swallows exactly the final consonants this plan spends a week fixing. Before you leave home, say five Part 1 answers aloud, slowly, with every final consonant.
| After the test (ULIS) | When | Where or how |
|---|---|---|
| Results | 3 to 5 days after the test | ULIS registration portal, Tra cứu điểm thi |
| Re-mark request | Within 3 days of the results | Same portal, Đăng ký phúc khảo, 800,000 VND per request; the result comes with the next sitting’s results |
| Certificate | 14 working days after the test, not counting holidays, Saturdays and Sundays | Collected from ULIS; at a fee of 1,200,000 VND or more there is no separate certificate registration, per the portal |
If your graduation review has a fixed date, count 14 working days back from it before you choose a sitting. By our count, 14 working days after 12 December 2026 is Thursday 31 December 2026, and after 14 November 2026 it is Thursday 3 December 2026, if no public holiday falls in between.
Ôn VSTEP trong 1 tháng: the four-week version
If you have about a month, for example if you must sit on 14 November 2026, cut the plan to four weeks rather than skipping the Speaking. Our compressed version, with the same daily structure:
- Week 1: days 1 to 3 are the diagnostic (one Listening, one Reading, one Writing practice test, each with a Speaking warm-up). Days 4 to 6 are Part 1 and final consonants. Register before the window closes; for 14 November that is 23:59 on Wednesday 4 November.
- Week 2: Part 2 on days 1 to 3, Part 3 on days 4 to 6. Writing Task 1 and Task 2 once each.
- Week 3: a full mock over three days, then the weakest skill. One AI examiner session on Part 2 or Part 3.
- Week 4: the taper and test day, exactly as week 6 above.
What you lose is repetition: one full Speaking mock instead of two, and less time for the sound habits to stick. If your diagnostic puts you near 4.0, a month is not enough for B2 by our judgement, and a later sitting with the full six weeks is the better bet. Whichever version you follow, the day-by-day grid is on the VSTEP hub and every Speaking task it names is in the practice bank.