On the night of 11 May 2012, hundreds of parents waited in heavy rain outside an experimental school in Hanoi to buy first-grade application forms. Sales were due to begin at 7 a.m. The school planned to issue 200 forms for 140 places and had posted a notice refusing to recognise any advance queue list. Nevertheless, when the crowd reached hundreds around 11:30 p.m., parents created their own register in arrival order. Families brought chairs, rain gear, food and relatives to hold positions.
When the gate opened at 6 a.m., the overnight order collapsed. People rushed inside, knocked down the iron gate and pushed toward the next stage: tickets for entry to the application room. The school halted distribution because the crowd could not be controlled. No application forms were issued that morning. A night of waiting and a self-organised list had failed to become an accepted allocation system for scarce school access.