Benchmarks, tuning, and what you see...

The statistics of admission scores of universities seem to have increased sharply, which is considered an abnormal score. While the previous prediction was that the admission score would decrease because the average score of high school graduation exam subjects has decreased, especially Math, which is the subject in most admission combinations with the sharpest decrease in average score.

However, most importantly, this year's technical changes in admissions have caused unpredictable changes in the admissions situation, losing important criteria for career choice, and giving rise to many problems affecting candidates.

However, the overall picture of admission scores at schools shows that in fact, the benchmark scores only increased at a few top schools, while the majority of schools did not increase much in their benchmark scores, or even decreased compared to 2024 as predicted. This result is related to the fact that although the average number of admission applications per candidate in 2025 is up to about 9, nearly double that of 2024, most of the candidates' priority applications are concentrated in top universities.

The obvious consequence of this is that the benchmark scores of these schools in general and in some majors of these schools in particular have increased sharply, skyrocketed. As a result, there have been many candidates with high scores but still failed, the lower-ranking universities will certainly have to consider many quotas in the additional admission period. This is evident when the time to confirm admission on the system has not yet ended, dozens of universities have announced to consider additional admission for thousands of quotas.

The elimination of early admission also somewhat reduces the orientation of candidates when registering for the exam to choose a major and a school. Candidates must increase the number of admission wishes to ensure a high chance of being admitted. With the regulation that when registering for the exam, candidates only need to write the name of the major, the name of the school, and the results of the admission on the system, it seems that the trend of choosing a school is more dominant than choosing a registered major. The admission results show that many schools have a large number of admission wishes of nearly 200,000 but still announce additional admission immediately after announcing the first round of admission scores. This is because although the number of candidates registering for the exam to enter the school is large, most candidates only place their wishes on the lower wishes, so candidates have been admitted to schools with higher priority wishes.

The three groups of majors with the highest fluctuations and differentiation in admission scores are the Information Technology group; the Health Sciences group, especially the Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy and Teacher Training groups. This differentiation once again shows the tendency of candidates to choose schools rather than majors in the 2025 admissions period. The pedagogy group has a skyrocketing admission score, some pedagogy majors have admission scores approaching 30 points. The explanation for this result is quite easy to understand because the admission quota for majors in the pedagogy group is very small, but attracts many candidates because students will enjoy high support from regulations on tuition and living expenses according to Decree 116/2020 of the Government.

Another factor affecting the admission results of universities is the regulation on converting scores according to percentiles. The goal of converting scores is that the benchmark scores between methods must be equivalent in terms of the level of assessment of candidates' abilities. The Ministry of Education and Training only provides general framework regulations for conversion, universities must specify the conversion formulas according to each school's way, leading to the converted scores of admission methods and admission subject combinations may not be the same in schools. Not to mention the conversion of scores for foreign language certificates in schools is also different when the admission combination includes foreign language subjects; adding bonus points when considering admission for the same evidence (foreign language certificates, academic achievements...) is taken into account by some schools, but not by others, making the comparison of benchmark scores between schools and majors no longer important.

Another important thing that has never happened before is that the schools announced the admission scores on the evening of August 22, but then re-announced them in the following days, causing candidates to "pass" and "fail". Virtual filtering and simultaneous admission, lasting 2 more days and increasing from 6 to 10 virtual filtering, admission and ending, closing the admission scores at the last virtual filtering. But when the schools re-announced the admission scores, the candidates who had passed turned out to be failed, what should they do now? Regardless of the cause or reason, this is unacceptable both emotionally and logically, because it seriously affects the rights of candidates.

The innovation efforts of the Ministry of Education and Training are commendable. However, in reality, there seems to be a huge gap between the way of adjusting the admission techniques and new regulations compared to the way of coordinating implementation, technology infrastructure, and techniques in admission... Therefore, the Ministry of Education and Training needs to look directly at the actual situation to immediately resolve the rights of candidates from failing to passing, passing to failing. Next, it is necessary to comprehensively evaluate this year's admission work to promptly adjust in accordance with the spirit of exam innovation, ensuring fairness, objectivity and transparency.

Dr. Nguyen Duc Nghia, Former Vice President of Ho Chi Minh City National University

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/diem-chuan-cach-chinh-va-nhung-dieu-trong-thay-post810313.html