From some incidents, looking at the biggest "loophole" in the country's private exam
The incident of “a candidate losing 30 minutes of exam time because the supervisor misheard the alarm” that occurred in the second round of the 2025 capacity assessment exam of Ho Chi Minh City National University further clarified the “loopholes” in the exam considered the largest university entrance exam in the country.
The incident was resolved with an apology and the refund of exam fees to candidates, further revealing the shortcomings in the way an exam is organized, from the selection and training of invigilators; the responsibility for supervision and the way the Examination Council handles incidents.
In particular, this incident occurred right after the Examination Council's commitment to continuously improve the exam organization process in a more professional and effective direction after the first exam (there was also a situation where the invigilator was slow in distributing the exam papers, causing candidates to lose 20 minutes of taking the exam at the An Giang exam site).
Candidates taking the 2025 National University Competency Assessment Exam (Photo: Hoai Nam).
Looking back at previous years, the Ho Chi Minh City National University's competency assessment exam had other incidents such as in the second round of 2024, there were 2 questions in the exam that were wrong, forcing the Examination Council to give full marks to the candidates; in 2022, in the first round, there were 2 questions in the exam that were wrong, the Examination Council had to calculate the absolute score or remove that question for the candidates...
In addition, the National University of Ho Chi Minh City's Competency Assessment Council's regulation that exam questions cannot be taken out of the room or announced is also an issue raised by many experts regarding transparency, fairness, and social supervision before the influence of this exam.
The "dancing" exam score distribution with an unusual difference between 2024 and 2025 and right between the first and second rounds of this year's exam once again raises questions about the stability and standardization of the exam, especially the classification of the exam questions.
From the organizer's point of view, the assessment of ability is based on the candidate's ability and not on exam preparation. Any tricks will not help students achieve good results.
Not announcing the exam questions is aimed at helping students focus on studying, not wasting time discussing the exam questions, and also recommending that candidates do not need to practice for the exam, do not need to look at the questions to see what methods or tricks are available to get high scores.
However, in reality, the market for preparing for the National University of Ho Chi Minh City's competency assessment exam has been bustling for many years with many methods. Not to mention, there have been incidents where this exam has been impersonated to sell competency assessment exam preparation questions.
From just over 4,500 candidates taking the exam in the first year of organization (2018), by 2025, the Ho Chi Minh City National University's competency assessment exam attracted nearly 153,000 candidates with nearly 223,200 candidates taking the exam. From the exam to get admission scores in Ho Chi Minh City National University, up to now, there are more than 110 educational institutions using scores from this exam for admission consideration.
To date, this is considered the largest university entrance exam in the country in terms of the number of registered candidates and the number of educational institutions using the scores for admission. This further raises the demand for transparency, supervision and fairness in the exam.
The organization has not kept up with the scale.
Responding to Dan Tri reporter, Associate Professor Dr. Vu Hai Quan, Director of Ho Chi Minh City National University, said that the content mentioned by Dan Tri newspaper about the Ho Chi Minh City National University's competency assessment exam is an objective reflection of both the positive and negative aspects of this exam.
The organization of the competency assessment exam of Ho Chi Minh City National University still has many "loopholes" (Photo: Hoai Nam).
Ho Chi Minh City National University accepts in the spirit of openness, listening, and absorbing comments to further improve the competency assessment exam.
Associate Professor Dr. Vu Hai Quan shared that the capacity assessment exam was organized in 2018 with the initial goal of serving the university admission work of training institutions in the Ho Chi Minh City National University system.
This unit identifies this as a comprehensive assessment tool for student capacity, aiming to select candidates with comprehensive knowledge, social responsibility, entrepreneurial thinking and leadership capacity. Over the years of organization, this exam has been increasingly chosen by many universities and colleges to use the results in admissions.
However, Mr. Vu Hai Quan admitted that due to the increasingly large scale, the exam has had a number of unfortunate shortcomings and errors, which, according to him, were mostly related to the exam organization.
The Director of Ho Chi Minh City National University informed that the unit has proactively reviewed the entire organization process, established an inspection team, clarified the cause and strictly handled related individuals and organizations to ensure the fairness, seriousness and transparency of the exam.
Specifically, in 2024, Ho Chi Minh City National University established a team to inspect the process of creating exam questions, adjusting exam scores, announcing exam scores, and reviewing responsibilities and proposing disciplinary action for related individuals.
Recently, as soon as receiving information about the incident at Examination Cluster 9 (candidates lost 30 minutes of exam time and were not given scratch paper), Mr. Quan said that Ho Chi Minh City National University held a meeting and issued a notice of the Director's conclusion, directing the Examination Council and the Center for Testing and Training Quality Assessment to work with affected candidates, ensuring the rights of candidates and reporting to the Director the specific handling results.
Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Hai Quan (Photo: MQ).
“Organizing a re-exam for affected candidates is a proposed option. At the same time, Ho Chi Minh City National University also requested the Center for Testing and Training Quality Assessment to develop and report to the Board of Directors a plan to ensure exam safety in the next exams before June 30,” said Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Hai Quan.
Invite experts and teachers to develop question banks
Associate Professor Dr. Vu Hai Quan added that in the coming time, Ho Chi Minh City National University will continue to review the entire exam to gain experience, improve and enhance the quality of the exam, focusing on developing exam questions, upgrading technology infrastructure, training on exam organization and error handling.
Specifically, this unit is implementing a project to upgrade and expand the exam question bank. To do this, Ho Chi Minh City National University will invite experts and good teachers nationwide to develop the question bank, ensuring reliability, differentiation and stability for the exam.
The Ho Chi Minh City National University's aptitude test is the largest and most influential university entrance exam today (Photo: VNU).
Continue to upgrade technology infrastructure, improve software for registration, fee payment, and result announcement to ensure safety, smoothness, and minimize risks for the exam.
Strengthening coordination and training before the exam. Ho Chi Minh City National University will work closely with the exam sites, organize thorough training for exam invigilators and supervisors, to ensure the exam takes place seriously, minimizing possible errors.
Ho Chi Minh City National University also pledged to continue to improve the handling process when errors occur to ensure the rights and interests of candidates.
The Director of Ho Chi Minh City National University affirmed that if there are any shortcomings, they must be overcome, if there are any inadequacies, they must be adjusted, and above all, fairness, transparency and legitimate rights for candidates must be ensured.
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/lo-hong-ky-thi-danh-gia-nang-luc-tram-ty-co-thieu-sot-phai-khac-phuc-20250620073237576.htm
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