Concerns about 'common denominator' of benchmark scores in draft university admission regulations

The early admission score must not be lower than the general admission score of the Ministry of Education and Training; the admission score and the admission score of all methods and combinations must be converted to a common scale. This is one of the important new points in the draft Regulations on university and college admissions for preschool education, revised and applied from 2025. However, many opinions are concerned that "converging the denominator" between admission methods is difficult to implement and unreasonable.

Unscientific?

While it is necessary for the ministry to amend the university admission regulations to overcome shortcomings and conform to the requirements of the new general education program, Professor Nguyen Dinh Duc said that converting admission scores in all methods to one scale is unreasonable.

Professor Nguyen Dinh Duc said that there are currently many admission methods and many exams that use results for admission such as the competency assessment test of two national universities, the thinking assessment test of Hanoi University of Science and Technology, international standardized exams such as SAT, IELTS foreign language certificate exam, high school graduation exam... Each exam has a completely different structure and format, and is a different coordinate system, so it cannot be converted to one score.

In more specific analysis, Professor Nguyen Dinh Duc said that the weighting ratio of math in the competency assessment test of Hanoi National University is 50%, in the thinking assessment test of Hanoi University of Science and Technology is 60%, while in the tests of some other units it is only 30%.

“The competency assessment test of Hanoi National University and Ho Chi Minh City National University is very different and these two testing centers also really want to convert to one score, have discussed this issue with each other but still cannot do it. If it is converted to one starting point, it will be more convenient for software-based enrollment, but from a scientific point of view, I think converting to one starting point is not completely scientific, not completely accurate,” Professor Nguyen Dinh Duc emphasized.

According to Professor Nguyen Dinh Duc, a student who gets a perfect score in the high school exam is completely different from those who get a perfect score in the university assessment exam. In the National University's assessment exam, getting 110/150 points is very difficult, very excellent, while in the graduation exam, getting 29/30 points is normal.

As a candidate studying for the SAT exam, Nguyen Anh Thu, a 12th grade student at Luong The Vinh High School (Hanoi) said that the SAT exam is quite difficult and has a different nature and scope of knowledge from the graduation exam as well as other competency assessment exams.

This is also the opinion of Le Thanh Son, a student at Nguyen Thi Minh Khai High School (Hanoi). “I do not agree with this point of the draft regulation because if it is converted to a single scale, it will not properly assess the ability of candidates when applying together,” Son said.

What does the Ministry of Education and Training say?

Sharing about the regulation that "the admission scores and passing scores of the methods and subject combinations used for admission must be converted to a common, unified scale for each training program, major, and group of majors" in the draft regulation, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thu Thuy, Director of the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Training, said that the criteria for assessing admission for the same program and major must be comparable to each other and to candidates when they apply together.

“Converting the benchmark scores to a unified score is to help schools choose the most suitable admission method, not to increase the number of admission methods. At the same time, it is also necessary to compare candidates with each other to choose the most excellent candidates, suitable for the training industry,” said Ms. Thuy.

According to Ms. Thuy, in recent years, most training institutions have allocated separate quotas for each admission method, even for each admission subject group, from which they apply admission criteria to calculate the candidates' scores and determine the admission scores from high to low until the quota for each method and admission subject group is exhausted. This helps schools to use early admission to proactively complete their enrollment plans.

However, from here, problems arise such as unreasonable differences in admission scores between methods and subject combinations, while pushing the benchmark score for the admission method based on high school graduation exam scores up very high because there are not many quotas for this method left. This causes unfair opportunities for candidates who do not have access to many admission methods.

This draft amendment to the admission regulations stipulates the unified application of equivalent conversion of the admission scores of the admission methods and subject groups to a common, unified scale for each training program, major, and group of majors, on that basis, determining the admission scores from high to low for all the quotas of the training program, major, and group of majors, except for the cases of direct admission and early admission of candidates with outstanding abilities and achievements.

The draft also stipulates the conversion method to ensure that all candidates have the opportunity to achieve the maximum score on the general scale, but no candidate has a score exceeding this maximum score. Training institutions will have to study and re-regulate the addition of points for foreign language certificates and other priority points, thereby limiting abuse that causes inequality between candidates with different investment conditions for studying.

Currently, the draft regulation is still being consulted by the Ministry of Education and Training for completion before official promulgation.