How will the university admission scores increase or decrease?

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has announced the 2024 high school graduation exam scores of more than 1 million candidates. Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Duc Son, Principal of Hanoi National University of Education, said that this year's score distribution is quite good. The score distribution of some subjects is very well distributed, such as history. In addition, the score distribution of English has also begun to show more positive changes compared to the score distribution of previous years.

According to Prof. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Duc, Chairman of the Council of the University of Technology (Vietnam National University, Hanoi), through the results of the exams, it can be seen that the exam matrix as well as the basic difficulty level have remained stable and all subjects have had very positive changes.

This is reflected in the fact that the average score below 5 for all subjects has improved significantly. Even subjects such as math, history, and physics, which are subjects that often have relatively large below-average scores. With the score distribution of subjects such as math, physics, especially chemistry and geography, the number of 10 points is higher than in previous years. Therefore, it is predicted that the score distribution of the combination A00, A01, B00, C00, D01 will increase.

“Through the evaluation of the exam score distribution, we still see that the Social Science group, for example, literature and geography have a high rate of excellent scores and low rates of below average scores; meanwhile, Natural Science subjects such as math and physics have an improved rate of excellent scores but the rate of below average scores is still higher than other subjects. Therefore, the work of exam orientation and university admission in the Natural Science group needs to be noted and focused on more,” said Professor Duc.

How does the benchmark increase or decrease?

Regarding the 2024 high school graduation exam scores, Master Pham Thai Son, Director of Admissions at Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Trade, predicted that the benchmark scores for groups such as A00, A01, D00 will be similar to 2023. That is, scores from 25 and above for top universities and top majors of universities. For average top universities, the benchmark scores will range from 20 - 24, the rest will be benchmark scores from 15 - 20.

Mr. Son said that this year's high school graduation exam scores are higher than last year's, but the number of admission quotas based on high school graduation exam scores is also higher than last year. The block with literature, geography and history will have a standard score 1 - 1.5 higher than in 2023. Accordingly, top schools are expected to have a score of 25 - 26 or higher to be admitted, while most universities have an expected admission score of 21 - 24.

Dr. Nguyen Trung Nhan, Head of Training Department of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, said that the average score of all groups this year is higher than in 2023, except for group B00, which has decreased slightly. Based on the allocation quota for schools considering graduation exam scores, the standard score of the fields of social sciences and business management (usually recruiting groups C00, D01) may increase by 0.5-1 point.

For the health sector (usually recruiting block B00), many quotas are reserved for considering graduation exam results, the benchmark score may decrease slightly. For the sector recruiting block A00, A01, the benchmark score may increase, but not significantly.

“The benchmark scores of C00, D01, and D96 may increase slightly. The benchmark scores of B00 may stagnate or decrease slightly. The benchmark scores of A00 and A01 will increase but not significantly,” said Mr. Nhan. Dr. Nhan said that the increase in benchmark scores is due to the entrance exam scores and the small proportion of schools considering graduation exam scores.

As for Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, the expected increase in benchmark scores is not much because the school still reserves more than 50% of the total quota for admission based on graduation exams.

Based on the score distribution, average score, median score and the highest score of candidates in the 2024 high school graduation exam subjects, Associate Professor, Dr. To Van Phuong, Head of Training Department, Nha Trang University, said that the exam subjects are differentiated in accordance with current admission conditions, and there are not many fluctuations in the score distribution of traditional admission combinations.

This year, geography, literature and history have the highest increase in scores compared to 2023 and previous years. Other subjects have increased insignificantly.

Regarding the traditional admission combination score spectrum in 2024, Associate Professor Phuong said that all average scores of 5 traditional combinations increased compared to 2023, for example: The combination of 3 compulsory subjects D00 increased by 0.63 points compared to 2023, while Combination C00 increased by nearly 2 points compared to 2023. Combinations A00 and B00 increased insignificantly.

Thus, majors in social sciences and humanities, tourism, and services - which are majors that often recruit groups D00 and C00 - may have their admission scores increase compared to last year, predicted to be from 0.5 to 1.5 points. Meanwhile, majors in engineering and technology are likely to remain stable compared to 2023.

For Nha Trang University, most majors have English in the admission combination, of which about 50% of majors/training programs have English conditional scores (English standard scores). Thus, the barriers will be more stringent than using only 1 criterion of 3-subject combination scores. Therefore, the expected standard scores for economics, accounting, and tourism majors may increase by about 0.5 points. Aquaculture and engineering majors are forecasted to be stable as in 2023.