IELTS 4.0 converted to 10 in high school English graduation causes injustice

On the afternoon of April 7, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) announced guidelines for organizing the 2023 high school graduation exam and mentioned subjects exempted from the 2023 high school graduation foreign language exam.

Two subjects are exempted from taking the foreign language exam, including: Members of the national team participating in the International Olympic competition in Foreign Languages ​​according to the Decision of the Minister of Education and Training; candidates with one of the valid foreign language certificates (same or different from the foreign language being studied at high school), valid until at least June 27, 2023 and achieving the minimum score according to the regulations of the Ministry.

Accordingly, candidates with a TOEFL ITP certificate of 450 points, TOEFL iBT of 45 points or higher issued by ETS or IELTS of 4.0 points or higher issued by IDP or British Council will be exempted from the English test, and this score will also be automatically converted to 10.

This is not the first year that the Ministry of Education and Training has applied this policy. Since 2016, the ministry has stipulated that candidates with IELTS 4.0 or other equivalent certificates will be exempted from the English graduation exam. In 2015, candidates only needed IELTS 3.5 to be exempted.

For educators, converting 4.0 IELTS into 10 English points will create many problems and cause conflicting opinions.

IELTS 4.0 cannot be converted into a graduation score of 10

Regarding the issue of score conversion, Master Tran Minh Tu, lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City National University, said that this is unreasonable. According to her, IELTS 4.0 is only equivalent to basic English proficiency, meaning it only stops at the level of reading and understanding simple English texts, recognizing basic sentence structures and vocabulary. If converted to the high school graduation English exam score, Ms. Tu said that IELTS 4.0 is only equivalent to 5 points.

Therefore, converting such a low IELTS score into a score of 10 for the English graduation exam will be unfair to candidates who do not have the conditions to study and take the IELTS exam. Furthermore, this will reduce the value of the high school graduation exam.

In the long term, Ms. Tu is concerned that the conversion of scores will cause students to do everything to take the IELTS exam instead of the high school graduation exam. She questions whether this is the result that the Ministry of Education and Training wants.

Mr. Le Khanh Minh, a master of English Teaching Theory and Methodology and lecturer at Hanoi University, also expressed a similar opinion. Mr. Minh highly appreciated the difficulty of the high school graduation exam in English, thereby stating that 4.0 IELTS is not always equivalent to a score of 10.

Mr. Minh commented that IELTS is increasingly used as a measure of English proficiency according to international standards. However, no test can comprehensively assess the language ability of candidates. Moreover, English assessment tests are also different in terms of the way they are designed and scored.

The high school graduation exam itself often focuses on grammar theory and vocabulary instead of focusing on practice, using those “ingredients” to create writing and speaking essays like the IELTS exam. Therefore, it is very difficult for us to have the most correct score conversion plan to satisfy all candidates and parents.

How to use IELTS appropriately in admission and enrollment?

Regarding the conversion of international language proficiency scores into English graduation exam scores, Master Tran Minh Tu suggested that the Ministry of Education and Training should consider a more suitable conversion method instead of defaulting to 4.0 IELTS or higher to get 10 points.

Up to now, international English proficiency assessment standards such as IELTS, CEFR, TOEFL... all have tables describing the corresponding abilities and levels to base on and give scores. In Vietnam, the Ministry has also issued regulations on foreign language proficiency framework (Circular 01/2014/TT-BGDĐT), so the Ministry can completely base on similar assessment criteria to give a more appropriate conversion level.

Speaking further about the fact that the converted IELTS score for the graduation exam cannot be used for university admission, Ms. Tu commented that this can still create certain difficulties for students. If in the future, the Ministry of Education and Training comes up with a reasonable conversion plan so that this score can be applied simultaneously for graduation and university admission, students will have less trouble.

Currently, IELTS is widely used in university admissions. Ms. Tu advises that students need to have a solid foundation before they can achieve higher goals. Therefore, if they want to prepare for the IELTS or high school graduation exam, candidates also need to practice basic grammar, learn how to make sentences, write short paragraphs, etc.

Thus, whether taking the IELTS or graduation exam, whether the exam questions remain the same or change, candidates can still be proactive and complete the exam better, thereby achieving high results for the graduation exam, and at the same time being admitted to the desired major at university.

Similarly, Mr. Minh also advised that what candidates need to do is to carefully update the admission methods and criteria of each method at the school they want, from there come up with a reasonable review plan to optimize the time and effort spent.

Despite the differences in the way questions are set and scored, there will still be some overlap between studying general English and studying for the IELTS exam. One of the common points of language learning is that students must concentrate and practice regularly.

For English in general, intermittent learning is not the optimal way. Therefore, students should set out a roadmap with specific study time and content to ensure continuity and avoid conflicts with the review time of other cultural subjects.

For IELTS in particular, writing and speaking practice account for a high proportion. Students who are not familiar with this need to spend time early because the nature of IELTS preparation cannot be achieved by simply "memorizing" in a few weeks.

According to Zing