Ho Chi Minh City National University increases the quality of competency assessment tests

On December 5, Ho Chi Minh City National University organized a summary of the virtual filtering work of the Southern group and organized the Ho Chi Minh City National University's capacity assessment exam in 2025, with a plan for 2026.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Cao Vinh - Vice President of Ho Chi Minh City National University - information about the competency assessment exam

Accordingly, the 2026 competency assessment exam will be organized in the form of objective paper-based tests, keeping the current exam structure to ensure stability, continuity and comparison of results between years.

The exam structure will be kept stable, the exam question content will continue to be improved and perfected towards international standardization, ensuring high reliability and classification ability.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Cao Vinh (Vice President of Ho Chi Minh City National University)

International standardized questions

Associate Professor Dr. Tran Cao Vinh - Vice Director of Ho Chi Minh City National University - assessed the scale and level of spread, the 2025 capacity assessment exam recorded a record with more than 152,000 candidates, more than 223,000 registrations at 55 testing locations in 25 provinces/cities.

The validity and reliability of the test continue to be strengthened and improved, demonstrated through a stable score distribution and good differentiation ability. 111 higher education institutions have used the test results in admissions; in the Ho Chi Minh City National University system alone, this method accounts for about 56.32% of the target, demonstrating the strategic importance of the competency assessment test in the overall admissions picture.

For the 2026 competency assessment exam, Ho Chi Minh City National University continues to organize two rounds of exams before the high school graduation exam, and at the same time expands the exam location to create the most favorable conditions for candidates.

"The exam structure will be kept stable, the content of the exam questions will continue to be improved and perfected towards international standards, ensuring reliability and high classification ability," Mr. Vinh emphasized.

In the period 2023-2025, the number of candidates taking the Ho Chi Minh City National University's competency assessment exam increased steadily over the years, especially in 2025, recording a rapid increase with more than 152,000 candidates, nearly 1.5 times compared to 2023 and 2024.

Although the number of candidates increased sharply, Dr. Nguyen Quoc Chinh - Director of the Center for Testing and Assessment of Training Quality of Ho Chi Minh City National University - said: "The test results still maintained statistical stability: the average score fluctuated around 640-665 and the median score was stable at 629 to 654 points. This shows that the test-taking ability of the majority of candidates did not fluctuate much over the years."

According to Mr. Chinh, analysis of the exam results of candidates who took the 2025 exam showed that the score distribution in each round was close to the standard distribution, the width of the score distribution showed that the exam had a good level of differentiation suitable for university admission goals.

The score distribution of the second round tends to be "right-skewed" and more spread out than the first round, reflecting a higher average score and greater dispersion. Analysis of the results shows that this group of candidates has a higher score than the average, showing that they are in the group of fairly good ability or better. The fact that this group of candidates continues to take the exam in the second round contributes to shifting the score distribution in a right-skewed direction.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Thien Phuc - Vice President of University of Technology (Ho Chi Minh City National University) - spoke at the conference - Photo: TRAN HUYNH

Must have competency assessment score

Associate Professor Dr. Tran Thien Phuc - Vice Principal of the University of Technology (Ho Chi Minh City National University) - said that using the results of the Ho Chi Minh City National University's capacity assessment exam helps the school recruit the right students with the capacity to study at the school, reducing the situation of students being forced to drop out due to poor academic ability.

"In 2026, the University of Science and Technology will conduct direct admission according to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training and continue to use the combined method as the main admission method. In which, the combined admission method is expected to not use academic records, candidates participating in the admission must have a capacity assessment test score and high school exam score.

Implementing the combined method will fully assess the candidates' abilities, create fairness for all candidates participating in the selection, diversify the recruitment sources, and motivate candidates with academic ability and cultural and artistic activities to participate in the selection. Expanding the number of exams and scores of the capacity assessment exam has created favorable conditions for candidates to participate," said Mr. Phuc.

Prof. Dr. Huynh Trung Hieu - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry - commented that the Ho Chi Minh City National University's capacity assessment exam has high reliability, showing that the test structure has been adjusted appropriately, contributing to a more accurate and comprehensive assessment of candidates' capacity.

Through this, the exam has helped educational institutions select candidates with suitable abilities, becoming one of the admission tools used and highly appreciated by many universities and colleges nationwide. In 2026, the school will increase the quota for the method of considering exam scores to assess abilities.

Dr. Tran Dinh Ly - Vice Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry - said that the school has increased its quota for the National University of Ho Chi Minh City's aptitude test each year. Candidates admitted by this method have quite good academic results. This is an important factor for schools to increasingly trust in using the results of this exam for admission.

111 schools use the results of the competency assessment test

In 2025, the number of units using the results of the competency assessment test by Ho Chi Minh City National University will continue to increase to 111 schools, including: 8 member universities of Ho Chi Minh City National University, 93 universities and 10 colleges outside this university system.

The 2025 enrollment results of Ho Chi Minh City National University show that the competency assessment method has helped the University recruit 14,491 students. The rate of candidates admitted to Ho Chi Minh City National University by this method reached 56.32% of the total enrollment target of the entire system, a significant increase compared to this rate in 2024 (38.1%).

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TRAN HUYNH

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/dh-quoc-gia-tp-hcm-tang-chat-luong-de-thi-danh-gia-nang-luc-20251206091622878.htm