2025 admissions have too many problems, why?

Some universities changed their criteria and admission scores right after announcing the admission scores, causing many candidates to go from passing to failing. Some candidates could not look up the list of admitted candidates. Some candidates had more than the admission score but were not admitted...

Parents and students view 2025 university admission scores on Tuoi Tre Online - Photo: NHU HUNG

The above problems are the consequences of a series of admission innovations that the Ministry of Education and Training applied in this year's admission season.

Try to find the "culprit"

Why is this year's admission so chaotic? First of all, it is the conversion of equivalent scores between methods to a 30-point scale. Right from the draft, many experts and universities warned that this conversion has no scientific basis and causes distortion of results. Each school converts differently, leading to different results.

But this conversion is still scheduled to be implemented and many experts believe that this is one of the reasons for pushing the benchmark score up so high, and candidates who only consider their high school graduation exam scores are the most disadvantaged.

This year, the first students of the 2018 General Education Program took the high school graduation exam with new content compared to previous years, and the way questions were created and answers for many multiple-choice subjects were also different. Immediately after the exam ended, many candidates commented that the math and English questions were too difficult, beyond the ability of a normal high school student.

At that time, the ministry thought that the exam papers met the requirements of the exam well. When the scores were announced, except for the average scores of all subjects decreasing but the score distribution was better, the classification indexes were also evaluated very well by the ministry, with almost no limitations or complaints.

When the ministry announced the percentile to convert scores - a term that many people heard for the first time, but never knew what it was, many opinions agreed that this announcement was to convert equivalents or calculate the difference between exam groups. However, many experts also said that the basis for giving this percentile was incomplete, even incorrect and had very little reference value.

The average exam scores dropped sharply, but when universities announced their benchmark scores, candidates and the public were shocked because the benchmark scores were too high, increasing in most schools, not just a few hot majors as the ministry announced. The public questioned why the exam scores were low but the benchmark scores were so high, even 30/30?

Some universities believe that in addition to the increase in candidates, the equivalence conversion is one of the reasons for the increase in the benchmark scores of many schools. Each school gives a different conversion factor, which will lead to different results, and thus, candidates who rely on their high school graduation exam scores are at a disadvantage.

Another major reason for the high benchmark score is the addition of incentive points from international language certificates, excellent students, and allowing candidates to convert IELTS scores into English scores in the admission combination.

The conversion of certificate points is quite flexible, 6.0 IELTS can be converted into 9 points in English when considering admission. Schools also actively add points for candidates with IELTS certificates from 1 to 3 points. Not to mention that there are schools that both convert and calculate bonus points, giving double priority.

While regional priority points are tightened, candidates with 22.5 points or more will have their priority points gradually reduced with a specific calculation formula, while bonus points and incentive points are expanded. There is absolutely no formula to control the fact that candidates with high floor scores will have their bonus points further reduced.

Need answers

In previous years, schools announced their benchmark scores, and candidates could check their pass or fail scores right on the general admission portal. However, this year, candidates could only check their pass or fail scores three days after the benchmark scores were announced. All the anxiety and waiting seemed to be more painful because with the way scores were converted this year, candidates were not sure whether they passed or failed.

In fact, there are candidates who have more than the required score but still fail. Even the search results on the general admission portal do not show the status of many wishes passing or failing, making candidates even more confused.

Candidates check the admission results on the school's website, but the ministry's admission portal reports that they have failed. The order of their preferences has been changed, not because of the candidates. This university had to send a letter asking another university to consider the candidates because of its technical error...

Countless tragic and humorous stories have caused candidates to run around, asking from one school to another, and reporting to the ministry's admission hotline. Up to now, there has been no official and definite answer from the schools or the ministry to candidates while there are only a few days left to confirm admission. The press has also reported this situation and sought an official answer from the ministry but has yet to receive a response.

Never in the past decade has the university entrance exam been as inconsistent as this year, especially with the developments in the past four days. How many candidates have lost their legitimate opportunity to enter their desired university this year due to errors in the general admission system (if any) as well as technical errors of the schools?

Injustices in scores cannot be corrected now, but can those technical errors be corrected in time to ensure the legitimate rights of candidates?

Create fairness and convenience for candidates

On August 25, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Hoang Minh Son told the press: innovations in the 2025 admission season, from point conversion regulations, priority point limits to implementing multiple virtual filtering rounds, all aim towards a common goal: creating fairness and convenience for candidates.

Candidates taking the 2025 high school graduation exam - Photo: THANH HIEP

Need stability

If we take the time to follow the organization of exams and determine the university admission methods over the years, we can probably all see the truth that admission has never been stable in terms of methods and regulations associated with this issue.

Indeed, for a long time now, almost every year the Ministry of Education and Training has made changes and adjustments to its admission regulations compared to the previous year. For example, in this year's university admission regulations, the ministry has set out methods and regulations that are completely different from those of previous years, and this has revealed many inadequacies and even absurdities.

The first inadequacy or absurdity is that the average score of the high school graduation exam has decreased sharply, but the benchmark scores of many majors have increased, with many majors setting benchmark scores as high as the absolute score of 30/30 points. And the more paradoxical thing is that there are not only one or two majors with absolute benchmark scores, but many majors setting benchmark scores from 29-30 points.

This absurd abnormality comes from the mechanism of converting scores according to a correlation function between admission methods, and this mechanism has only been applied this year. The question is, when the ministry set out this mechanism, how many hypothetical situations did the ministry's specialized agencies run tests on?

If the test had been run seriously, the ministry would have certainly discovered the unexpected results, that is, the inadequacies and absurdities as mentioned above, and from there made early adjustments to avoid causing difficulties for candidates and schools as we have seen.

Another serious problem that has arisen from the admission regulations issued by the ministry this year is that it creates unfairness in access to education by allowing schools to add incentive points of up to 3 points (10% of 30 points).

This leads to great inequality between students with good economic conditions, living in urban areas who have the conditions and opportunities to study and achieve high scores in IELTS English certificates and students with difficult economic conditions, living in remote areas who do not have the opportunity to study foreign language certificates.

Therefore, what the Party, State and Government need to do is to quickly direct the Ministry of Education and Training to quickly establish a stable, predictable, easy-to-understand, easy-to-apply, and most importantly, stable admission regulation for at least five years.

If we cannot establish an admission regulation properly and stably, how can we have a stable and developed university education as the Party, State, Government and people have long desired?

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/ky-tuyen-sinh-2025-qua-nhieu-van-de-vi-dau-20250827093910195.htm