Converting university admission scores: Is it fair?

Quy đổi điểm - Ảnh 1. — Candidates and parents learn about 2025 enrollment information at Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics - Photo: THANH HIEP

Although they all achieved 100 points in the Hanoi National University assessment, at different schools, candidates were converted into many different levels of scores in relation to their high school graduation exam scores. This shows inconsistency and unfairness in score conversion. Especially when the traditional admission combinations this year have very large differences in exam scores.

Each place converts points differently.

According to the announcement of Hanoi University of Industry, candidates who score 100 points in the Hanoi National University's competency assessment exam (150-point scale) will be converted to the equivalent of 24.25 points in the high school graduation exam.

Meanwhile, Hanoi National University - the organization that organizes the competency assessment exam - converts 100 points to 27.25 points for the A00 combination, 26.5 points for the B00 combination, 27.75 points for the C00 combination and 24.25 points for the D01 combination. Thus, with the same competency assessment score, the converted score on the 30-point scale of Hanoi University of Industry is very different from that of Hanoi National University, the highest being up to 3.75 points.

Hanoi University of Industry does not only calculate the capacity assessment score based on the lower high school graduation exam score, but only calculates a common score, with no difference between the groups. Therefore, candidates applying to Hanoi University of Industry based on the capacity assessment score will be at a much disadvantage compared to candidates applying based on the high school graduation exam score.

Meanwhile, with the thinking assessment score of Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Hanoi University of Industry offers a more detailed conversion scale and the difference is not significant compared to the conversion score of Hanoi University of Science and Technology.

Currently, some higher education institutions have announced the conversion scores for competency assessment and thinking assessment on a 30-point scale, such as Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Hanoi University of Industry, and Hanoi Pedagogical University. Meanwhile, representatives of many universities said they are calculating options to come up with appropriate conversion scores.

On the morning of July 22, the Ministry of Education and Training announced the percentile of exam scores as well as the comparison of scores of 7 main combinations. Accordingly, the Ministry requires that based on the reference of comparing the score distribution, percentile of total scores of some traditional combinations using the high school graduation exam results after calibration, the guiding documents of the Ministry of Education and Training, the main subjects for admission of each major/group of majors, specific requirements of the major, school and statistics, assessment of learning outcomes of previous years, training institutions proactively develop and announce the equivalent conversion of admission scores between admission combinations according to plan.

The head of the training department of a university in Ho Chi Minh City said that according to the document, the information announced by the ministry is for reference only and schools are proactive in building and announcing the conversion. Because there is no common formula, it leads to a situation where each school converts differently, with the same level of competency assessment score but the conversion score at each school is different.

"This is not only unfair to candidates but also to schools in the same segment. For example, a candidate who scores 900 points in the capacity assessment at one school will be converted to 27 points but at another school it will only be 25 points. Thus, a candidate with 25 points will be disadvantaged when considered with candidates who are considered for graduation scores. Similarly, schools that convert higher scores will be more likely to attract candidates. This leads to confusion and unhealthy competition," he said.

Meanwhile, a representative of another university said that the school has dozens of different admission combinations, but the ministry only announced the percentiles of 7 combinations. "Where does the school get the data for other combinations to determine the difference in scores between combinations to ensure fairness for candidates?", he wondered.

Education expert Sai Cong Hong said that there are many methods of converting scores. If you want the percentile to be meaningful, you need to build the test score data of candidates participating in the entire exam group and then build the percentile. This statistic from the Ministry of Education and Training calculates all candidates, so it is only for reference when converting.

Quy đổi điểm - Ảnh 2. — Graphics: TAN DAT

Difficult to guarantee accuracy

On the afternoon of June 22, member schools of Ho Chi Minh City National University discussed converting the scores of the competency assessment exam and the transcripts to a 30-point scale. Mr. Cu Xuan Tien, head of the admissions and student affairs department of the University of Economics and Law (Ho Chi Minh City National University), said that converting from the competency assessment score to a 30-point scale is more convenient.

Meanwhile, converting the transcript score to the high school graduation exam score is quite difficult because the school considers the combination of 3 subjects while the transcript score is announced by the Ministry for each subject. The difference between the transcript score and the high school graduation exam score is very large, so it must be calculated according to the combination and then converted to ensure fairness for candidates.

Mr. Pham Thai Son, Director of the Admissions and Communications Center of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Trade, said that data shows that the grading scale is not consistent when the transcripts and high school graduation exam scores are high. The school is calculating to come up with the most suitable conversion plan.

"Currently, the conversion plan being considered is to reduce 2 points for the transcript score and increase 0.5 points for the D01 combination of high school graduation exam scores," said Mr. Son. Statistics show that the average score of the transcript for math is 2.25 points higher than the high school graduation exam score, English is 1.57 points, industrial technology is 2.26 points, biology is 1.83 points...

Although the Ministry of Education and Training announced the correlation between graduation exam scores and average scores of subjects in high school, Mr. Quach Thanh Hai, vice principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education, said that this data does not ensure accuracy for the school to convert.

According to Mr. Hai, this is student data nationwide, and does not accurately reflect the academic records of candidates applying to the school.

Need more explanation

According to an admissions expert in Hanoi, the Ministry of Education and Training has announced the percentile of 7 traditional combinations based on the results of the high school graduation exam and the difference in scores between the 12 high school graduation exam subjects and the candidates' academic records, but the data is "very confusing and quite difficult to understand", it is unclear what these figures represent.

This expert believes that the Ministry of Education and Training needs to explain more specifically so that universities can refer to and implement score conversion.

Ministry of Education and Training announced the percentile table

On the morning of July 22, the Ministry of Education and Training officially announced the percentile table of 7 traditional groups according to the results of the high school graduation exam, including: A00, A01, B00, C00, C01, D01, D07. At the same time, it announced the difference in scores between the 12 high school graduation exam subjects and the candidates' academic records.

The seven traditional combinations listed in the percentile table are A00 (math, physics, chemistry), A01 (math, physics, English), B00 (math, chemistry, biology), C00 (literature, history, geography), C00 (math, physics, literature), D01 (math, literature, English), D07 (math, chemistry, English).

According to the analysis of the Ministry of Education and Training, 20.25 points of combination A00 (math, physics, chemistry) is equivalent to 19 points of combination B00 (math, chemistry, biology), 22.75 points of combination C00 (literature, history, geography), 16.25 points of combination D01 (math, literature, English), 14.75 points of combination D07 (math, chemistry, English).

Notably, the correlation table between the scores of 12 high school graduation exam subjects and the average transcript score of the candidates over 3 years of study shows a deviation of 0.12 - 2.26 points.

According to statistics, industrial technology has the largest deviation in scores with an average transcript score of 8.05 compared to an average high school graduation exam score of 5.79, a deviation of 2.26 points.

Next is math, with the average score of the 3-year transcripts of more than 1.1 million candidates taking the high school graduation exam being 7.03, while the average score of the graduation exam was 4.78 (2.25 points lower than the transcript score). If only considering the average score of math in grade 12, the difference in scores is up to 2.73 points.

In English, the average score of the transcripts of more than 351,000 candidates taking the high school graduation exam was 6.95, while the average score of the high school graduation exam was 5.38, equivalent to a difference of 1.57 points.

In the 12 graduation exam subjects, literature is the subject with the lowest score deviation, 0.12 points.

This year is the first year that the Ministry of Education and Training has published a comparison table of score distributions of some high school exam score combinations and academic transcript results so that training institutions have a basis to determine the difference in scores between combinations, if any.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/quy-doi-diem-xet-tuyen-dai-hoc-lieu-da-cong-bang-2025072308301047.htm