Converting university admission scores to a scale of 30: Some places are 30 points, some places are only 25.2 points

Candidates taking the first round of the 2025 capacity assessment exam organized by Ho Chi Minh City National University - Photo: VNU

Foreign Trade University has just announced admission information and the formula for converting scores to a 30-point scale. The school only considers candidates with scores from 100/150 in the competency assessment exam of Hanoi National University and from 850/1,200 in the competency assessment exam organized by Ho Chi Minh City National University.

Each school has its own beat.

The first round of the 2025 capacity assessment exam of Ho Chi Minh City National University had more than 126,000 candidates taking the exam. The top scorer scored 1,060/1,200. Only 142 candidates scored 1,001 or higher. 719 candidates scored from 951 to 1,000 points.

According to the admission regulations, schools must provide a formula for converting candidates' scores from various methods to a 30-point scale and for general admission.

According to the conversion formula to the 30-point scale of the Ho Chi Minh City National University's competency assessment test results of Foreign Trade University, the conversion score = 27 + (candidate's competency assessment score - 850) x 3/350.

With this formula, the top candidate of the Ho Chi Minh City National University's aptitude test with 1,060 points is converted to 28.8 points on a scale of 30. The candidate with 1,000 points is converted to 28.28 points.

Meanwhile, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education uses the formula: converted score = capacity assessment score/40. Thus, the top candidate in the capacity assessment of Ho Chi Minh City National University, round 1, 2025, only scored 26.5 points when converted to a scale of 30. Candidates who scored 1,000 points only scored 25 converted points.

In the North, Hanoi National University also announced the results of the first round of the 2025 capacity assessment exam. The top candidate scored 126/150 points. According to the conversion formula of the Foreign Trade University, this top candidate scored 28.56/30 points.

However, according to the conversion formula of Nam Dinh University of Technical Education, this valedictorian only scored 25.2/30 points.

Meanwhile, the Banking Academy has introduced a 10-point conversion scale for the results of the Hanoi National University's competency assessment test. There are five conversion levels from the lowest of 8 points (scoring from 85 to 94 competency test points) to the highest of 10 points (for candidates scoring 110 competency points or more). With the formula for calculating admission scores = competency assessment score x 3, the top candidate has a converted admission score of 30 points.

Thus, the conversion scores between schools are too different. This is a huge difference in scores when considering university admissions. More differently, the University of Commerce applies a different formula but the conversion results are the same as Nam Dinh University of Technical Education.

However, the formula of the University of Commerce will be multiplied by the difference in difficulty of the exam and will be announced after the results of the 2025 high school graduation exam are available.

Still waiting for instructions from the ministry

At Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education, in addition to considering the test scores to assess capacity, there are many other methods, including considering high school transcripts.

With the method of considering transcripts, the school multiplies the main subject coefficient, so it also gives a conversion formula to a scale of 30.

For example, a candidate with an average score of 8.5 in all three subjects will get 25.5 points. This score is 0.5 points higher than the candidate who took the Ho Chi Minh City National University's competency assessment test and got 1,000 points, which is 25 points.

Mr. Quach Thanh Hai - Vice Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education - said that exams and results have different evaluation methods so they cannot be compared.

"The report card score is the candidate's learning process, assessed by many teachers, not just one person. So it cannot be said that the result is not accurate compared to other exams. Each exam has a different level of difficulty every year," Mr. Hai commented.

Regarding the conversion of scores to a 30-point scale, Mr. Hai said that this is only the initial formula for each admission method. The standard score is still awaiting guidance from the Ministry of Education and Training after the high school graduation exam results are available. The high school graduation exam scores will be the basis for comparison with the scores of other methods, from which the school will give the conversion coefficient when considering admission.

This is also a common situation for universities. A university representative said that it is not difficult for the school to come up with a conversion formula, but the difficulty is how to ensure similarity and fairness for candidates.

At the enrollment summary conference last March, schools agreed to wait for the ministry to give instructions on conversion after comparing with the high school graduation exam results. Thus, at the earliest, there will be instructions from the ministry on converting to a 30-point scale after the graduation exam results are announced.

Difficult to convert equivalent

Based on the results of many years of organizing competency assessment exams, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Chinh - Director of the Center for Testing and Assessment of Training Quality of Ho Chi Minh City National University - said that very few candidates achieved a score of over 1,000. Because the exam questions and classification levels are diverse, Mr. Chinh said that it is very difficult to determine how many high school graduation exam scores a candidate gets from the 900-point competency assessment exam.

Add difficulty difference coefficient, differentiation

Speaking with Tuoi Tre , Mr. Nguyen Quang Trung - Deputy Head of Communications and Admissions Department of the University of Commerce - said that the school's conversion formula to the 30-point scale is basically as announced.

However, the coefficients Ka and Kb (coefficients reflecting the difference in difficulty and differentiation of the exam) in the calculation formula will change after the school compares many results from different exams.

"A score of 126/150 is very difficult to achieve. When converted to a 30-point scale, this candidate must score close to 30 points to accurately reflect the similarity.

Therefore, the school calculates to have a coefficient suitable for each exam. The coefficient must be greater than 1 to have similarity with the high school graduation exam results. Currently, there are no high school graduation exam results.

After the results of this exam are available, based on the score distribution of the exams, the school will give appropriate coefficients Ka and Kb. The higher the candidate's score on the ability and thinking assessment test, the higher the coefficient will be" - Mr. Trung added.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/quy-doi-diem-xet-tuyen-dai-hoc-ve-thang-30-noi-30-cho-chi-25-2-diem-20250516224007965.htm