A score of 28.5 or higher in block A00 is 517 times higher than D01: What are the opportunities for English?

(Dan Tri) - The large difference between the D01 block score range and the A00 and C00 blocks puts candidates who plan to take the entrance exam with a subject combination including English at a disadvantage.

Top 3% of block D01 has the same score as top 17% of block A00

The 2025 high school graduation exam has caused controversy with the difficulty level of the English test being considered "beyond standard". This is partly demonstrated by the score distribution, when the number of candidates achieving 7 points or higher in English is only about 15% and more than 38% of candidates have below average scores.

Similarly, in math, the number of candidates who scored 7 or higher was 12.3%. The number of candidates below average was up to 56.3%, meaning that more than half of this year's 12th graders did not achieve a 5 in high school math graduation.

Meanwhile, physics and chemistry had very high results with average scores of 6.99 and 6.06 respectively. In particular, in physics, only about 9% of candidates scored below 5 points and more than half of candidates scored 7 points or more.

These are the factors that make up the large difference in score distribution between block D01 (math, literature, English) and block A00 (math, physics, chemistry).

Compare exam scores of popular admission combinations (Table: Hoang Hong).

Specifically, at the absolute score mark (30 points), block A00 has 8 candidates, block D01 has no candidates.

The top student of block D01 scored 29 points, which is also the only score of 29 in the whole country. Meanwhile, block A00 has 344 students with 29 points or more.

At the 28.5 point mark or higher, block D01 has 2 candidates but block A00 has up to 1,035 candidates, 517 times more.

At the 28-point mark or higher, block D01 has 14 candidates, block A00 has 2,308 candidates, 164 times more.

At the 27-point mark or higher, block D01 has 239 candidates, block A00 has 6,524 candidates, 27.2 times more.

At the 26-point mark or higher, block D01 has 1,421 candidates, block A00 has 12,571 candidates, 8.8 times more.

At the 25-point mark or higher, block D01 has 4,989 candidates, block A00 has 19,973 candidates, 4 times more.

At the 24-point mark or higher, block D01 has 12,499 candidates, block A00 has 28,498 candidates, 2.3 times more.

The total number of candidates in block D01 is 350,654. The number in block A00 is 162,200. The top 0.18% of block D01 is equal to the top 5.8% of block A00; the top 1.4% of block D01 is equal to the top 12.3% of block A00; the top 3.56% of block D01 is equal to the top 17.6% of block A00.

Candidates taking the 2025 high school graduation exam (Photo: Trinh Nguyen).

Obviously, there is a huge difference in the number of candidates with high scores between the two groups. From the 24-point mark and above, although the gap in percentage narrows, the number of candidates in group A00 is still double that of group D01.

The same situation happened with block D01 when compared with block C00. The top 0.18% of block D01 had the same score as the top 4.88% of block C00; the top 1.4% of block D01 had the same score as the top 12.5% of block C00; the top 3.56% of block D01 had the same score as the top 18.8% of block C00.

At the score of 24 or higher, the number of candidates in block C00 is 4.4 times higher than that of block D01.

What are the opportunities for candidates planning to take the entrance exam with a combination of English?

In May, when announcing the method of converting equivalent scores, the Ministry of Education and Training mentioned the conversion framework between admission groups using high school graduation exam scores.

Accordingly, the Ministry said that the general admission support system will enter the difference in scores between the original admission combination and other combinations for a major of the schools.

Determining the difference in admission scores between popular admission combinations will be based on comparing the score distribution announced by the Ministry after the graduation exam results are available.

However, most recently, the National Economics University announced that the school will consider 4 combinations A00, A01, D01 and D07 without calculating the difference in admission scores between the combinations.

This will lead to a big disadvantage for candidates applying with block D01.

Since there are no separate quotas, all candidates from each group will be placed on a single admission list based on total scores. Since group A00 has many candidates with outstanding high scores, they will have a big advantage in this list.

Candidates in block D01 with a score of 25.5 or lower have almost no chance of entering the National Economics University, even though they are in the top 1% of this block, meaning they are in the group of the most excellent candidates who choose English as their graduation exam subject.

The opportunity belongs to candidates applying with block A00 or having an international English certificate to replace the English graduation exam score.

For majors in the fields of social sciences and humanities, law, culture, journalism and communication, groups D01 and C00 are often considered together. If schools training in this field do not calculate the difference in admission scores between groups, D01 candidates will hardly be able to compete. Only truly excellent candidates will have a chance.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/so-diem-285-tro-len-khoi-a00-gap-517-lan-d01-co-hoi-nao-cho-tieng-anh-20250717221107950.htm