Why are graduation exam scores low but university admission scores reach 30?

(Dan Tri) - The 2025 university admission scores recorded a record high with 6 majors receiving 30/30 points, while the graduation exam score distribution was highly differentiated with the percentage of candidates with 7 or higher in the two subjects of math and English decreasing sharply.

On the first day of announcing the university entrance exam scores for 2025, 6 majors at 4 schools recorded an absolute score of 30/30.

They are Medicine of the Military Medical Academy, International Relations of the Academy of Military Science, English Pedagogy and Chinese Pedagogy of the two Foreign Language Universities under the Vietnam National University, Hanoi and Hue University.

The absolute scores at the two military schools are not difficult to explain. This is the standard score applied to female candidates with a very low total quota. The Military Medical Academy only recruits 8 female candidates in the Northern region. The Military Science Academy only recruits 2 female candidates nationwide.

This means that only excellent candidates will apply for the above two majors. This may include national excellent students in subjects in the admission combination such as math, physics, chemistry, biology.

However, the factor that pushed the benchmark score up to 30 at the two military schools is the preferential point addition policy.

Female soldiers of the A80 joint military parade (Photo: Hai Long)

Accordingly, military schools add 2.25-3 points to students who win national and international prizes and national and international science and technology competitions in cases where candidates do not use the right to direct admission.

Candidates who win provincial excellent student awards will receive an additional 1.5-2 points.

Candidates with excellent academic performance in high school with international certificates such as SAT, IELTS, TOEFL iBT... will receive an additional 0.5-1.5 points.

With a small total quota and a generous bonus point policy, it is entirely possible that the benchmark score of the above two majors will reach 30 in the context of the Ministry eliminating early admission, including admission of talented candidates.

Similarly, the two foreign language schools of Hanoi National University and Hue University also have small enrollment targets.

Hue University of Foreign Languages ​​recruits 199 English Pedagogy students in 3 groups and 20 Chinese Pedagogy students in 4 groups. With the method of considering high school graduation exam scores, the admission score is the total score of 3 subjects, in which the foreign language subject is multiplied by a coefficient of 2 and converted to a 30-point scale.

With the method of combining high school graduation exam results with international certificates, the standard score for English Pedagogy is from IELTS 5.5; TOEFL iBT 46; VSTEP from level 4 and above.

For Chinese Pedagogy, candidates who have graduated from high school and have a Chinese HSK3 certificate of 180 points or higher are considered for admission.

It is worth noting that the bonus points for foreign language certificates are quite high.

With IELTS certificate, candidates who achieve a score of 5.0 will be converted to 8 points or 1 additional point, depending on the method. For each 0.5 increase on the certificate, candidates will be given an additional 0.5 admission points.

When a candidate achieves IELTS 7.0, it is converted into 10 English points or 3 additional points, depending on the method.

The same thing happens with the VSTEP certificate. Candidates who score 5.5 points (B1 certificate) will be converted to 8 points or 1 point added, depending on the method. The points increase by level until the candidate reaches level C1 (score from 8.5) which will be converted to a scale of 10 or 3 points added.

Not only is the priority given to adding points for certificates, but the foreign language scoring formula also doubles the priority level for these certificates.

At the University of Foreign Languages ​​- Vietnam National University, Hanoi, the quota for English Pedagogy is 150 and for Chinese Pedagogy is 25. Of which, a large number of candidates who achieved national excellent results in English and Chinese may rush to register for these faculties, causing a part of the quota to be cut for direct admission.

The door to these two industries for the remaining candidates becomes narrower.

The policy of converting international language certificates into English scores in the admission combination continues to group candidates with high IELTS and HSK scores into an even smaller group.

Students of Foreign Language University - Vietnam National University, Hanoi (Photo: ULIS).

This school considers 7.0 IELTS equivalent to 10 points. However, the school representative said that all admitted candidates have IELTS 7.5 or higher.

With a perfect score of 10 in English, candidates need to have the remaining 2 subjects in the admission combination passed absolutely. These two subjects do not necessarily have to be math - literature but can be math - chemistry, math - biology, math - physics, literature - geography according to flexible combination groups.

Finally, candidates do not have to register for a fixed admission combination or admission method. The Ministry's admission system will run automatically to select the combination/method that candidates can achieve the highest admission score, maximizing the admission score and the candidate's chance of being admitted.

Sharing with Dan Tri reporter, Associate Professor Dr. Ha Le Kim Anh - Vice Principal of the University of Foreign Languages ​​(Hanoi National University) added: the school has a mechanism to add points for excellent students at the provincial level, students who won prizes in the Olympic exam of Hanoi National University.

In addition, candidates studying at specialized schools in provinces and specialized schools under Hanoi National University can apply for admission based on their academic records combined with foreign language certificates. These policies all contribute to pushing the benchmark score to the maximum.

“The quota granted by the Ministry of Education and Training for teacher training is quite low while the social demand for English teachers is very high. The policy of exempting tuition fees and subsidizing living expenses for teacher training students also attracts excellent students to register, especially foreign language teachers. With this major, right from the first year, students can work part-time and earn money.

That attraction makes the number of candidates registered very large, and gathers many "elite" candidates.

In previous years, the standard score for these two majors was around 39 on a scale of 40. Therefore, with this year's admission method, the absolute increase in standard scores is not unusual but reflects the correct trend in scores," said Associate Professor Dr. Ha Le Kim Anh.

The elimination of early admission and the conversion of international language certificates to English test scores are also the reasons why the benchmark scores of many "hot" majors and top schools have increased sharply even when math and English are included in the combination.

For example, at the Polytechnic University, when 6.5 IELTS is considered as 10, it is not difficult to predict that the benchmark score for IT1 and IT2 majors will exceed 29. Because the majority of excellent national and international students in natural sciences have flocked here. The quota for candidates without prizes can be counted on the fingers. Even the runner-up in the high school graduation exam can fail to get into these two majors.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/vi-sao-diem-thi-tot-nghiep-thap-nhung-diem-chuan-dai-hoc-can-moc-30-20250823091625588.htm