IELTS test scores were altered: University "tracks down" candidates

(Dan Tri) - Many universities are reviewing admission and graduation applications using IELTS certificates after the recently announced score error.

The international IELTS test organization has just confirmed that a technical problem caused the results of "some candidates" to be erroneous and inaccurate. This move immediately caused concern for test takers and universities in Vietnam, especially in the context of the IELTS certificate playing an increasingly important role in admission to training systems and graduation.

According to the IELTS test organization, the affected tests were from August 2023 to September this year and only 1% of the tests had errors, but the organization did not announce specific figures.

Previously, according to statistics, there were more than 4 million IELTS tests worldwide each year. Therefore, it is likely that tens of thousands of people will be affected. Many Vietnamese candidates also said that they had received notice of score adjustments from the test organizer.

Many candidates received notice of changes to their IELTS scores (Photo: AI).

On the afternoon of November 13, Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City (IUH) announced that it is extracting data from all students admitted with IELTS scores from last year to present and students using this certificate for graduation.

This group of students will be required to update and resubmit a new IELTS score report.

IUH said that the number of students using IELTS for admission and graduation at the school is not too large (estimated at about 200-300 students/year) and expressed hope that the probability of students being affected by this error is not high.

Similarly, the University of Economics and Law - Ho Chi Minh City National University also took action to review the certificates of candidates admitted to the school this year.

Meanwhile, leaders of another university under Ho Chi Minh City National University are still monitoring information and grasping the situation.

He said that this matter is very complicated because it involves many aspects from university admissions, high school graduation exams to post-graduate entrance/exit assessment.

Regarding the handling plan, this leader said that for now, the focus is only on reviewing and grasping information from the IELTS test organization and waiting for instructions from the Ministry of Education and Training .

Schools hope that the exam organizers in Vietnam will cooperate in providing data for objective review to ensure fairness.

An admissions expert said it is not easy to resolve cases where candidates do not have enough entrance or exit scores after review. The reason is that the wrong scores do not come from the candidates and it is difficult to come up with a suitable solution if there is no agreement with the students.

Established in 1989, IELTS is currently one of the most popular international language certificates in Vietnam, used by hundreds of universities as criteria for admission, graduation and assessment of English proficiency.

In recent years, the number of IELTS test takers in Vietnam has increased rapidly. According to data, in 2024-2025, the average IELTS score of Vietnamese candidates is 6.2, ranking 29/40 countries and territories. About 70% of candidates scored between 5.5 and 7.0.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/vu-loat-bai-thi-ielts-bi-sua-diem-truong-dai-hoc-truy-vet-thi-sinh-20251113172828442.htm