Ministry of Education and Training: Score conversion cannot be perfect

Although the average score of many high school graduation exams has decreased, this year's university admission season has recorded stories of benchmark scores far exceeding exam scores, with a "rain" of perfect scores, causing candidates who score 30/30 to still fail their application.

Mr. Nguyen Anh Dung, Deputy Director of the Department of Higher Education ( Ministry of Education and Training ) - Photo: NAM TRAN

On August 26, Tuoi Tre Online had an interview with Mr. Nguyen Anh Dung - Deputy Director of the Department of Higher Education , Ministry of Education and Training - about enrollment in 2025.

Consider adding points and converting foreign language certificates

* According to statistics, the score distribution of high school graduation exams in 2025 has mostly decreased, but the benchmark scores have increased. Many experts assess the reason as being due to unreasonable conversion of equivalent scores between schools, methods, and too many bonus points, causing unfairness in admissions. What is the Ministry of Education and Training's opinion on this?

- According to the statistics of admission results of all methods and admission combinations of training institutions, the average admission score in 2025 (converted to a scale of 30) is 19.11 and in 2024 is 22.05. Thus, in general, the benchmark scores of schools and majors according to all methods in 2025 decreased significantly compared to 2024.

This reflects the reality of the 2025 high school graduation exam score distribution and also reflects fairness when some regulations such as converting scores equivalent to admission scores, no more early admission, etc. are applied.

In fact, this year, some subjects have higher benchmark scores. A closer analysis of the high school graduation exam score distribution shows that the math, biology, and English scores in 2025 are lower.

The higher benchmark scores are focused on some fields where we want really good candidates, such as teacher training fields, some key technical fields, and strategic technologies (computer science , artificial intelligence, electronics - telecommunications, microchip design, etc.).

However, there are also some majors at some training institutions (such as the University of Foreign Languages, Hanoi National University and Hue University) with a benchmark score of 30, which also needs to be evaluated to consider the appropriateness of applying bonus points, foreign language certificate conversion points... in admission here.

"Not too unusual"

* This year, there is a situation where candidates with perfect scores can still fail their admissions. Does this create injustice in admissions?

- Majors with high benchmark scores, even benchmark scores of 30, mainly focus on "hot" majors according to the current trends of candidates and the needs and requirements of the country's socio-economic development; in addition, some of these majors are teacher training majors with low quotas.

According to statistics, the number of industries with a benchmark score of 29 or higher is 11 for 2025 and 8 for 2024.

The difference is that the industries with high benchmark scores in 2025 fall into strategic technology industries such as artificial intelligence, computer science, and some pedagogical industries. The pedagogical industry is very well supported by the newly passed Law on Teachers, with very good incentives for teachers. Besides, these are really important and essential industries for the country in developing high technology and strategic technology.

That is a great policy of the Party and the State, society, families and candidates are clearly aware of it, also wish, support the policy and are determined to turn it into reality, so the number of (good) candidates registering is large. So, basically, there is nothing too unusual.

There are 6 majors with a benchmark score of 30, which could also be partly the conversion score for English scores, bonus points, etc. of those schools. Those majors all fall into foreign language pedagogy with low quotas, while the attraction to pedagogy is high. However, it is certainly necessary to consider carefully in the near future.

Candidates learn about admission information at Foreign Trade University - Photo: FTU

Add points but ensure fairness

* Why does the ministry tighten priority points for regions and subjects and not tighten bonus points for schools?

- Regarding the bonus points, in fact, this year's regulations are introduced to ensure a fairer, more transparent, or in other words, better system.

The regulation clearly specifies the limits when training institutions decide on bonus points (not exceeding 10% of the score scale) and also requires that the score not exceed the maximum score scale (30 points for 3 high school graduation exams) to avoid unreasonable addition or absolute value of international certificates.

The decision to award bonus points depends on the capacity requirements of each training institution, and is also to recognize the efforts of the candidates throughout the process (such as excellent student exams, etc.). Bonus points are awarded but must ensure fairness.

The Ministry has also provided a framework; all bonus points (excellent students, certificate points, etc.) must not exceed 10% of the total score of the review scale.

The Ministry will require training institutions to conduct an overall assessment to see the performance of students with bonus points during their studies at the training institutions to continue reviewing and perfecting the regulations.

Many cases are difficult to convert points

* According to the ministry, does the fact that schools implement different equivalent score conversions lead to unfairness in enrollment?

- Regarding the conversion of equivalent admission scores, the Ministry of Education and Training clearly stipulates that schools convert equivalent admission scores to ensure that the admission score in one method, according to one result, must be equivalent to the admission score in another method.

The fact that schools convert differently does not affect fairness to candidates. There will be high benchmarks for some schools and low benchmarks for others. The competition only involves students entering the same school and major.

Conversion into a major at a school must be consistent for all candidates. Therefore, it is not correct to say that it is unfair between students entering different schools.

We also understand that the conversion cannot be perfect. In many cases, it is very difficult to convert between academic transcripts and high school graduation exam scores, between competency assessment exams and high school graduation exam scores to ensure absolute fairness or optimization. However, the admission methods are chosen by the schools.

Thus, schools must ensure the conversion of admission scores between methods and combinations to select candidates with the same minimum capacity to study a certain training major.

This year, schools announced the rules before admission. The rules may not be completely reasonable, schools must take responsibility for this, but they are certainly more transparent. When there is transparency like that, students have more opportunities. Some students have both this score and that score, but others only have one starting score. That is transparency, and from transparency comes the responsibility of the school to ensure fairness in admission.

This year, the announcement of admission scores shows that the correlation between admission methods and admission combinations is reasonable and ensures that there is no logical contradiction.

More than 560,000 candidates have confirmed their admission.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, in 2025, with a large number of candidates and the participation of more than 500 training institutions, it is inevitable that some errors will arise, mainly due to errors in the admission input data (admission methods, conditions, admission criteria, evidence of candidate priority, foreign language certificates, etc.), and some errors due to manual operations by some schools during the admission process.

The Ministry of Education and Training and training institutions arrange experienced staff on duty to promptly record and handle feedback and answer questions from candidates.

As of 11am on August 26, 560,079 candidates had confirmed their successful admission. According to the ministry, it can be confirmed that the 2025 enrollment process is taking place stably.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/bo-giao-duc-va-dao-tao-quy-doi-diem-khong-the-co-su-hoan-hao-20250819220538784.htm