Why have the benchmark scores of medical and pharmaceutical schools decreased sharply?

The announcements from schools show that this year's medical and pharmaceutical industry standards have decreased sharply, with some industries' benchmark scores "falling freely" by nearly 6 points.

Currently, hundreds of universities have announced admission scores for 2025. The announcements from the schools show that the admission scores for the medical and pharmaceutical majors have decreased sharply compared to 2024. This was predicted when the high school graduation exam scores for these subjects all decreased compared to 2024, and the number of candidates taking the exam also decreased.

“Free fall” benchmark

Hanoi Medical University is the leading university in the country in terms of admission scores for medical majors with 28.23 points for Medicine and 27.34 points for Dentistry. However, compared to 2024, admission scores for all majors of Hanoi Medical University have decreased.

The sharpest decrease was in Preventive Medicine when the benchmark score "fell freely", from 22.94 points (in 2024) to 17 points, a decrease of nearly 6 points. Nutrition from 23.33 points to 18.75 points, a decrease of nearly 5 points. Public Health from 22.85 points (group B) to 18.2 points, a decrease of 4.6 points. Nursing dropped from 24.59 points to 22.25 points, Midwifery from 22.95 points to 20.35 points.

Hanoi Medical University has only one benchmark score that increased compared to last year, which is Psychology, block C00, slightly increasing from 28.83 points to 28.7 points.

Hanoi University of Pharmacy also has a benchmark score for all majors that has decreased compared to 2024. Specifically, the benchmark score for Pharmacy based on the High School Graduation Exam score is 24.5 points, down more than 1 point compared to last year. The benchmark score for Pharmaceutical Chemistry has decreased by nearly 2 points. The benchmark score for Chemistry has decreased by nearly 4 points. The sharpest decrease is in Biotechnology with 20 points, down 4.26 points compared to 24.26 points in 2024.

Similarly, Thai Binh University of Medicine and Pharmacy also reduced the admission scores in all majors. The Medicine major decreased from 26.17 points to 24.6 points; the Medicine and Pharmacy major from 24 points to 19.5 points; the Nursing major from 20 points to 17 points; the Medical Laboratory Technology major from 23.05 points to 19.5 points; the Preventive Medicine major from 19.15 points to 17 points. The Traditional Medicine major had the deepest decrease, from 23 points to 19 points, a decrease of 4 points.

Benchmark scores of Thai Binh University of Medicine and Pharmacy. (Screenshot)

In the southern region, the benchmark scores for health majors also decreased. Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine had benchmark scores ranging from 18 to 25.55 points, down about 1 to 5.2 points compared to last year. Medicine and Dentistry had the highest benchmark scores, 25.26 points and 25.55 points respectively, down about 1 point compared to last year.

Many majors have a benchmark score decrease of more than 3 points, such as Nursing, Pharmacy, Traditional Medicine, Medical Imaging Technology, Medical Laboratory Technology, and Public Health. Nutrition has the sharpest decrease, from 23.2 points in 2024 to 18 points, a decrease of 5.2 points.

The benchmark scores of Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy also decreased from 0.4 to 4 points compared to last year.

Consequences of falling test scores

Experts have predicted that the benchmark scores for the medical and pharmaceutical industry will drop sharply this year, as the math, chemistry, and biology exams this year are considered more difficult. This is the first year that candidates will take the exam under the new general education program with questions adjusted to assess students' abilities and linked to reality.

This was further demonstrated when the Ministry of Education and Training announced the exam results with the average score of the B00 group exam (including Math, Chemistry, Biology) decreasing by about 2 points compared to 2024.

In the Math subject in this year's High School Graduation Exam, over 56% of students scored below average. The average Math score was 4.78 points, below average, while in 2024 it was 6.45 points.

The total number of candidates scoring 7 points or more in this subject is over 137,700, accounting for more than 12%, while in 2024, this number is about 3 times higher with over 473,000 students, corresponding to over 45%. The highest score achieved by candidates in Math in 2024 was 7.6 points, while in 2025 it was 4.75 points, below average.

Chemistry and Biology not only decreased in test scores but also in the number of candidates taking the exam because this year candidates were selected based on specific subjects instead of taking a combined exam like last year. This led to a decrease in the number of candidates for block B00.

There were more than 240,000 candidates taking the Chemistry exam, a decrease of more than 100,000 compared to 2024. The total number of candidates decreased, but the percentage of candidates with below average scores nearly doubled, from over 15.8% (in 2024) to over 29.5%. The number of candidates scoring 7 points or more this year was over 80,800, a decrease of half compared to nearly 172,000 in 2024.

The number of candidates has dropped particularly sharply in Biology. This year, only nearly 70,000 students took the exam, nearly one-fifth of the nearly 342,400 students taking the exam in 2024.

Similar to Math and Chemistry, Biology scores this year also decreased compared to last year. The average score of candidates was 5.78 points, compared to 6.28 points last year. Over 32.4% of candidates scored below average in this subject.

Faced with the decrease in exam scores for the B00 combination subjects, the Ministry of Education and Training had to adjust the floor score for the health sector to between 17 and 20.5 points, a decrease of 2 points compared to 2024 and the lowest floor score in the past 7 years, since the Ministry of Education and Training began to regulate the floor score for this sector.

Source: VNP

Source: https://phunuvietnam.vn/vi-sao-diem-chuan-cac-truong-khoi-nganh-y-duoc-giam-manh-20250823114043394.htm