Formula for converting university admission scores in 2025

From 2025, higher education institutions must have a plan to convert equivalent admission scores between admission methods and admission combinations to a common scale.

According to the draft guidelines for university and college admissions in 2025, the Ministry of Education and Training requires that the rules for converting equivalents of entrance thresholds and admission scores must have scientific and practical bases, including information such as: statistical data, analysis of academic results of admitted students according to groups, annual high school graduation exam scores; information on detailed score distribution of training institutions organizing exams, and academic results (if the training institution uses admission results).

In addition, the conversion rules/formulas must be simple, easy to understand and convenient to apply. Schools use high school graduation exam score data (or high school learning outcomes data) as the basis for building conversion rules.

At the same time, schools base on statistical data and analyze the learning results of students who have been admitted according to the groups of previous years. Specifically, statistics on the number of candidates admitted according to each admission method for at least 2 consecutive years; the learning results of each of these students at the training institution.

Based on the analysis of the correlation between the learning outcomes at the training institution and the score distribution of the admission methods of the same group of candidates; from the threshold to ensure input quality to the maximum score of the assessment scale, the training institution must determine at least 3 score ranges (for example: excellent - good, fair and passed) to build at least 3 linear correlation functions (3 first-order functions) for these 3 score ranges.

Specifically: build a conversion table and interpolate the continuous linear correlation function between the scores of the two admission methods (using the admission method using high school graduation exam results as the base).

Conversion table:

The corresponding linear correlation function is:

Based on the above plan, and at the same time, based on the standard rules announced by the Ministry of Education and Training after the results of the 2025 high school graduation exam are available, training institutions, based on the specific characteristics of the training program/industry/group of industries, will complete the conversion rules and announce them according to regulations.

Example 1: Analyzing the results of the same group of candidates using the 2024 high school graduation exam results and the academic transcript results (6 semesters) according to 5 traditional groups; based on the assessment of students' academic results in previous years, it shows that: good and excellent candidates account for 30% of the total number of admitted candidates, corresponding to the high school graduation exam results of 24.75 and the academic transcript score of 25.75; good and above candidates account for 80% of the total number of candidates, the corresponding high school graduation exam results are 20.5 and the academic transcript score of 22.0; the rest are at the passing level.

Accordingly, training institutions can use the scores (24.75; 25.75); (20.5; 22) along with the threshold score to ensure input quality and the maximum score of the assessment scale (30; 30) to linearize each region and establish a formula (in the form of a first-degree equation) to convert the equivalent admission score between the two methods.

Assuming the cutoff score is 15 for both methods, then:

A candidate A has a grade point average of 23 and will be converted to the original method scale score, which is the method based on high school graduation exam scores, as follows:

In addition, it can be seen that the difference in scores (6-semester report card scores and high school graduation exam scores) fluctuates between 1.0 - 1.5 points for this group of candidates.

Example 2: Equivalent conversion of admission scores between the admission method using the results of the thinking assessment test and the admission method using the results of the high school graduation exam.

Based on the analysis of academic score data, thinking assessment test scores and high school graduation exam scores of the same group of candidates at University A, a conversion table was created:

From there, the linear correlation function for each region is determined as follows:

For example, a candidate has a score of 68.68 points according to the thinking assessment method (thinking assessment test score + bonus points if any), then the converted score according to the high school method will be:

According to Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Anh Dung, Deputy Director of the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Training, the purpose of the regulation requiring training institutions to have a plan to convert equivalent admission scores between admission methods is to make it simpler and more convenient for candidates and to ensure more fairness and transparency in the admission process.

Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Anh Dung said that to solve this problem, the difficult part mainly belongs to the training institutions and the Ministry of Education and Training. For candidates, the registration process remains unchanged, they still continue to choose the major or training program they are interested in and want to attend the school.

Schools do not divide their quotas by method and will have a plan to convert equivalent admission scores to ensure that regardless of the method students are admitted by, priority will always be given to using their highest results in all methods.

“You do not need to choose a method or combination of codes. What you need to care about is preparing a really good profile, with high academic scores, graduation exam scores, and competency assessment exam scores. For all of those methods, schools will have equivalent conversion plans and the Ministry of Education and Training's software system will accompany and support schools to choose the best results for you when considering admission.

In fact, training institutions have been prepared for this. In particular, over the past many years, schools have conducted research and evaluation to ensure fairness between the methods and combinations proposed in the enrollment plan," Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Anh Dung shared.

Nguyen Lien

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/cong-thuc-quy-doi-diem-xet-tuyen-dai-hoc-nam-2025-post408852.html