Confused with 'strange' admission subject combinations

There are schools that use up to 20 admission combinations for one major, many of which are "strange" because they do not have core subjects.

RECRUITING PHARMACY BUT NO BIOLOGY OR CHEMISTRY

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, 2025 is the first year that students studying under the 2018 General Education Program will take the high school graduation exam. To ensure the opportunity for students from different regions to be admitted, the Regulations on University and College Admissions for Preschool Education have removed the requirement that each major and each training program have a maximum of 4 admission combinations - meaning there is no longer a limit on the number of admission combinations. However, to ensure the quality and knowledge foundation necessary for university study, the regulations stipulate that the subject combination used for admission includes at least 3 appropriate subjects, including math or literature with a weighted score of no less than 25%.

In this spirit, this year many universities have expanded the maximum number of subject combinations for admission to each major. For example, according to information announced by Hanoi University of Science and Technology, the subject combinations for admission based on high school graduation exam results have increased sharply compared to last year. In 17 training majors, many majors recruit 11-12 combinations, especially some majors have up to 19-20 admission combinations. Of which, the major of space science and satellite technology uses up to 20 combinations; applied mathematics also has up to 19 combinations; food science and technology, medical science and technology have 13 combinations. Some majors also use up to 12 admission combinations such as: pharmacy, information security, information technology - communication and data science. The pharmacy major of this school alone uses combinations that do not contain biology or chemistry such as: math - physics - English, math - physics - technology, math - physics - informatics.

This is the first year that students studying under the 2018 General Education program take the high school graduation exam.

PHOTO: BA DUY

Similarly, the Vietnam Academy of Agriculture uses up to 9 admission combinations for each major. Of which, the majors of information technology and digital engineering, information technology, data science and artificial intelligence, computer networks and data communications recruit combinations such as: math - literature - history, math - literature - geography. Technical majors (such as electrical engineering, electronics and automation; electrical engineering; control engineering and automation) have combinations such as: math - literature - history, math - literature - geography, math - literature - economic education and law.

Notably, 8/9 of the two majors, biotechnology and biopharmaceutical technology, do not have biology subjects, and 6/9 of the food technology majors do not have chemistry subjects.

PHYSICS EDUCATION RECRUITS COMBINATION OF MATH - LITERATURE - ENGLISH

The use of subjects in non-traditional admission combinations also appears in many majors of many other universities. The subjects used for admission are even contradictory to the training major.

Dong Thap University recruits many pedagogical majors that do not have a main subject related to the major, such as physics pedagogy, which recruits combinations that do not have physics, such as: math - literature - English, math - literature - chemistry. Chemistry pedagogy also does not have chemistry as a main subject in the recruitment combination, such as the combinations: math - literature - physics, math - literature - English, pedagogical major recruits combinations of math - literature - chemistry...

Similarly, at Hanoi Capital University, the physics education major recruits with a combination of math - chemistry - English; the history education major also lacks a core subject in the selection combination. Meanwhile, the English language major of this university allows candidates to recruit with combinations that do not include English such as: literature - math - history, literature - math - geography, literature - math - economic and legal education.

The Physics Education Department of the University of Education (Thai Nguyen University) also recruits candidates with the combination of math - literature - English. The Geography Education Department of Hai Duong University recruits candidates with the combination of math - literature - English. The Physics Education Department of Pham Van Dong University also recruits candidates with the combination of math - literature - English. The Physics Education Department of Khanh Hoa University recruits candidates with the combinations of math - chemistry - English and math - chemistry - biology. In these cases, the training of the education department but the combination of candidates for recruitment can be used unrelated to the main subject of the training department.

Candidates have many questions about admissions and training majors of schools in the Exam Season Consulting program of Thanh Nien Newspaper.

Photo: Ba Duy

A SERIES OF "STRANGE" SUBJECT COMBINATIONS FOR MEDICINE AND PHARMACY ADMISSIONS

Even in the specific field of medical training, this year many schools use "strange" subject combinations. In previous years, the medical sector used two traditional combinations: math - chemistry - biology and math - physics - chemistry; in the medical sector alone, many universities only used the combination of math - chemistry - biology to recruit students. This year, many new admission combinations have been used by universities to recruit students in this sector. For example, Hoa Binh University recruits many combinations that are not in the traditional way for the majors of medicine, traditional medicine, pharmacy and nursing such as: math - literature - English, math - physics - English, literature - math - geography. Thus, it can be seen that the two majors of medicine and pharmacy, which require in-depth knowledge of biology, have 4 out of 5 admission combinations that do not include this core subject. This school's English language department also has 2/5 combinations that skip English, when using combinations such as: literature - history - geography, literature - math - physics.

The University of Medicine and Pharmacy (University of Danang) also caused a stir when it planned to enroll students in the pharmaceutical chemistry major using the combination of math - physics - English, ignoring chemistry, which is considered the foundation of knowledge for the major. Also enrolling students in this major, Phan Chau Trinh University used up to 5 combinations for the medical and dental majors, including math - physics - English and math - physics - chemistry.

Dai Nam University chooses the subject of civic education (actually the subject of economics and law according to the new general education program - PV ) to recruit many majors. Many engineering and technology majors use the combination of mathematics - physics - economics and law such as: automobile engineering technology; electrical and electronic engineering technology; mechatronic engineering technology; construction engineering; control and automation engineering technology... Even nursing major also considers the combination of mathematics - literature - economics and law.

Buon Ma Thuot University of Medicine and Pharmacy plans to enroll students in 7 health sciences this year, including: medicine, pharmacy, nursing, public health, traditional medicine, preventive medicine, and medical laboratory technology. With the method of considering high school graduation exam scores, the school allows candidates to choose a combination of 3 subjects, of which 2 are compulsory according to the school's regulations. In particular, if choosing 2 compulsory subjects including math and physics, candidates can choose 1 subject with the highest score among biology, chemistry, literature, foreign languages, information technology, and technology. This leads to the situation where candidates may not choose biology or chemistry but use other subjects to still be able to participate in the admission exam for the school's health sciences. At that time, the combination of subjects for admission to health sciences at this school does not include the core subjects of biology and chemistry. (continued)

Only use 1-2 traditional combinations for admission

In contrast to schools that have expanded their subject combinations, some universities only use traditional subject combinations for admission in 2025. Foreign Trade University still retains the two original combinations of math - physics - chemistry and math - literature - English for admission to candidates studying the 2018 General Education program. Candidates using the results of the HSA assessment exam of Hanoi National University must also choose the exam content in the two fields of physics and chemistry or English. With the method of using the 2025 high school graduation exam results of this university, candidates are eligible for admission when they take either physics or chemistry or both of these subjects. Similarly, a series of majors at Hanoi University only use one admission combination.

Meanwhile, to emphasize the role of core subjects in training programs, Saigon University uses 1-2 compulsory subjects with coefficients from 2-5 for the main subjects in this year's admission combination. For example, the school calculates a coefficient of 5 for history subjects for history pedagogy, literature subjects for literature pedagogy, chemistry subjects for chemistry pedagogy, biology subjects for biology pedagogy, etc.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/hoang-mang-voi-to-hop-mon-xet-tuyen-la-185250326215342243.htm