Important changes to specialized competency assessment exams from 2025

Master Nguyen Ngoc Trung, Vice Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, shares the direction of specialized competency assessment exams from 2025.

This afternoon (June 19), Ho Chi Minh City University of Education held a conference to summarize the specialized competency assessment exam for the period 2020-2024 and announce the structure of the specialized competency assessment exam in 2025.

Build an independent admission plan based on exam results

The specialized competency assessment exam began in 2022 with 1,972 participants. In 2023, the exam was expanded to 2 sessions and held at the school's main campus with 4,362 participants. In 2024, the exam increased to 5 sessions and expanded the venue to Long An, Gia Lai and Da Nang. In particular, in 2024, the total number of participants in all 5 sessions increased to over 8,500.

The results of the specialized competency assessment exam combined with high school academic results are an admission method of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education from 2022. The proportion of this method has increased from 20% in 2022 to 30% in 2023 and some majors have increased to 50% this year. In addition, the number of majors using this method has also increased from 19 majors in 2022 to 28 majors in 2023 (an increase of 47.3%) and 31 majors in 2024 (a continued increase of 10.7%).

From 2022, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education will begin applying the admission method using high school academic results combined with specialized competency assessment exams. Master Nguyen Ngoc Trung, Vice Principal of the school, said: "According to the school's preliminary assessment, students admitted by this method have better academic results than the group of candidates admitted using high school academic results. This is the motivation to build an independent admission plan through specialized competency assessment exams from 2025 onwards (instead of combining exam scores with high school academic results in the same admission method as at present)".

Sharing at the conference, Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, Deputy Director of the Department of Higher Education (Ministry of Education and Training), hoped that this exam would not only be used to recruit students for the school but also for other universities, especially those in the education sector. However, adding more about this exam, Dr. Thu Thuy said that schools need to continue to compare the learning outcomes of students using this method with other methods to ensure fairness for candidates when recruiting using different methods.

Expanding admission to pedagogical and medical schools

Prof. Dr. Huynh Van Son, Rector of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, said that the school will continue to maintain the organization of specialized competency assessment exams and use the results to enroll students in the school's majors from 2025. However, the school needs to study and add additional exam subjects according to the roadmap and expand the use of results to enroll students in more majors of the school. In particular, consider the content of the aptitude test and use interviews with some other majors.

Specifically, from 2025, specialized competency assessment exams will continue to be conducted with tests in math, physics, chemistry, biology, literature and English.

The knowledge content used to assess candidates' abilities mentioned in the exams will closely follow the 2018 General Education Program. Of which, the knowledge content of the 12th grade program accounts for about 70-80%, the rest is knowledge content of the 10th and 11th grade programs.

The English proficiency test still maintains the approach of the test format of assessing proficiency from level 3 to level 5 according to the 6-level foreign language proficiency framework for Vietnam.

The remaining subjects have many improvements in the structure of specialized competency assessment tests applied from 2025 with the question format applied to the tests including multiple choice questions and closed/open essay questions, the test time is 90 minutes.

The math, physics, chemistry, and biology proficiency tests will have 40 questions and are divided into 3 parts: part 1 is single questions, part 2 is general questions, part 3 is fill-in-the-blank questions. The literature proficiency test includes a reading comprehension section and a writing section.

For more information, Master Nguyen Ngoc Trung said that before August 30, the sample test for the 2025 specialized competency assessment exam will be announced. In terms of format, the exam will still be conducted on computers and it is expected to expand the exam scores at universities that use the same exam results.

Notably, the specialized competency assessment exam of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education in 2025 is expected to be expanded not only to serve the school's enrollment but also for other universities such as: Hanoi University of Education, University of Education (University of Danang), Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine, Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy, University of Medicine and Pharmacy (Hue University), Tay Nguyen University, University of Industry and Trade, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Van Lang University...

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nhung-thay-doi-quan-trong-cua-ky-thi-danh-nang-luc-chuyen-biet-tu-nam-2025-185240619160842131.htm