Deputy Minister of Education and Training explains why admission scores must be converted

The Deputy Minister of Education and Training said that the regulation on converting admission scores originated from shortcomings in admissions in previous years. Every year, schools mainly determine admission scores based on quotas, but the allocation of quotas among admission methods does not have a clear scientific basis.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Hoang Minh Son informed about the basis for converting admission scores. Video: Lan Anh

Previously, the admission score was often determined by the admission quota, not based on the equivalence of ability. Meanwhile, for candidates, what they care about is the admission score for this industry according to each admission method, not how schools determine the admission score.

Regarding the opinion that some admission methods such as international certificates (IELTS, SAT, ACT, A-Level) are considered to have quite a big difference compared to admission based on high school graduation exam results, Deputy Minister Hoang Minh Son admitted that there is a counter-argument that it is impossible to convert between exams with different assessment natures. For example, the ability assessment/thinking assessment exam (ACT, SAT, Hanoi National University, Ho Chi Minh City National University, Hanoi University of Science and Technology...) has a different goal than the high school graduation exam. The high school graduation exam is different from the aptitude exam.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Hoang Minh Son

"However, the Ministry of Education and Training does not agree with this view. If the two assessment methods have too big a difference, they cannot be converted according to the same criteria. However, if the admission methods are used to enroll students in the same major/training program, they must have the same criteria for assessing core competencies. This is the principle to ensure fairness in admission" - Deputy Minister Hoang Minh Son said.

Mr. Hoang Minh Son added that the regulation on equivalent score conversion in the official regulation has been adjusted compared to the previous draft for comments. The current official regulation is designed to be simpler but still ensures the core principle: if a major has many admission methods, the benchmark scores between the methods must show the equivalence in the core competency level of the successful candidates.

According to Deputy Minister Hoang Minh Son, there are many methods of converting points, including two main methods.

First, use the percentile method. Specifically, from the data source of candidates participating in many different admission methods (high school graduation exam, academic records, capacity assessment, thinking assessment), on that basis, determine the top 1%, top 5%, top 10% scores in each exam to proceed with the conversion.

For example, if the top 1% of the Hanoi National University's aptitude test scores 130 points, and the top 1% of the high school graduation exam scores 27 points, then these two scores can be considered equivalent.

Second, use the linear regression method. We divide the score range and find the correlation between the score levels of each admission method.

For example: If a group of candidates has 25-30 high school graduation exam scores corresponding to 100-130 competency assessment points, a linear regression model can be used to find the conversion formula. The conversion formula is in the form y = ax + b, where x is the exam score of one method, y is the converted score to another method.

In addition, there are many other methods, schools can completely carry out this conversion scientifically.

This year, the Ministry of Education and Training also introduced a more scientific approach, which is to re-verify the conversion rate of points using students' learning outcomes.

Schools can evaluate the academic performance of first- and second-year students to check whether groups of students admitted by different methods have a correlation in ability. If one admission method has a lower benchmark but students have better academic results, or vice versa, a higher benchmark but students have weaker academic results, this may indicate an unreasonable way of converting points. From there, schools can adjust the score conversion rate to better suit reality.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/video-thu-truong-bo-gd-dt-ly-giai-vi-sao-phai-quy-doi-diem-xet-tuyen-196250403175002622.htm