University Admissions 2024: Avoid the 'trap' of minimum scores

Candidates taking the 2024 high school graduation exam in Ho Chi Minh City - Photo: DUYEN PHAN

According to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, all universities nationwide have updated, adjusted, and announced their scores on the system. The floor score (also known as the score to ensure input quality) is the lowest score that candidates are allowed to register for admission to a certain major or school.

Candidates should note that the floor score and the school's admission standard score are always very different.

Assoc.Prof.Dr. NGUYEN NGOC KHOI (Head of Training Department, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ho Chi Minh City)

Only one industry has a floor score of 24.5 points

This year, the Mathematics Education Department (Saigon University) has the highest floor score in the country with 24.5 points (on a 30-point scale, including priority points for subjects and regions).

The next highest minimum score of the school is English pedagogy 23 and the remaining pedagogical majors 19 points. Meanwhile, the non-pedagogical majors of this school have a minimum score of 16 - 21 points.

At the floor score of 24, this year there are many "hot" majors at many schools across the country. Foreign Trade University stipulates the floor score for considering high school graduation exam scores at the main campus and the school's training facilities is 24 points (all subject combinations).

The University of Natural Sciences (Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City) has five majors with a minimum score of 24 points, including data science, computer and information technology, information technology (English-enhanced program), computer science (advanced program), and artificial intelligence. Other majors range from 16 to 20 points.

Ho Chi Minh City University of Education has three majors with the same minimum score of 24, including English pedagogy, mathematics pedagogy and literature pedagogy.

At Ho Chi Minh City University of Law, the law major has the highest minimum score in the C00 group (literature - history - geography) with 24 points. The remaining majors range from 20 to 23 points. Meanwhile, the minimum score for considering high school graduation exam scores to enter 17 military universities is from 15 to 24 points.

The Military Science Academy is the school with the highest minimum score, requiring female candidates to achieve 24 points and male candidates to achieve 20 points (combinations D01, D02, D04) to be able to apply for admission; the minimum score for groups A00, A01, B00 for both male and female candidates is 20 points.

Candidates learn information at the 2024 University Admissions Consulting Day in Hanoi - Photo: HA QUAN

Medical industry floor score increased

In 2024, many medical and pharmaceutical training schools announced that the minimum admission score based on high school graduation exam scores is slightly higher than last year.

Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy announced the minimum score from 19 to 24 points. The highest minimum score belongs to the two majors of medicine and dentistry, which is 24 points. The minimum score for these two majors is 0.5 points higher than last year and 1.5 points higher than the minimum score set by the Ministry of Education and Training this year.

The remaining majors have unchanged floor scores compared to last year. The above floor scores apply to the combined admission method of international English certificate preliminary selection.

The floor score of Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine is from 18 to 23 points. Of which, three majors have a floor score of 23 points including medicine, pharmacy and dentistry. The majors with the lowest floor score (18 points) include nutrition, ophthalmology, and public health.

The University of Health Sciences (Ho Chi Minh City National University) announced the minimum score for the high school graduation exam equivalent to last year, from 19 to 22.5 points, including medicine, dentistry 22.5 points; pharmacy and traditional medicine 21 points; nursing 19 points.

The floor score of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy (Hue University) this year ranges from 15 (public health and nutrition) to 22.5 (medicine, dentistry). Notably, the floor score of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy (Da Nang University) is the highest at 23 points (medicine, dentistry); pharmacy 21; nursing and medical laboratory technology 19 points.

The floor score and the standard score are always far apart.

Explaining the fact that Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy increased the minimum admission score for the two majors of medicine and dentistry to 24 points, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Khoi, head of the school's training department, said: "The school raised the minimum score for these two majors so that candidates can measure their abilities based on their scores.

Candidates should note that the minimum score and the admission score of the school are always very different. The school's admission score in 2023 ranges from 19 points (public health) to 27.34 points (medicine).

It is predicted that this year's benchmark scores will not fluctuate much but tend to increase compared to last year in some majors such as medicine and dentistry. This is because the score distribution of block B00 (math - chemistry - biology) shows that there are quite a lot of candidates with high scores. The benchmark scores of the remaining majors will fluctuate insignificantly."

Meanwhile, the floor scores of some top schools are not high, such as the Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics, the floor score at the Ho Chi Minh City campus is 20 points for all majors and programs. For training programs at Vinh Long Branch, the floor score for all majors is 16 points (the same as the floor score last year).

The lowest floor score of the International University (Ho Chi Minh City National University) is 15 for some training majors in conjunction with the school's partners, and the highest floor score is 22 (majors in information technology, data science, computer science).

University of Information Technology (Ho Chi Minh City National University) floor score is 22 points (all majors).

MSc. Cu Xuan Tien - Head of Admissions and Student Affairs Department of the University of Economics and Law (Ho Chi Minh City National University) - said: "The school has determined the common minimum score for all majors to be 21, an increase of 1 point compared to last year. Although the school's minimum score is not too high compared to some top schools, candidates should note that this is only the score for receiving applications, not the admission score."

The University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Ho Chi Minh City National University) has a minimum score of 18.5 - 21. The majors/training programs with high minimum scores are all "hot" majors of the school such as international relations, English language, psychology, journalism, multimedia communication, tourism and travel service management.

Dr. Pham Tan Ha - vice principal of the school - also said: "Compared to last year, the floor scores of the school's majors have increased slightly, however, the admission scores will be much higher. Therefore, candidates need to refer to the benchmark scores of last year to consider finalizing their wishes."

In 2023, the benchmark score for this school's high school graduation exam will range from 21 to 28 points.

Many industries from 14 - 15 points

This year, the Western University of Construction (Vinh Long) determined the floor score for all 19 majors of the school to be 14 points. Kien Giang University also has 22/24 majors with the same floor score of 14 points (except for math pedagogy and primary education).

At the 15-point floor level, there are dozens of universities across the country applying for many "super hot" majors such as: artificial intelligence, international business, marketing, economic law...

Register your wishes before 5pm today

The Ministry of Education and Training stipulates that candidates must complete registration and adjust their admission wishes before 5:00 p.m. on July 30 and pay the admission registration fee online on the admission registration system from July 31 to 5:00 p.m. on August 6 (according to 6 clusters):

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tuyen-sinh-dai-hoc-2024-tranh-sap-bay-diem-san-20240729225558956.htm