University entrance exam cutoff scores this year are unlikely to fluctuate significantly.

According to many admissions experts from universities, the cut-off scores this year will not fluctuate much.

A large pool of applicants for top-tier schools.

Score distribution for 2017.

Even before the Ministry of Education and Training announced the score distribution for each subject and exam group, some universities had already independently reviewed the exam score data from each locality to make their own assessment of the quality and quantity of this year's student intake.

Mr. Nguyen Hoang Long, Vice Rector of the University of Transport Technology, commented: "The score distribution for exam blocks A, A1, B, C, and D1 is relatively balanced. The majority of scores are concentrated in the range from 15 to under 21 (approximately 43-45% of the total number of candidates)."

"In particular, the score range from 16 to under 17 had the most candidates achieving it, only the D1 group slightly dropped to the 14 to under 15 range, but it is still quite high compared to last year. This shows that the score distribution in 2017 was very balanced, creating good conditions for universities to select candidates that match the quality and requirements of each school."

Mr. Long further analyzed: “In Block A, candidates scoring 15 points or higher accounted for about 65% of the total number of candidates. In Block A1, this number was about 62%. Thus, the exam results are very consistent with the “scenario” that the Ministry of Education and Training desired, meaning that candidates achieving an average score or higher constituted the majority. In the score range from 15 to 20 points in Blocks A and A1, the number of candidates achieving these scores is quite uniform, with a difference of only about 2% (around 30,000 candidates at each score level). This is an advantage for top-tier universities in setting admission cutoff scores. The number of excellent candidates (24 points or higher) in Block A accounted for about 7%, and outstanding candidates (27 points or higher) only 1%, so this is a reasonable recruitment source for the group of about 20 top-tier universities.”

Top-tier schools will need additional criteria.

Mr. Tran Van Top, Vice Rector of Hanoi University of Science and Technology, said that the university's focus is on candidates with scores of 21 points or higher. "According to our calculations, there are approximately 90,000 candidates in Group A achieving this score or higher. While this is a large pool of applicants, it also means that the score distribution within this range will be quite close. This will be a challenge when deciding on the admission cutoff scores for universities that want to recruit candidates at this score level."

Last year, most of our departments relied on supplementary criteria, but this year we are concerned that we will have to use two supplementary criteria.

Firstly, the score is based on the total points of the three subjects without any weighting factors or bonus points.

Secondly, priority will be given to candidates who have higher aspirations in the admissions process,” Mr. Top said.

Ms. Pham Thu Huong, Head of the Training Management Department at the Foreign Trade University, said that although the average score for Group D subjects increased by more than 2 points compared to last year, the number of applicants within the range of last year's cutoff scores and above will remain similar to last year. "Last year, the cutoff scores for Group D subjects and Group A subjects, depending on the major, were around 24 for Group D and 26 for Group A subjects. Based on this year's score distribution, we predict that this year's cutoff scores will also hover around that level, with only a slight increase," Ms. Huong predicted.

According to Thanh Nien newspaper.