High School Exam 2018: Which combination to choose for admission?

Illustration photo.

Although the regulations only require 4 exams (6 subjects) to be considered for graduation recognition, candidates can take all 5 exams (9 subjects) to increase this opportunity as well as university admission.

6 subjects are enough

According to the regulations, candidates only need to take a minimum of 4 subjects to graduate and be admitted to university. Statistical results show that the number of candidates taking 7-8 subjects accounts for a very low percentage (less than 1% of the total number of candidates taking the university cluster exam). In 2016, only 0.04% of the total 595,630 candidates chose to take 8 subjects. Meanwhile, nearly 50% of candidates took 5-6 subjects.

This data also shows that candidates who took many subjects had a lower average score of 3 subjects than candidates who took few subjects. Specifically, in 2016, the average score of 3 subjects of candidates taking 8 subjects was only 12.3 while the score of candidates taking 5-6 subjects was 14.77 (a difference of 2.47 points).

From this result, Dr. Nguyen Duc Nghia, former Vice President of Ho Chi Minh City National University, said that taking too many exams requires candidates to focus a lot of time and effort to achieve higher results. “Candidates who choose all 5 exams (9 subjects) need to carefully consider their major orientation, the school they are applying to, and their actual learning ability. If they take all 9 exams but their scores are low or they fail in both the combined exams, it is considered a loss,” Dr. Nghia advised.

4 cards create 14 combinations

Master Co Tan Anh Vu, Head of Admissions Department of Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport, said that choosing 3 compulsory exams of math, literature, foreign language combined with a combination exam will mostly satisfy both purposes: graduation and admission to universities.

Master Vu argues that the general trend is that schools will use natural science exams for engineering majors, social science exams for social majors... From there, Master Vu concludes: "Focusing on a combination exam will help review and test results achieve higher results."

The representative of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry also said that PhDs should only focus on their strong subjects. In fact, the addition of new subject combinations for admission by schools this year is calculated to increase the chances of admission for PhDs.

Sharing the same view, Master Pham Thai Son, Deputy Director of the Admissions and Business Relations Center of Ho Chi Minh City University of Food Industry, said that from 4 exams (math, literature, English and natural sciences), 14 different admission combinations can be created that schools use. This shows that candidates do not necessarily have to take all 2 combinations (9 subjects) because then they will not achieve maximum efficiency during the exam.