Top scorers in high school graduation exam fail to get top choice

HUST on Tuesday announced the admission scores for its 52 majors, with Computer Science having the highest admission score at 29.42.

The admission score for this major is calculated using one's scores of three subjects in the high school exam: Math, Physics and Chemistry (A00 module) or Math, Physics and English (A01).

Nguyen Manh Thang, from Bac Giang High School for the Gifted, and Nguyen Manh Hung, from Trung Vuong High School in Hung Yen Province, are the country's top scorers in the A00 module with a score of 29.35, which are still not enough to get them into their first choice of major.

"I was surprised to see the admission score rising so high, and I was a bit regretful over the result," Thang said.

However, both students managed to enter their second choice at the same school, the Information Technology major, with an admission score of 28.29.

Besides high school graduation results, Vietnamese universities also admit entrants based on students' SAT scores, their achievements in national and international exams, and their performance in the assessment exam designed by the schools, which means the door is not always wide open for top high school graduates.

Hanoi University of Science and Technology is admitting 7,985 new entrants this year, and only 300, or less than 4%, will get into its Computer Science major, one of the most-sought-after degrees in Vietnam.

Last year, the highest admission score at the school was 28.29, also for Computer Science.