Ms. Tran Thu Ha (Cau Giay, Hanoi) is the parent of the first batch of students who will take the high school graduation exam under the new program this year.
Her family invested in her child's education and international certificate exam preparation right from the first semester of grade 10.
"At the end of the first semester of grade 11, my child took the IELTS exam and achieved a score of 6.5. His writing skills were not good enough so his score was not as expected," said Ms. Ha.
Calculating the total tuition fee at a center in Hanoi and the exam fee, Ms. Ha's family has invested nearly 30 million VND for her child. Although this score is not low, according to Ms. Ha, it is very difficult to pass the exam to top universities. Therefore, her family is considering whether to continue to let her child take this certificate exam again next December.
"If you look at last year's admission plan, with a 6.5 IELTS score, combined with a few other factors, your child can pass the entrance exam to Hanoi National University. But if you want to enter the National Economics University, an IELTS score of 7.0 or higher is more likely," Ms. Ha analyzed.
Do Thuy Duong - a 12th grade student at Viet Duc High School (Hanoi) has also spent time studying IELTS since grade 10. The female student plans to use her IELTS score in combination with her high school graduation exam score or ability assessment test score to increase her chances of being admitted to her favorite university.
Although schools have not yet announced their 2025 enrollment plans, female students are still worried because of the trend of students flocking to study and review for this certificate. Not to mention that in big cities, students' foreign language skills are relatively good, and the competition rate for admission using foreign language certificates is very high.
"I'm not confident yet, because many friends now have IELTS certificates and their scores are much higher than mine. I think I will invest more in the ability assessment test scores" - Thuy Duong shared. Not only Thuy Duong or Ms. Ha's family, investing in studying and taking the IELTS certificate to increase the chance of passing the university entrance exam is the current trend.
In 2024, a series of universities will allow candidates to convert international certificate scores. Some schools will directly admit candidates with IELTS certificates along with criteria on high school studies, conduct, etc.
However, according to many teachers, not all candidates are able to achieve IELTS 6.5 or higher. When students focus too much on English, they will have a learning imbalance, affecting their high school graduation exam and university admission later.
