"An increase in the passing scores for admission to higher education institutions is not expected; this year’s results are approximately at last year’s level."
Medianews.az reports that these remarks were made by Maleyka Abbaszade, Chairperson of the Management Board of the State Examination Center (SEC), in her interview with "Baku TV".
"Our evaluation procedures are among the simplest. We have been explaining how passing scores are formed for 30 years. Firstly, there is a condition for admission to the competition. That is, you must score a certain minimum to be admitted to the competition. This threshold varies depending on different fields: it might be 200 points, 150 points, or in some skill-requiring specialties, it can be 60 points. First, you are admitted to the competition. The number of people who achieve this score in that field can vary every year. Secondly, the number of allocated places in that field also changes from year to year. Thirdly, the number of applicants choosing the specialty you want also differs every year.
Imagine, 100,000 people participate in the exam and, for example, 60,000 of them are admitted to the competition. It is not possible to precisely predict in advance how many participants will choose which specialty or which direction individuals will prefer. However, over the last 30 years, especially in the last 10 years, we have observed certain trends," emphasized the SEC Chairperson.
"But these traditional choices change over time. Pay attention to how interest in information technologies has increased over the past 10 years. Changes will continue after that. This process is gradual. One cannot say a year in advance whether passing scores in a certain specialty will decrease or increase. Naturally, some specialties might be closed or the number of places might decrease. In that case, passing scores could rise. Currently, our expectation is that the number of places will be approximately at last year’s level. Yet, there is no final information on this matter," said M. Abbaszade.
M. Abbaszade added that one of the main factors forming the passing scores is the knowledge level of applicants:
"This year’s results are approximately at last year’s level. Therefore, it is not appropriate to predict in advance a sharp increase or a serious decline. We generally expect the level to be similar to last year’s. Nonetheless, some changes may occur."