Thai high-school students did slightly worse than last year in the Ordinary National Education Test (O-Net), with average failing scores in all five key subjects tested in the 2017 academic year.
The National Institute of Educational Testing Service (NIETS), a public organisation in charge of preparing the national tests, announced on Saturday the results of the exams taken by around 372,000 Mathayom 6 (Grade 12) students on March 3-4.
The average marks for the five key subjects are: Thai language (49.25 of the full score of 100); social studies, religions and culture (34.70); English language (28.31); mathematics (24.53); and science (29.37).
"The average marks for the previous year were also below 50, except for Thai language, on which the students got a pass average score," NIETS director Assoc Dr Sampan Phanpruek said.
He added compared to the previous year, the students did better in English while the scores were comparable for social studies and maths. They did slightly worse on science and Thai language this year," he said.
Under the new university admission system, applicants’ cumulative grade point average (GPAX) accounts for 20% of the administration criteria, scores from the O-net would be given a 30% weighting, while scores from the General Aptitude Test (GAT) and the Professional Aptitude Test (PAT) make up the remaining 50%.
