Azernews.Az

by Alimat Aliyeva

At the entrance exams for the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University, an AI system based on ChatGPT demonstrated results that in some cases exceeded those of the top human applicants, AzerNEWS reports.

During testing with the OpenAI ChatGPT 5.2 “Thinking” model, the system was given real exam papers from these universities. The questions were presented in image format, simulating the conditions of an actual entrance examination.

The most striking result was recorded at the University of Tokyo’s medical faculty, where ChatGPT scored about 50 points higher than the top-ranked applicant. The AI also achieved the highest score in mathematics, showing particularly strong performance in problem-solving and logical reasoning tasks.

Overall, the system performed especially well in the natural sciences, scoring 503 out of 550 points, surpassing the best human result of 453. In the humanities section, it also performed strongly, achieving 452 out of 550 points, which was above the average passing level.

However, the results were not uniform across all subjects. In English, the model reached around 90%, while in more interpretive tasks—such as essay writing or questions on world history—performance dropped significantly, to roughly 25%. This suggests that while the AI is highly effective in structured, fact-based reasoning, it still struggles with open-ended analysis and nuanced argumentation.

In the Kyoto University exams, ChatGPT also outperformed top candidates, scoring 771 points in the Faculty of Law (compared to a top human score of 734) and 1,176 points in the medical faculty (against 1,098 for the leading applicant).

Researchers note that this progress is especially remarkable given the short timeframe of development. Back in 2024, earlier versions of ChatGPT could not even meet the minimum entrance requirements for the University of Tokyo. By the following year, however, newer models were already capable of passing—and now, in some cases, surpassing—top human performance.

An interesting detail is that despite these impressive results, experts emphasize that exam success does not necessarily mean true understanding or professional competence. AI can excel at pattern recognition and structured problem-solving, but it still lacks real-world experience, ethical judgment, and creative intuition—qualities that remain essential in fields like medicine and law.

Some analysts also point out that if such systems continue improving at this pace, universities may eventually need to redesign exams themselves, focusing less on memorization and more on skills that are harder for AI to replicate, such as original research, practical decision-making, and interpersonal reasoning.