Le Huy Gia Long is currently an 8th grade student at the Vietnam-Australia Inter-level School in Hanoi. In his first IELTS test in early April 2025, Long scored 8.5, with perfect scores in the three skills of Listening, Speaking, and Reading.

“When I received the results, I was very happy and surprised. My goal when taking the IELTS test was just to test myself, but I also expected to get around 8.0,” Long said.

Ms. Phan Van Anh, Gia Long’s mother, said that since the age of 2-3, her son has been very interested in English songs and programs on Youtube. Since then, Long has been regularly listened to or watched by his mother every day.

In grade 1, Long began to be interested in more diverse fields, from science, technology, and later politics, economics, society, and medicine. When studying any topic, he would research materials in English. Gradually, using and thinking in this language became a habit of the 10X.

To develop her son's strengths, Ms. Van Anh lets him study in international environments, attend summer camps abroad for a few weeks each year to exchange, share knowledge and improve his ability to use English in practice. During the first two years of middle school, the boy had the opportunity to go to the US, France, England and Switzerland.

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Gia Long attended a summer camp in France last year. Photo: NVCC

Gia Long also felt lucky to be exposed to this language very naturally. Therefore, when he decided to take the IELTS test, with the three skills of Listening, Speaking, and Reading, Long did not face many challenges.

For example, in the Listening skill, Long assessed the content of the test as “quite realistic”. Therefore, during the review process, according to Long, you can focus on practicing listening to interviews, watching topics that interest you such as literature, math, science, or even watching movies without subtitles to develop information gathering skills and practice listening comprehension.

Regarding speaking skills, according to the male student, the most important thing is still fluency and correct grammar. “Candidates often lose the most points for speaking hesitantly and making grammatical mistakes. This problem can be overcome by slowing down the speaking speed a bit,” the male student shared.

In part 3, according to Long, candidates should present the content like an essay, that is, with an introduction, body with evidence and conclusion. However, the evidence should be taken from familiar life, not grandiose or elaborate with data.

For example, with the topic of trustworthy people in life, Long chose to use the example of his father - a person who is both close and has a lot of "material" to talk about. Thanks to that, in this part of the test, Long performed naturally, fluently and achieved a perfect score.

While many candidates take advantage of practicing speaking with AI, Long said that this method is not really effective because "there is a lack of inspiration to prolong the conversation and the expression is not as natural as when communicating directly".

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Gia Long just achieved a perfect score of 9.0 in all three IELTS skills. Photo: NVCC

In the Reading section, Long believes that to do well, you need to have a solid grasp of grammar and vocabulary. The topics in this section are also very diverse, from an essay or research paper related to social, cultural, historical issues... The most difficult types of questions in this section are True, False, Not Given.

In Long's experience, if it is True, the information will be clearly written; the answer is False, which will often give information that is contrary to what is in the article, and if it is neutral, falls in the middle of uncertainty or is not mentioned, it will be Not Given.

As for Writing, Long spent more time improving himself, besides attending a review class at school. This is also the part that the male student felt most regretful about when taking the test. “I am not very familiar with the writing style of the IELTS test, which requires neatness, following the outline of each section, and cannot write creatively or break any stereotypes. Therefore, the results of this part are not as expected,” Long said.

However, the male student said that because he only took the exam to test his ability, he did not put too much emphasis on the score.

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Gia Long won the Laurel Wreath in the Road to Olympia simulation contest at school. Photo: NVCC

In addition to his English skills, Gia Long is also strong in IT. The male student has participated in IT talent competitions at the district and city levels in Hanoi many times.

At school, the male student is also considered a “know-it-all” student when he won the Laurel Wreath in the simulation contest Road to Olympia. This is a contest related to general knowledge, using 100% English.

Having achieved an IELTS score of 8.5, Gia Long said he has no intention of retaking the test. However, in the near future, the male student also wants to try his hand at the SAT test - one of the necessary certificates for studying abroad in the future.

A 6th grade male student from Ha Tinh achieved 8.0 IELTS on his first attempt . On his first attempt, male student Nguyen Le Bao Chung (born in 2013, Ha Tinh) excellently achieved 8.0 IELTS, with a Speaking score of 8.5.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/13-year-old-boy-scored-an-absolute-9-0-in-ca-ba-ielts-ability-2390211.html