Russian language student achieves IELTS and SAT scores in top 1% of the world

LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING ALL REACHED THE ABSOLUTE MARK 9.0

Thien An, a 12th grade student at the Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, received his IELTS test results for the first time on October 28 after 2 months of studying. Having discovered a few mistakes, An thought he would only get a 7.5, lower than his usual score of around 8.0. However, the male student eventually received an IELTS score of 8.5, with all three skills of listening, reading, and speaking reaching the absolute mark of 9.0, and the writing skill being 7.5. "This result partly comes from luck," An confided.

Ngo Nguyen Thien An with her homeroom teacher (right) and mother at the opening ceremony of the 2024-2025 school year

The male student said he had the opportunity to be exposed to English since elementary school, considering it a natural language rather than a subject to learn in class. By the time he was in 8th grade, realizing that his English was "extremely bad", An began to spend time sitting alone to practice speaking, from describing objects like "this is a table, a chair" to describing what he was doing like "I'm doing homework, resting". "Repeating this activity continuously helps me not to be stiff and awkward when speaking English", An shared.

In the exam room, An believes that it is not necessary to use "high-class" vocabulary, but can use spoken language, adding connecting words such as "erm, well, like, so" to help communicate with the examiner more naturally. "Think of the speaking test as a normal conversation because the questions are about stories, emotions and are scored based on the way of speaking, not the content of the answer," An said.

In addition to practicing speaking, Thien An also tries to be exposed to English as much as possible through books, newspapers, and social networks to form the habit of thinking entirely in English, instead of thinking in Vietnamese and then translating into English, "which is both time-consuming and makes communication unnatural." "The most important thing is to be persistent in honing skills and solving many types of questions in the exam," the male student concluded.

In addition to IELTS, An previously achieved an SAT score of 1,550, with a math score of 790 and a reading and writing score of 760. The secret to improvement, according to An, comes from enriching vocabulary and creating pressure to handle a dense number of questions in a certain amount of time to enhance reading comprehension and logical reasoning. "There are also many websites on the internet about question banks that help you practice each specific type of question until you master it," An said.

Thien An has an IELTS score of 8.5, in which all three skills of listening, reading, and speaking reach the absolute mark of 9.0.

According to statistics from the IELTS co-organizers, only 1% of candidates will achieve a score of 8.5 globally in 2023-2024. According to the College Board, the SAT test management unit, An's results are also only achieved by 1% of the 5.5 million candidates worldwide in the past 3 years. And to prepare for the two exams, the student combined self-study with registering for additional online courses so that "he could not be lazy for any minute".

HEAD OF LOGISTICS OF MANY CLUBS AND PROJECTS

Thien An said he has only focused on studying for university entrance exams since April, and before that, he spent most of his time participating in club and project activities to satisfy his curiosity and passion. During this time, the male student organized a debate tournament with a scale of more than 600 people, and held the role of logistics head of many clubs and projects of students at Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted.

Thien An and her Russian students did the Kapusta project, drawing and building a reading space for children in the highlands.

PHOTO: PROVIDED BY CHARACTER

An added that the experiences and lessons he gained after participating in the above activities helped him a lot in his activities with the Russian major. Notably, in the "Talent Festival" 2023 - the largest annual event of Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, he and his Russian major friends won the prestigious "The most wanted class" award. In addition, the male student also participated in charity projects and played chess with everyone, enriching his memories of his school days.

The male student's results are "very rare"

Having supported Thien An on his preparation journey, teacher Luyen Quang Kien, the first Vietnamese person to achieve a perfect score in all four IELTS skills, commented that the result the male student achieved was "very rare", especially for high school students who have not had the opportunity to study abroad. Regarding speaking skills, teacher Kien said that if candidates want to achieve 9.0, they need to be able to communicate fluently and naturally, and most of the times they hesitate is to think of ideas instead of thinking about vocabulary and grammar.

"In particular, the criteria that are most difficult to achieve the maximum results are also related to fluency and coherence because they require language users to be able to respond to grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation criteria. Developing full ideas is also not easy, especially with broad social topics. In general, do not try to insert difficult vocabulary and grammar into your answers if not necessary, because the idea will decide which words are appropriate. In addition, you also need to practice storytelling and paraphrasing skills," Mr. Kien advised.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/cau-hoc-tro-chuyen-tieng-nga-dat-diem-ielts-sat-top-1-the-gioi-185241030194238127.htm