Young man reaches 9.0 IELTS after 10 years of perseverance, enters top 1% in Vietnam

After 10 years of hard work, the day he received his IELTS 9.0 result, Nguyen Thanh Tang still couldn't believe it.

Nguyen Thanh Tung, born in 1995 in Hanoi, graduated with a bachelor's degree in Foreign Economics from the Foreign Trade University and achieved a 9.0 IELTS overall (9.0 Reading, 9.0 Listening, 8.5 Writing, 8.5 Speaking) in early February this year.

After 20 attempts and spending about 100 million VND, Tung reached the IELTS absolute score. According to statistics from the IELTS homepage, only about 1% of test takers in Vietnam achieved a score of 8.5 or higher.

Thanh Tung successfully conquered IELTS 9.0 after 10 years of studying and 20 tests.

Before the day of the results announcement, Thanh Tung did not dare to expect himself to achieve 9.0 IELTS. He even deleted his Gmail software to avoid having to wait anxiously for the results, not wanting to put pressure on himself. Until IDP directly called to inform him, it took Tung a few seconds to truly realize that he had achieved a score that seemed impossible.

“When I received the call, I had mixed emotions – both overwhelmed and in disbelief. This was not just a number, but a milestone marking a 10-year journey of perseverance, correcting every small mistake, practicing every sentence, writing every essay,” Tung confided.

Thanh Tung shared that some people only need a few years to achieve a high score, but for him, the journey lasted 10 years. During that time, Tung retook the exam, practiced continuously but still got stuck at a certain score level.

The gap between 8.5 and 9.0 is too big.

Tung's IELTS journey began around the end of 2013, when all his friends signed up for the exam. At first, Tung followed the trend, but then gradually found a true passion for this language, especially while supporting other young people to study IELTS.

Tung first took the IELTS test in 2014, achieving a total score of 7.5 overall (9.0 Reading, 7.0 Listening, 6.5 Writing, 6.5 Speaking). At that time, there were not many exam preparation materials, Tung "plowed" through the Cambridge 10-11-12 series, helping to quickly improve the Reading - Listening section, but only reached around 7.0 IELTS and suffered from two long-term pains in the Writing - Speaking section.

Tung's first boost in score came when he discovered the secret to practicing Writing and Speaking.

Regarding the Writing section, realizing that he had no natural talent for foreign languages, instead of trying to be creative from the beginning, Tung chose to memorize quality sample essays from examiners or high-scoring people, analyzing each sentence to understand how they developed their ideas, used vocabulary and grammar structures. There is a saying that "copying 1,000 essays from ancient people can only write one essay like an ancient person" and Tung applied that spirit.

As for Speaking, Tung improved his poor pronunciation in a simple yet effective way - speaking into Google Translate and seeing if Google recognized what he said correctly. If Google displayed the correct sentence Tung wanted to say, it meant his pronunciation was clear enough; if it displayed a strange phrase, it meant he needed to correct his pronunciation immediately.

After a few years of practice, Thanh Tung retook the test and achieved 8.0 and then 8.5 IELTS. By around 2023, the young man had a good foundation, but 9.0 was still a distant goal. Tung began to feel stuck at 8.5, especially in Writing and Speaking.

When he achieved 8.5 IELTS, Tung truly understood why 9.0 was so difficult. At this level, just a small mistake, an unnatural use of words or a weak argument can cost him points. Maintaining perfection in every skill, every sentence, every answer seems to be an endless challenge.

There was a time when Tung thought: “Maybe 8.5 is the limit” . Tung used to think that to get 9.0 IELTS, he would have to live abroad or have a full English environment, but that was not within his ability. But after all, he overcame these barriers with the secret of using AI tutors – Chat GPT.

To surpass the IELTS 8.5 threshold, Tung uses Google Translate and Chat GPT to support the review process. These two tools help to refine the smallest errors and optimize learning in a more effective way.

Tung often copies articles into Chat GPT, asks AI to correct grammar errors, suggest better expressions, and evaluate them according to the IELTS scale. Thanks to that, he recognizes many small but important errors, especially in coherence and lexical resource.

In particular, he uses ChatGPT as a companion to practice reflexes. Tung asks questions and answers himself, then asks Chat GPT to evaluate the level of naturalness and suggest ways to improve the answers according to a higher band score. This helps him practice fluency and logic in reasoning.

“Without AI, I could still get 9.0 IELTS but it would definitely take me longer. Google Translate and Chat GPT help me study proactively, without having to depend on teachers or centers,” Tung revealed. Thanks to these two tools, he can practice anytime, check his own mistakes and systematically upgrade each skill.

Using Chat GPT to practice writing shorthand and finding loopholes in arguments helped Tung raise his Writing score to 8.5, thereby reaching the 9.0 IELTS overall mark.

Three common mistakes that make it difficult for candidates to achieve 9.0 IELTS

After a long journey to conquer IELTS 9.0, Thanh Tung realized that one of the biggest challenges in his test preparation journey was that there was no class specifically for achieving a 9.0 score. Tung himself also studied on his own to reach 9.0 IELTS.

Thanh Tung concluded that there are three common mistakes that cause candidates to study and take the IELTS test many times but still rarely achieve a perfect score of 9.0 IELTS.

Firstly, candidates only study based on their feelings, not according to the IELTS scoring criteria. This is a type of broad but not deep learning. Candidates may have a lot of good vocabulary and strange structures but do not clearly understand the scoring criteria. This makes their writing and speaking lack coherence and accuracy as required by the examiner.

Second, candidates lack absolute accuracy in pronunciation and vocabulary. Tung noted that at a high score, a small mistake can cause you to stop at 8.5 instead of 9.0. For example, Tung once made mistakes in pronouncing the ending sound unclearly or using the wrong nuance of meaning. To improve, candidates should record their speech, check each pronunciation error with Google Translate or pronunciation practice software, and learn vocabulary in context instead of learning it individually.

Third, candidates practice many IELTS questions but do not analyze their mistakes carefully. Studying this way helps candidates progress quickly at an average level, but when they want to reach 8.5 - 9.0 IELTS, Tung realizes that he needs to delve into each error and each sentence to avoid making the same mistakes again.

The journey to reach 9.0 IELTS not only helped him improve his English but also taught him the value of perseverance and the right learning method. Tung advises candidates to be loyal to one learning method, and not to switch to another method if one method is not effective immediately.

“Any way can lead to Rome, as long as you persist in applying it for a long time. The most important thing is to practice regularly, correct mistakes and stick to the scoring criteria, never give up, then you will achieve the desired IELTS score,” Tung shared.

Le Thu

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/chang-trai-cham-moc-9-0-ielts-sau-10-nam-kien-tri-lot-top-1-o-viet-nam-ar930352.html