On October 27, surpassing 130 contestants from all over the country, Ngu Van Huyen - a 9th grade student of Hong Pham 8 Secondary School (Chongqing, China) won the Gold Medal at the 4th Khau Thanh Dong Mathematics Competition for female secondary school students.

This victory helped Van Huyen become the only contestant of the competition to be directly admitted to the 2025 Mathematical Talent Class of the Qiuchengtong Mathematical Science Center of Tsinghua University (China).

Sharing with Chongqing Daily , Van Huyen said that since elementary school, she was able to calculate faster than her classmates. In middle school, the female student joined the Math class organized by the school. Thanks to her ability to respond quickly and give correct answers in class, Van Huyen was selected by Mr. Luu Tung Con - the school's math tutoring teacher - to join the team.

To achieve this result, over the past 2 years, Van Huyen has received a lot of help from teachers in the school's math team coaching team. After school, the female student spends most of her time in the library. "I like reading many genres of books from Literature, Art to Physics, Chemistry and Biology," the female student excitedly said. In her free time, Van Huyen often plays with assembling models.

won gold medal in the 9th grade female university entrance exam at the age of 14.jpg
Ngu Van Huyen was admitted directly to Tsinghua University at the age of 14. Photo source: Hongfan 8 Middle School (China).

Teacher Luu Tung Con said he was proud of his student's achievements. In his eyes, Van Huyen was not only a hard-working student but also had good learning methods.

"During the learning process, Van Huyen did not focus on learning a lot or learning quickly, but focused on thinking independently. Her arguments were relatively tight, and the steps to solve problems were always clear. After being instructed on how to solve problems, Van Huyen often continued to think to find new methods, sometimes her solutions were better than mine," said Mr. Con.

The Khau Thanh Dong Mathematics Competition for female secondary school students consists of 2 parts: Written test and interview. The written test consists of 6 essay questions, the test time is 3 hours, candidates who pass this round will take an interview, the final result is based on the overall assessment.

Van Huyen said that she spent 2.5 hours on the written test to complete the papers, and the remaining 30 minutes to proofread. Being the only candidate to achieve a perfect score on the written test, Van Huyen was lucky to win the overall victory. However, in the interview round, the female student said that she had not completed the test completely.

"Math is a profound and fascinating subject, so I will never stop learning. Winning the Gold Medal at the 4th Khau Thanh Dong Mathematics Competition gave me confidence, but through this, I realized that my knowledge still has many shortcomings. In the future, I will continue to improve my knowledge, broaden my horizons and maintain my curiosity to explore Mathematics," the female student shared.

In addition to this achievement, previously, in 2021, Van Huyen represented primary school students in Nam Sung city (China) to participate in the World Robot Competition (WRCF) held in Foshan (Guangdong) and reached the finals. Surpassing many competitors, Van Huyen won first prize in the robot design category for primary school youth.

Participating in the Qiu Chengtong Mathematical Science Young Talent Training Program at Tsinghua University (China), students study for 8 consecutive years according to the 3+2+3 model, including 3 years of undergraduate study, 2 years of master's degree, and 3 years of doctorate. It is expected that Van Huyen will graduate with a doctorate in 2033, at the age of 23.

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