Hanoi Tran Viet Hoang achieved 1590 SAT and 8.5 IELTS, after a long time of studying hard, with the goal of studying abroad in Finland.
Viet Hoang, grade 12 Math 1 student at Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, scored 1590/1600 on the SAT in late December 2023. This is a standardized test widely used in college admissions in the US and European countries. According to the College Board , the organizer, less than 1% of candidates worldwide achieve this score.
Less than a month later, Viet Hoang took the IELTS test and achieved 8.5. In which, Listening and Reading scores were both 9.0, Writing 7.0 and Speaking 8.0.
"I'm happy that my efforts and the physical and mental sacrifices have paid off," said Hoang, who lost weight and had trouble sleeping due to the stress of achieving a high SAT score. He plans to use the results to apply to study in Finland, majoring in Data Science.
Tran Viet Hoang. Photo: Character provided
This is Hoang's fourth time taking the SAT. He has been studying for the SAT since 10th grade, and in previous tests he only scored 1530, while his goal was 1580 or higher. Since July last year, Hoang has continued to take online review courses combined with self-study. Every day, he spends an hour on the SAT, and in the summer he can study for 6 hours.
"The best way is to practice a lot of questions, learn vocabulary and learn from your mistakes," Hoang shared.
The SAT consists of two parts, Math and Reading - Writing, which according to Hoang are quite difficult, but this time, thanks to careful preparation, he did it smoothly. In particular, the male student achieved a perfect score of 800 in the Math test. This part includes many questions on algebra, analysis, geometry... ranging from grades 10 to 12. On average, each question takes 2 minutes to complete, some difficult questions on graphs and geometry, Hoang took more time, about 6-8 minutes.
The Reading and Writing section also asks for knowledge in many different fields, such as literature, science, etc. Hoang's strategy is to do each question carefully, leaving the difficult and long ones to read later. Before that, when reviewing, Hoang used an application that integrated the spaced repetition method, so he learned about 3,000 vocabulary words to prepare for this part of the test. As a result, Hoang achieved a near-perfect score on the Reading and Writing section, with 790/800 points.
"The question does not test social knowledge but asks directly about the content of the lesson, forcing candidates to reason logically to choose the correct answer," Hoang said.
Majoring in Mathematics but exposed to English since childhood, Hoang is confident in his foreign language ability. Unlike the SAT, the male student took the IELTS test to test his ability because universities in Finland do not require this certificate.
Therefore, Hoang was not too stressed. The male student did not review the writing skills but only studied from documents on the internet and shared by friends. A month before the exam, Hoang practiced writing more, and in the last week he practiced speaking more.
"The IELTS Writing test has several main types of questions, just master them and you'll be fine. The important thing is to be sure of grammar and vocabulary," Hoang said.
In Speaking, Hoang's weakness is that he is still confused about his fluency. The Speaking test does not have answers to check like Reading and Listening. Therefore, Hoang studied with a tutor before taking the test. Thanks to the guidance, the male student did not try to speak in a complicated, mechanical way but expressed the issues naturally.
According to Hoang, to improve English, learners need to actively expose themselves to this language as much as possible. The male student often watches HBO, National Geographic and content on YouTube or TikTok in English. His hobby of reading books and watching English movies every day helps Hoang have good reading and listening skills, achieving a perfect score of 9.0.
The male student said that the university entrance exam in Finland is later than other countries, usually in January. Up to now, Hoang has almost completed submitting his application, waiting for the results in April.
Dawn
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