12-year-old girl achieves IELTS score of 8.0

Phuong Linh, a student in class 7A3 at the Foreign Language Secondary School, Vietnam National University, Hanoi , achieved an 8.0 IELTS score on her first attempt, with a perfect score in Reading.

Bui Phuong Linh achieved this score after taking the computer-based test on September 1st. Besides her Reading score, Linh scored 7.0 in both Speaking and Writing, and 8.0 in Listening.

"I thought the result would be okay, but I didn't expect an 8.0," Linh said.

Ms. Nguyen Phuong Thao, Linh's mother, was also surprised by her daughter's high score. As an English teacher, she understood her daughter's abilities but knew that IELTS is a difficult exam, and the computer-based test requires many precise actions. Therefore, initially, the two of them only intended to take the test to test their abilities.

On its website, IDP – one of the three organizations that own the IELTS test worldwide – states that less than 3% of candidates achieve a score of 8.0. According to 2022 statistics on the IELTS homepage, only 4% of people in Vietnam achieved this score. The test has no age limit, but IDP encourages candidates aged 16 and above to register.

Bui Phuong Linh, class 7A3, Foreign Language Secondary School, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Photo: Provided by the family.

According to Linh, the IELTS exam that day was more difficult than the ones she practiced at home. Of the four skills, her Reading score surprised her the most. Linh often confused True, False, and Not Given question types, but on the actual exam, she was confident in answering these questions. The reading section included a fill-in-the-blank question. Because she encountered some new words, Linh had to use the process of elimination. For any question she was unsure about, she reread the passage multiple times, using her knowledge and relying on information from previous sections to find the answer.

"A score of 9 means I didn't get any questions wrong, or only got one question wrong," Linh said.

The female student said she wasn't good at writing skills, so she had previously attended a course of over a dozen sessions. A week before the exam, she practiced writing on her own and consulted sample essays online. While most candidates found Part 1, which required explaining data through charts, easy, Linh was confident with Part 2. This type of question requires candidates to have critical thinking skills and express their own opinions.

Listening was the skill the female student regretted making the most mistakes in, due to errors in the early sections – which are considered the easy-to-score questions on the exam. According to Linh, she was distracted in this section because of anxiety. Despite this, Linh still achieved an 8.0.

Linh had hoped for the highest score in the Speaking section , as it was her forte. However, a score of 7 left her feeling a little disappointed. After the initial general information section, Linh was asked to describe a successful classmate. She talked about her best friend, who was introverted but had successfully built relationships and become very sociable.

"It took me over a minute to think about him, and because I wasn't very well prepared, I stammered a bit," Linh recounted. The results of her first attempt weren't entirely satisfactory, but Linh said that through it, she realized areas for improvement.

For Linh, English is a means to read books and explore knowledge and the wider world. She reads many books in both languages, but only when she accesses the original English version does she understand the content better.

Linh believes this is due to her good fortune in having a solid foundation in English from an early age. At the age of four, when she was already quite fluent in Vietnamese, her mother introduced her to English, starting with phonics, spelling, and learning through reading apps like Razkids, Oxford Phonics World, Let's Go, Family and Friends, etc.

According to Ms. Thao, Linh loves English and has a good memory; she can read and retell stories in English. As she got older, she wrote those stories down in her notebook. Every evening, Ms. Thao also reads books with her daughter and watches her favorite shows like the Ellen Show, TED Talks, or BBC.

"Linh watched Ellen's videos over and over again until she knew them by heart. Once she could listen well, she set a timer on her iPad to listen to BBC Learning English or TED Talks," Thao shared.

Ms. Thao recounted that Linh was originally shy, but thanks to her English skills, she became more confident. To monitor her progress, Ms. Thao enrolled her in Cambridge standardized tests annually. At age 5, Linh started with Starters, progressing to Movers, Flyers, PET, and KET in subsequent years. She achieved excellent results in each test. From grades 5 to 7, Linh also won first prize in the National English Festival and was among the top 10 best-speaking contestants.

"I learn English in a very relaxed way, expressing my thoughts and opinions in English instead of going through cram schools. Thanks to that, English has become a natural part of my life," Linh shared.

Not only is Linh proficient in English, but she also excels in science subjects and enjoys debating. After passing the entrance exam to the 6th grade at the Foreign Language Secondary School, Linh wakes up at 5:30 every day to prepare breakfast and take the bus from her home in Dan Phuong to Cau Giay to attend school. Her grade point average (GPA) in 6th grade was 9.7.

The female student plans to take the Cambridge C1 certificate exam next year and retake the IELTS exam in 9th grade with the goal of achieving a score of 8.5-9.0.

Dawn

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