13-year-old female student achieved 8.5 IELTS, passed the exam for excellent students at a higher level

HANOI - Tran Minh Anh, class 8A3, Giang Vo Secondary School, achieved 8.5 IELTS on his first time participating in the excellent student competition with his 9th grade classmates and won second prize.

In early December, Minh Anh received her IELTS test results with 9.0 Listening, 8.5 Reading and Speaking, and 7.5 Writing.

"I am very surprised by this result. My goal is to take the test and hope to get 7.0-7.5," said the student born in 2010.

Tran Minh Anh, class 8A3, Giang Vo Secondary School, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi. Photo: Provided by the character

Having studied English since primary school according to the official curriculum, Minh Anh was interested in this foreign language, so her family invested more systematically in it from the 4th grade. At that time, she studied pronunciation and grammar carefully to speak and write correctly. For Minh Anh, besides being a subject, English is also a tool, helping her access knowledge and cultures around the world.

"I feel happy learning English," Minh Anh said.

During the summer break of 8th grade, the Hanoi student started studying for the IELTS exam. Minh Anh said she did not put much emphasis on the results, because she did not need to use this certificate for admission or studying abroad right away. Her goal was to try her luck.

The female student said she did not have much difficulty with the three skills of Listening, Speaking and Writing. However, the Reading Comprehension test was a big challenge, because the texts presented were often academic and scientific. When practicing the test, while other skills could reach 7.0-8.0, Minh Anh often only got 6.5 in Reading Comprehension.

Therefore, the female student invests a lot of time to practice, focusing on this part. Every day, she spends at least 3.5 hours to complete an IELTS practice test with all four skills, of which the Reading section takes 45 minutes, 15 minutes faster than the allowed time.

Minh Anh determined that to master English, in addition to exam preparation, learners also need to be surrounded by an English environment. Therefore, in her free time, the female student watches movies and short videos on Youtube and Netflix, trying not to use subtitles or only watching English subtitles. This helps Minh Anh practice her listening, pronunciation, and speaking skills.

On the day of the test, Minh Anh rated the test as "quite easy". Her Listening score exceeded expectations, even though the topic of Part 1 was about maps, which is not her strong point. The Reading section was not difficult because there were few trick questions. The female student felt that she did not complete the Speaking section as expected, but still got a good score because of her pronunciation skills and the parts being closely connected. Overall, Minh Anh achieved 8.5 IELTS.

Minh Anh experiences making pineapple cake during a trip to Taiwan, April 2023. Photo: Character provided

During the last two months of IELTS preparation, Minh Anh was also in the English team of Giang Vo school, and together with her 9th grade siblings, she studied for the district-level excellent student exam.

Ms. Tran Thi Thu Hien, Minh Anh's homeroom teacher, who also trains the English team, said that this year is the first time the school has sent 8th graders to compete in the 9th grade competition for excellent students in this subject.

During her time studying for the national team, Minh Anh adapted quite quickly and did not encounter many difficulties due to her knowledge base. Outside of class, she bought more books to read and practice questions. Compared to her seniors, Minh Anh found herself a bit slower in some types of exercises, including rewriting sentences. To score points in this type of exercise, students need to know many idioms and phrasal verbs. The female student understood that to improve, there was no more effective way than practicing questions.

Minh Anh said that studying for two different exams at the same time was also difficult, but IELTS and the gifted student exam also have some similar knowledge and types of questions, so she tried to study deeply and save time. One of the habits Minh Anh maintained was watching English movies and videos in the evening.

Ms. Hien commented that Minh Anh has good language skills, learns quickly, remembers well, and knows how to apply them flexibly in her speech.

"Minh Anh writes very well. She uses rich and intelligent language, and organizes her ideas very coherently and cohesively. I think this is also the reason why Minh Anh got high scores in the Speaking and Writing tests," the teacher shared.

With second prize in the excellent student competition of Ba Dinh district, Minh Anh is preparing for the selection round of the city team early next year.

Minh Anh received the silver solo award at the Asian Arts Festival in Singapore, July 2022. Photo: Character provided

As the class monitor of class 8A3, Minh Anh is often the one who initiates activities. Ms. Hien assessed that her student has a clear voice, fluent communication, and is very attractive when presenting. In July 2022, Minh Anh participated in the Asian Arts Festival in Singapore, winning the silver medal for solo singing with the song Unstopable.

In addition to English, the female student also likes to study Math. She won a silver medal at the Math Arena competition and a national bronze medal at the Science, Math and English Proficiency Assessment (ASMO).

However, Minh Anh said she still wants her future career to be related to English. She was inspired by her seniors and teachers who are good at foreign languages.

"I haven't decided specifically about my future career, but English is still my passion so I hope to participate in more activities related to this language," Minh Anh shared.

Vnexpress.net