Female student who scored 1,600 on SAT in Hai Phong studies 4-5 hours a day

Nguyen Phuong Linh is an 11th grade English major student at Tran Phu High School for the Gifted, Hai Phong. In the SAT exam last June, she achieved a perfect score (1,600), entering the top 1% of the world . This was also Linh's first time taking the SAT.

Nguyen Phuong Linh - female student scored 1600 points on SAT on her first try (Photo: NVCC).

Sharing with Dan Tri reporter, Linh said she started studying for the SAT since September last year. She took a class that specializes in teaching the reading comprehension section of the SAT test and a class that specializes in teaching math. Both classes are online, with teachers in Hanoi .

During this time, I studied IELTS at the same time, so my preparation for the two certificates was somewhat spread out.

Two months before the IELTS test, Linh temporarily put the SAT aside to focus on one goal.

In April, after completing the IELTS test, Linh returned to study for the SAT to prepare for the exam in June.

Nguyen Phuong Linh is an 11th grade English major student at Tran Phu High School for the Gifted, Hai Phong (Photo: NVCC).

During these 2 months of intensive review, Linh spent 3-4 hours a day doing Reading and Writing, and 1 hour a day doing Math. Linh did not include the time studying English at school with in-depth topics as well as the time watching and reading English through books, newspapers, and the internet.

The set of documents Linh focused on "plowing" were 900 SAT questions in the question bank compiled by the College Board. The purpose was to practice test-taking skills, learn from mistakes, and minimize mistakes during the test.

"Even if I go to school with a teacher, the most important thing is still self-study. I often do it over and over again to understand clearly where I went wrong, according to the thinking of the person who created the test, what is the correct answer and where they often make mistakes," Linh shared.

In addition to practicing exam questions, Linh spends a lot of time reading foreign newspapers. Linh often reads the New York Times to accumulate knowledge about current events, society, science, economics, etc. to improve her thinking ability.

According to Linh, thinking ability is the deciding factor in reading comprehension scores.

Linh did not have much difficulty with math. With a solid foundation of math knowledge in the general education program, Linh only needed to do extra exercises according to the system of documents and instructions from the teacher to achieve the maximum score of 800/800 in this section.

The perfect SAT result of 1,600 made Linh surprised, happy and satisfied with the time and effort she spent studying for 10 months. She also achieved an IELTS certificate of 8.5 in the exam last April.

Nguyen Phuong Linh was not in the English gifted student team. She said that the gifted student competition was not her goal. After completing two important international certificates, Linh focused on volunteer projects for the community related to education.

Education is the field Linh wants to pursue in the future. She is currently participating in a club teaching English to children in Hai Phong. She plans to study abroad after grade 12 if she wins a scholarship.

Nguyen Phuong Linh plans to pursue education in the future (Photo: NVCC).

Sharing her experience of learning English with her peers, Linh said that each person needs to clearly define their learning goals.

"If you study English for exams, the most important thing is grammar. If you study grammar well in school, you can achieve your goal. Grammar is also the foundation for listening, speaking, and writing at a basic communication level.

However, to truly master English, you need to use English as a daily activity.

That means you have to get used to that language in different forms, from receiving information such as watching, listening, reading, to transmitting information such as speaking and writing," Linh advised.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/nu-sinh-dat-1600-sat-o-hai-phong-tu-cay-de-4-5-tiengngay-20240629145144940.htm