90th minute change helps male student from 'village school' become valedictorian of province, valedictorian of nation

New valedictorian of block D01 Phan Ngoc Vu of Thua Thien - Hue province in 2024

Two 10s in chemistry and English

Ngoc Vu is a former student of class 12B1 at Nguyen Chi Thanh High School, a small school located in Quang Dien district, Thua Thien - Hue province. According to the announcement of the 2024 high school graduation exam scores, Vu achieved a total score of 28.2 in block D01, 29.2 in block D07, of which math was 9.2, literature was 9 and chemistry, English was 10. With this achievement, the "village school" male student officially became the valedictorian of block D01, D07 in Thua Thien - Hue province, and also the runner-up of block D07 nationwide.

"I was very surprised when I received the results, especially in literature, because I had just switched to this subject in the middle of the first semester of grade 12 to follow block D01 instead of block A01 as before. The change was quite late because I felt that I was not very 'suitable' for physics, perhaps because I solved some of the math problems in this subject very slowly," Vu confided.

To conquer literature, the male student said that before studying each work in class, he carefully researched the author's information, the context of the work, and prepared the lesson before entering the class. And after finishing a work, Vu would summarize the important aspects that needed to be understood. In addition, he also took extra classes to practice skills such as reading comprehension and writing social arguments. "I wrote a total of 7 pages of exam paper, the most ever," Vu said.

Meanwhile, with math, the male student approached the first types of math problems for grade 12 while still in grade 11. At the same time, the male student also compiled many other documents online to practice a variety of types of problems, especially "strange" types. "A month before the exam, with math and other subjects, I focused on solving problems according to the actual exam time to get used to the pressure. When taking the exam, I tried to do the recognition and understanding types of problems carefully to avoid losing points," Vu said.

In the two subjects that he got perfect scores in, Chemistry and English, the new valedictorian said he also applied the "easy first, difficult later" test-taking strategy. Specifically, for difficult questions containing unfamiliar vocabulary or questions with unclear data that needed to be processed, he marked them in the test and moved on to the next question. After finishing all the easy questions, the male student read them again and started solving the questions he had marked earlier.

"In the last 5-10 minutes, I stop doing the test and check the answers to the easy questions, and also check to see if the circled answers in the test are the same as the answers in the multiple choice sheet. Most importantly, in my opinion, I always read the questions carefully and do them carefully to avoid unnecessary mistakes," Vu said.

Ngoc Vu in an extracurricular activity of Nguyen Chi Thanh High School, Thua Thien - Hue province

Sharing more about the review process of these two subjects, the male student from Thua Thien - Hue said that with chemistry, he devoted himself to studying the basic knowledge units in the textbook, then did the application exercises to check which parts he did not understand clearly or accidentally missed. "With the application exercises - high-level application exercises, I did not study according to the type of exercises but mainly learned the skills to do the exercises, some data processing methods to do strange and rare exercises," Vu shared.

Meanwhile, in English, Vu said that because he had been taught most of the grammar topics by his teachers since middle school, when he entered high school, he only learned a few new vocabulary and structures. "I often set myself a number of words to learn in a certain period of time and check it by writing down commonly used meanings and making a few sentences containing that word. If I accidentally come across a strange and interesting word, I also write it down on a note so that when I sit down to study, I can look it up in the dictionary," Vu said.

"Golden board" spans many subjects

Despite achieving perfect scores in chemistry and English, new valedictorian Phan Ngoc Vu said that IT is his strength. The male student won the consolation prize in the NAÏ CHALLENGE board programming contest at the Hue-ICT Challenge 2023, then third prize in the 2024 contest. Although he did not study in a specialized IT class, Vu also won second prize in IT and consolation prize in specialized IT in the provincial student competition in grade 12. In grade 11, he won third prize in IT in the provincial excellent student competition.

In addition, Vu also won third prize in the provincial math competition in grade 11 and then a consolation prize in grade 12. He also won a consolation prize in the national English Olympiad on the Internet in grade 11 and first prize in the provincial English Olympiad on the Internet. In grade 9, the former student of Ngo The Lan Secondary School (Thua Thien - Hue) also won third prize in English and a consolation prize in chemistry in the provincial excellent student competition.

"Continuously challenging myself through exams helps me remember basic knowledge for a long time, as well as creating a habit of connecting and applying that basic knowledge to solve many medium and difficult application exercises," said the male student who always achieves an average score of over 9 all year round. Vu added that he often spends his free time reading books, surfing the internet, hanging out with friends or playing games like Minecraft, Stardew Valley, Touhou, Geometry Dash.

Ngoc Vu (2nd from left) at the award ceremony for excellent students at Nguyen Chi Thanh High School in November 2023

Ms. Ha Thi Xuan Mai, Ngoc Vu's homeroom teacher for 3 years at Nguyen Chi Thanh High School, said she was very happy and proud to hear that her student was the valedictorian of her home province. "I was not too surprised because during his high school years, Vu was an excellent and comprehensive student, respected and loved by teachers and friends. He has the ability to self-study and has very good research and presentation skills. He is also obedient, gentle, polite and has a high sense of responsibility," the female teacher commented.

This achievement is even more special because Vu's family is in difficult circumstances and does not have many opportunities for education, Ms. Mai said.

Before receiving his high school graduation exam scores, Vu said he had been admitted early to the software engineering major at the University of Sciences (Hue University) through the excellent student award method. Currently, Vu is considering between the two majors of software engineering and information technology at the same school, as well as practicing his programming skills. "I hope to be able to participate in some related exams in the upcoming university years," Vu said.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/re-huong-phut-90-giup-nam-sinh-truong-lang-dat-thu-khoa-tinh-a-khoa-toan-quoc-185240717073743908.htm