IT students win gold medals in both subjects of Math Olympiad

Võ Văn Thành - Ảnh: TRẦN HOÀI — Vo Van Thanh - Photo: TRAN HOAI

With a passion for mathematics since childhood, this second-year IT student has become the pride of Nha Trang University. Thanh is the first student of the school to achieve outstanding results in this competition.

Great passion for mathematics

The special achievements in this exam are given to the candidates who are the top scorers in a group or the candidates who win two gold medals in two subjects. And Thanh became one of the 11 people with such special achievements when he won gold medals in both analysis and algebra.

To achieve this remarkable achievement, Thanh has a great passion for math and a long process of striving. Since middle school, this student in Ninh Hung commune (Ninh Hoa town, Khanh Hoa province) has loved math, enjoyed doing it, and researched documents to solve difficult problems. Since then, math has also been his forte as for many years of study, Thanh has had good scores and achievements in this subject.

When he entered high school at Nguyen Trai High School (Ninh Hoa town), Thanh also joined the school's Olympic team, but due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was unable to participate in any competitions. Along with that, focusing on reviewing for the high school graduation exam, Thanh did not have as much time to devote to math as before.

"There was a time when I thought I was no longer passionate about solving math problems. However, after only a few months of studying to participate in the National Math Olympiad for students and pupils, the passion for math burned again in me" - Thanh shared.

Võ Văn Thành (bìa phải) nhận huy chương và bằng khen của BTC kỳ thi Olympic toán học vừa qua - Ảnh: NVCC — Vo Van Thanh (right cover) received a medal and certificate of merit from the Organizing Committee of the recent Mathematical Olympiad - Photo: NVCC

Inspiring Mathematics to Students

His family lives in the countryside, his father died early, his mother works as a factory worker and has to take care of his elderly grandparents, so it is somewhat difficult. But that is also the motivation that helps Thanh always strive and try constantly.

"I hope that my lucky achievement today will be a motivation for students in the school who share the same passion for mathematics. Hopefully from now on there will be more outstanding faces, representing the school in upcoming competitions" - Thanh said.

Master Nguyen Quang Tuan - a lecturer in the Mathematics Department of Nha Trang University, who guided Vo Van Thanh in the algebra competition - recounted that last year, when he discovered that Thanh's exercise book had quite unique ways of solving math problems compared to most of the other students, he had the idea of establishing the school's Math Olympic team. Since then, Mr. Tuan has focused on training and exchanging math experience with Thanh and the students in the school's math team.

"Our school is not strong in math competitions. In previous national Olympic competitions, we only won consolation prizes and third prizes in 2009 and 2019. Therefore, Thanh's outstanding achievement this time is a milestone, an inspiration for the next generations of students of the school to be passionate about math" - Mr. Tuan shared.

The National Mathematics Olympiad for students and pupils started in 1993, organized by the Vietnam Mathematical Society, the Ministry of Education and Training in coordination with other units.

In 2024, the exam will be held at Duy Tan University (Da Nang City) from April 8 to 13. This year's exam has 95 delegations from academies and universities participating, with 699 students registering for 809 exams.

As a result, in algebra, the organizing committee awarded 36 first prizes, 72 second prizes, 93 third prizes and 21 consolation prizes. In analysis, there were 37 first prizes, 72 second prizes, 93 third prizes and 20 consolation prizes.

Spend 4 hours solving math problems every day

During the review process from November 2023, Thanh spent about four hours a day solving math problems, looking for quick and effective ways to solve each problem. The large amount of knowledge combined with having to allocate time to study subjects at school were difficulties for Thanh in the recent exam.

According to Thanh, the secret to being good at math is to research, practice thinking and improvisation skills for each difficult problem, and especially never give up in the face of failure.

Source