Having lost his English roots, a Hanoi male student achieved an SAT score in the top 2% of the world

"Getting a score of 1520/1600 on the first try was beyond my imagination. Compared to other students, I basically did not have a good English foundation and had to allocate time for studying at school. It took me nearly half a year to study," Huy Tuan said.

From July 2023, Huy Tuan began his journey to conquer the SAT exam. Taking the SAT exam is a special experience, helping him know his actual ability. With the above score, Huy Tuan is in the top 2% of candidates with the highest SAT scores in the world.

Nguyen Huy Tuan achieved an SAT score in the top 2% of the world on his first attempt.

The SAT consists of two parts, Reading and Math, with increasing difficulty. Compared to previous years, this year's SAT has changed in structure. This makes it more difficult for male students to find documents and takes a lot of time to get used to the new format.

"In general, the old test structure in the Reading section was divided into two parts, including reading and writing separately. In the new structure, the Reading section will be combined into one part, called the Module. At the same time, in the old test, candidates will take the test on paper, but this time the test will be taken on a laptop or tablet. Candidates must be proficient in technology," Huy Tuan said.

In the Reading section, difficult questions often appear in the Inference section. Therefore, candidates need to concentrate when doing the test, read the questions carefully to see what the logical connection is between them and the content that needs to be filled in must be within the scope of the test.

For the Math section, most of the questions are based on basic knowledge. As long as you have a firm grasp of this knowledge and can apply the formulas, you can do well. Candidates also need to know some common words in Math. They should not skim through them because it is easy to misidentify the structure and meaning.

"With the Math section, I didn't encounter too many difficulties, most of the knowledge was closely related to the previous review materials. But in this section, most of the students were a bit subjective when doing the test, leading to many unnecessary mistakes," Huy Tuan said.

Huy Tuan added that a mistake many candidates make when taking the SAT is applying the IELTS reading method of skimming and scanning to the SAT. However, this method may be suitable for the old test structure but is not effective for the new test structure.

"With the old exam structure, candidates could use the skimming method, which means reading quickly to find the main content. But with the new exam structure, when the questions are mainly for short paragraphs, this method is no longer effective, and it is easy to misidentify the structure of the lesson," said the male student.

Currently, Huy Tuan has no plans to apply for studying abroad. In addition to focusing on studying in class, the male student will try to participate in many extracurricular activities, clubs,... to improve his missing skills, and prepare the best before entering the university environment.

Snow Anh

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