Father and son three candidates for the 2016 National Exam

The father and youngest son will apply for medical school. The eldest son wants to study food technology at Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry.

Mr. Tho and his son Ba Chuong (small photo) expressed their determination to achieve high results in the upcoming high school exam. Photo: P.DIEN

Mr. Van Ba ​​Tho (born in 1965, in Quang Nam) and his two sons, Van Ba ​​Chuong, 22 years old, a high school graduate, and Van Thien Tuong, 19 years old, a student at the Continuing Education Center of Hoc Mon district, Ho Chi Minh City, registered for the 2016 national high school exam.

Admire my father's will to never stop learning.

We met and recorded the rare story of three contestants and their two-generation family in Xuan Thoi Son commune, Hoc Mon district, Ho Chi Minh City. On the morning of May 11, the reporter called to make an appointment. Ba Chuong told him to go to Hoc Mon, a place near his house, to chat because he was busy working at a garment factory in Cu Chi. When he arrived, Chuong said he would call his father to join the conversation for fun. About 10 minutes later, Mr. Tho showed up.

After a few moments of hesitation, Mr. Tho confided that he had liked natural sciences since childhood, but because of his family's difficult circumstances, he had to temporarily put his studies on hold. Now that the opportunities are more favorable, his children are grown up, and there is not as much pressure as before, he decided to take the exam, determined to study traditional medicine to prescribe medicine and perform acupuncture to save people.

According to Mr. Tho, he had previously studied traditional medicine for two years, but because of family worries, he stopped studying halfway with many regrets. Now he wants to complete his unfinished studies. The three father and sons' applications this time all have different purposes, each with a clear direction. As for him, despite his age, he is still determined to pursue the profession he has been passionate about since childhood.

"I go to school to be useful not only to society but also to my family, not to study just to know, because that is both a waste of effort and money" - Mr. Tho explained.

Curiously asked why the three of them took the B exam with math, chemistry, and biology, Ba Chuong excitedly said: “My father has been good at natural sciences since he was young, every day he tutors these subjects. In the remaining time, he updates the online exam sets (hocmai.vn) and then teaches the solutions to the two of us. Also because of his will to study, the two of us were determined to pursue our career aspirations since we were young.”

Earn a living and study at the same time

Chuong said that last year he got 19.5 points to apply for the food industry, but the standard score for this major was more than 20 points, so he failed. This time he was still determined to take the exam because of his interest. Chuong said: "During the day he works, at night he comes home after dinner and is so tired that he falls asleep for a while, then the three of us focus on studying for the upcoming exam."

Listening to his children talk about studying, Mr. Tho said that his two sons are quite studious, and the youngest son, after school, sells goods online to earn money to pay for his studies. He said that the exam questions now are different from before, because the multiple choice format is popular, not riddles like in the past. Therefore, if you have a good review orientation and study hard, you will get high exam results. "With exam questions like in recent years, my academic ability can get three subjects with more than 25 points" - Mr. Tho confidently said.

He said that if he tutored full-time, he would normally have earned a decent income, but now that he is in the final exam preparation period, he teaches less and mainly just maintains his relationships.

“Teaching outsiders is easier and teaches patience. If a student makes a mistake, I correct him to do it right. But teaching a child is difficult. If a child makes a mistake, I get angry and scold him, making him feel pressured and unable to study. He forgets what he learns. Therefore, when father and son study together, we need to balance things. If the child doesn’t understand something, we have the knowledge and experience to guide him on how to do different types of tests,” Mr. Tho shared.

The brothers Chuong and Tuong revealed: “Because each person has a different learning ability, when registering for online exam preparation materials, my father advised my two younger siblings to register for the 5-7 point package, the average level. As for me, I registered for the 8-10 point package, because this is an advanced package that requires in-depth knowledge to solve all the difficult problems.”

When asked what would happen if all three of us were admitted to universities this time, Mr. Tho said sadly: “If we were admitted, the whole family would be very happy but also worried because the tuition fees would be very high, while our family situation is not very good. Putting aside all worries, the three of us encouraged each other to study hard first, and when we go to school, we would try to find jobs to cover the tuition fees. My wife knew that all three of us were taking the exam, so although she was worried, she encouraged us to study hard to do well on the exam.”

According to Ho Chi Minh City Law