The secret to winning the National English First Prize of 2 Nghe An students

The winners were two students Thai Thien Loc and Nguyen Minh Quynh, both in class 12C5 - Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted.

First Prize in English with the dream of becoming a teacher

Thai Thien Loc took the initiative to participate in the National English Competition for the second time, even though a year before, Loc had won third prize and had a pretty good path to university. Explaining this, Loc shared: In grade 11, after hearing the news that I won third prize, my parents were very happy and thought that it was the best result, no need to challenge again. But I was not satisfied, I thought if I had the opportunity, why wouldn't I continue to try.

Thai Thien Loc is a male student who has won two consecutive prizes at the National Excellent Student Competition. In 2023, Loc was one of the 10 best students of the competition and was awarded First Prize. Photo: My Ha

Thai Thien Loc is an English major student but he is quite quiet and not a “talkative” person. However, in the eyes of his friends, Loc is only shy when communicating in Vietnamese. On the contrary, when speaking English, Loc can speak for many hours and considers it his daily language.

In class 12C5 and especially in Loc’s English Team, speaking and using English in daily life is also considered a way to learn and practice with each other. In addition, to improve the remaining skills, Loc and his friends often watch YouTube, read books and newspapers, listen to news from foreign media channels…

In addition to being diligent and hard-working, Loc learns English with the mindset of a male student who is good at Math. Photo: My Ha

Previously, Loc also shared that listening and watching clips are done by many students learning English. However, if listening and watching without a method, it is easy to be drawn into useless clips or get lost in social networks. Loc himself, before joining the national team, also applied this learning method but it was not effective because he watched and listened a lot but his vocabulary and expression ability did not improve much.

Later, with the guidance of his teacher, Loc began to search for information more selectively, that is, to go to official news sites, watch many news reports to enrich his vocabulary. Through the information that Loc collected, Loc also equipped himself with a fairly solid "knowledge" foundation to get materials and experience to prepare for essays.

Talking about Loc, teacher Nguyen Hoang Lan - the homeroom teacher and also the person who directly trained Loc for 3 years at school always has special trust in Loc, because Loc is a hard-working, persistent and very intelligent student. This male student is also quite different from many other students, that is, he does not like to use social networks. Instead, he only uses his phone to search for information and serve his studies at school.

To achieve the first prize in the national English competition, Loc had to go a long way because his starting point was not high compared to many of his classmates. Loc did not study at a specialized school since he was young, and his entrance score was not among the top...

Thai Thien Loc, Nguyen Minh Quynh and homeroom teacher and team coach Nguyen Hoang Lan. Photo: My Ha

However, later on, in addition to his intelligence, Loc succeeded in English because he had the “mindset” of a male student who had done very well in Math. Perhaps because of this, in the process of learning English, Loc laid out a fairly clear roadmap, knowing his weaknesses and strengths to gradually overcome them.

During the review process, the most difficult time, according to Loc, was when "I felt like I was studying a lot of English, studying almost to the final limit but my score did not improve, I could not renew myself". Loc also shared that this was a common pressure for students participating in the national team, when two years of review were two years they lived entirely with English. During that time, Loc did not have much time to participate in class activities, rarely met friends and had to make many trade-offs and losses. The pressure seemed to increase for those taking the exam for the second time, because no one wanted to fail or have worse results than the previous exams.

With a special love for the subjectEnglishLoc shared that after graduating from grade 12, he will study pedagogy to "instill passion and spread English to many people".

The English team of class 12C5 has 6 members and all 6 won prizes at the National Excellent Student Competition with 2 first prizes, 1 second prize, 2 third prizes and 1 encouragement prize.

It seems that there was a fate when in the speaking test of this year's Exam, Loc caught a topic related to education, which was "Should we teach children to be competitive or cooperative?" With the thought that it was necessary to make a strong impression on the examiner right from the start, Loc opened with Nelson Mandella's quote "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world" and then conveyed a lot of his emotions and passion in this speech.

It was also an opportunity for Loc to express his thoughts on the role of education, on teachers and he believes that, if he were a teacher, he would try his best to be a good teacher, responsible, dedicated to his students...

Relying on talent alone will not succeed.

Unlike Loc, Nguyen Minh Quynh had a pretty good start when 3 years ago, she was admitted to Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted with 2 wishes at the same time, which were top 5 in the English class and admitted to the IELTS class with an IELTS score of 8.0. Before that, during her junior high school years at Dang Thai Mai Secondary School, Nguyen Minh Quynh was also a first prize winner in the City's English Competition, and valedictorian of the second round.

Nguyen Minh Quynh had a long history of achievements before passing the entrance exam to Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted. Photo: NVCC

The fact that Minh Quynh, a 9th grade student, had an IELTS certificate of 8.0 3 years ago was also a "rare" phenomenon. But why, instead of choosing direct admission, Quynh still chose the entrance exam because from the beginning, Quynh's goal was to be in the English specialized class to have the opportunity to participate in the National Excellent Student Exam. That was also the goal that Quynh had pursued throughout 3 years of high school and Quynh never felt tired or pressured because of making this decision.

With outstanding ability, since grade 11, Quynh had the opportunity to become an official member of the team. However, contrary to expectations, in her first participation, Quynh received results that were not as expected because she only won the Encouragement prize. Recalling this failure, Quynh said that "I cried continuously for many days because I doubted my ability". But because she had not achieved her goal, Quynh was determined to participate a second time with the desire to change her ranking, at least to a prize with a number.

Quynh has participated in many speaking contests and won high prizes. Photo: NVCC

To realize this dream, Quynh had more than 1 year to prepare. In that long journey, Quynh set herself two quite clear tasks, which were to improve her listening score and overcome her vocabulary. Talking about her studies and the process of joining the team, Quynh also admitted that she had many differences. Because Quynh spoke English very well, was a member who had participated in many speaking competitions, but her listening ability was poor. Or like in the writing test, although she had a good grasp of grammar, her score was often not high because Quynh was weak in vocabulary...

In the process of “renewing” herself, Quynh said that she had to know “the purpose of learning English and from there have a suitable review plan. Learning English should not be thought of simply as studying for exams but must see the true value of English, consider English as a part of daily life”.

Talking about Quynh, teacher Nguyen Hoang Lan also said: Quynh is a capable, ambitious and determined student. Therefore, even though she has failed, Quynh has never been tired and persevered with her set goals"...

Nguyen Minh Quynh (center) and members of class 12C5 won first prize at the English Speaking Contest organized by the US Embassy. Photo: NVCC

Choosing English and not afraid of challenges, before the day of the National Excellent Student Competition, Quynh and 2 other members of the class participated in the national English speaking contest "Speak to Lead" organized by the US Embassy in Hanoi and Hanoi University and excellently won first prize. The success of this contest also motivated Minh Quynh to enter the National Excellent Student Competition, especially in the speaking - essay section with a topic that seemed easy but was a challenge for all the candidates "using social networks in school". Thanks to this successful test, Quynh improved her speaking score from 1.8 points to 1.85 points compared to the previous exam and almost reached the absolute level. Her listening score after a period of effort also made a great step forward from 2.8 to 4.2 points.

Portrait of two students who won first prize in English at the 2023 National Excellent Student Competition. Photo: My Ha

Maybe for everyone, raising 0.5 - 1 point is too normal, but for me, it was a process of effort and a lot of sacrifices. Personally, when I received the First Prize, I think it was not luck at all but my own efforts. During 12 years of high school, all my passion seemed to be devoted to English and I put a lot of love, determination and expectations into it.

If you only have talent but no effort, you cannot go far"…

Class time of students in class 12C5 - Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted. In addition to 6 prizes at the National Excellent Student Competition, class 12C5 currently has 22 students with IELTS certificates of 8.0 or higher, including two students with IELTS certificates of 8.5. In addition, the class has 3 students with SAT certificates with scores of 1,530 or higher, including one student with a score of 1,540 - a score considered to be in the top 1% highest in the world. (The SAT test is administered by the College Board and developed by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). The maximum score of the SAT is 1,600).

With this sweet fruit, Minh Quynh has also added more achievements to her application for studying abroad. This female student also believes that, from the foundation she has learned at school; the experiences, difficulties, and challenges will help her to further hone and perfect herself in the future...