The secret to getting 9.5 points in Literature of a Thai ethnic female student

After the National High School Exam, Ha Thi Van returned to her parents and two siblings in Na village, Nam Nhoong commune, Que Phong district. This was also a rare occasion for Van to return home for a long time because she had been away from home to go to boarding school since 6th grade.

This summer vacation, can also be considered the most memorable because in a place very far from the center, more than 50 kilometers away from Que Son town, the girl received the news that she got 28.5 points (total points) in the National High School Exam. In Literature alone, Van got 9.5 points - an unexpected result...

This result also made many friends admire. Because, in class 12C1, Van was not the best student in Literature, although her final grade score for Literature at the end of grade 12 was 9.0. Before that, although she had been an excellent student for 12 consecutive years, Van was not highly regarded in Literature.

My best achievement at Ethnic Minority High School 2 was second prize in Civic Education at the Provincial Excellent Student Competition in grade 11.

Ha Thi Van on her 12th grade farewell day. Photo: NVCC

Assessing her ability to learn Literature, Van also admitted that “my advantage is that I really like studying Literature and have the ability to write stories and poems”. However, this is Van’s weakness because when writing, she often gets carried away by her emotions and many of her essays fall into “clichés”, lacking basic information.

The change in Van's learning style only really began in the second semester of grade 12, after Van took mock exams in class and at school but could not get any essays that exceeded 8 points. After asking the teachers who directly trained and taught her, Van learned that the reason was "lack of focus in writing despite fluent writing" and often "drifting" with emotions.

Also after this “incident”, Van changed her way of studying and presenting. If before, Van studied by feeling and memorizing, now for each lesson, Van carefully reads the work in the textbook, carefully studies the parts the teacher teaches and then writes according to the mind map. The purpose of this form is to practice thinking.

In terms of writing, Van still uses her emotions but will be more "moderate" and each idea and paragraph must be written according to key points, with neat and fluent sentences.

After much effort, the dream of passing the university entrance exam of a Thai ethnic female student has come true. Photo: NVCC

Because she is a boarding student, Van and her friends rarely have access to the Internet or watch TV. However, if given the chance, Van will also take advantage of the Internet to equip herself with knowledge when writing social argumentative essays: When she has the Internet, she will go to websites to search for opinions and then create her own questions, solve them herself and write according to her own point of view.

Besides, Van also goes online to search and update the outstanding news of the week, of the year in Vietnam and the world. This is also the secret that helps Van not only study Literature well but also do well in History and Geography.

With this thorough preparation, Van entered the National High School Exam quite confidently with the dream of being admitted to the Tourism Management major at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities. She also shared: After taking the Literature exam, I was quite worried about the social essay section, because my point of view was different from the answer. But the "open" exam gave me the opportunity to express my own opinion.

Talking about her essay, Van said: The social essay exam required candidates to write a short paragraph thinking about the mission of awakening the country's potential. Personally, I think that the country's potential is very important but it is not the deciding factor. The most important factor is still the human factor, the human factor is the leading factor to make all successes.

Class 12 C1 - Ethnic Minority High School 2 with many candidates achieving high scores. Photo: MH

Van's Literature essay was highly appreciated by the judges for its attitude towards life and the responsibility of the young generation towards the fate of the country. However, few people know that behind the 200-word essay is the desire and wish of not only Van but also her parents, her family, and the entire village where Van lives, and was written from the reality of her hometown.

Van confided: Van's family is poor, both parents are farmers, not much education, so when faced with many problems, her parents let Van "choose for herself". However, as the eldest sister and fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go to school, before making a decision, Van always thinks about her family, her siblings, and then herself.

Van also hopes that with a fairly high exam score, after being admitted to the Tourism major, she will soon have the opportunity to work part-time to both introduce her identity and hometown, and have more money... to nurture her dream of going to university.

In the 2018 National High School Exam, grade 12 C1 - Ethnic Minority High School No. 2 had 25 students scoring 21 or higher in 3 subjects of group C, of ​​which 16 students scored 24 or higher. In addition to Ha Thi Van, studentsLo Thi Tinh also got 9.5 points in Literature.