Overcoming difficulties during exam season - Part 1: Overcoming adversity

Right after the Ministry of Education and Training announced the results of the 2023 High School Graduation Exam, good news came to Thanh Chuong 3 High School when the school received the results of having 2 valedictorians in the province at the same time, namely Duong Le Minh - Valedictorian of Natural Sciences with 55.50 points and Nguyen Phi Anh - Valedictorian of A with 29.15 points and in the top 4 candidates with the highest A scores in the country. Both are students of class 12 A1, Thanh Chuong 3 High School is a class with only students from village schools, with many difficult conditions...

Học sinh Nguyễn Phi Anh
Student Nguyen Phi Anh

“I registered for the Faculty of Information Technology of Hanoi National University” – in her small house in Hoa Thinh hamlet, Phong Thinh commune, Thanh Chuong district, Nguyen Phi Anh shared about her upcoming plans. In the previous exam, this was also one of the majors with the highest standard score of Hanoi National University with 29 points. To persevere with this goal, during 3 years of studying at Thanh Chuong 3 High School, Nguyen Phi Anh has constantly tried to study. With 10 points in Chemistry, 9.75 points in Math and 9.45 points in Physics, Nguyen Phi Anh was satisfied with the result that she was not healthy enough to complete the full 90 minutes of Math because in the last 20 minutes of the exam, she had a health problem and had to lie down in the medical room, unable to complete her exam.

It is known that during his years at Thanh Chuong 3 High School, Nguyen Phi Anh was also an excellent student and was among the top students of the school. He also won the Second Prize in Chemistry, the Encouragement Prize in Information Technology and had many opportunities to be admitted directly to university.

Học sinh Trường THPT Thanh Chương 3 đã có một mùa thi thành công với nhiều thành tích cao.
Students of Thanh Chuong 3 High School had a successful exam season with many high achievements.

For Duong Le Minh (grade 12 A1, Thanh Chuong 3 High School), the title of Top Student in the province for Natural Sciences has added to his achievements this school year. Previously, Minh participated in the Competency Assessment Exam of Hanoi National University and Ho Chi Minh City National University, and was in the list of less than 3% of candidates with the highest scores. During his years at school, Minh achieved the title of Excellent Student of Grade 12 at the provincial level in 2 subjects: Math and English, achieved the title of "3 Good Students" at the provincial level; won Second Prize in the Provincial National Defense and Security Education Sports Festival. Before the 2023 High School Graduation Exam, Minh also received an announcement of admission to top schools such as Foreign Trade University and National Economics University.

Sharing the reason why despite having a university entrance ticket, he still achieved high results in the High School Graduation Exam, student Duong Le Minh said: The 12th grade exam is an important exam to review 12 years of high school. Therefore, I took the exam to demonstrate my own abilities, to repay the gratitude of my teachers, family and the school where I am studying.

In mid-August, after many contacts, we finally met Moong Thi Nhan (18 years old, Khmu ethnic group in Khe Tang village, Chieu Luu commune, Ky Son district) because most of the day she has to follow her parents to the fields. Moong Thi Nhan is the Valedictorian of the Ethnic Boarding High School No. 1 in Nghe An province in the 2023 High School Graduation Exam.

Em Moong Thị Nhàn là học sinh người Khơ Mú duy nhất trên toàn tỉnh được tuyên dương trong năm học 2023.
Moong Thi Nhan is the only Khmu student in the whole province to be honored in the 2023 school year.

“Today is my birthday, so I don’t have to go to the fields,” Nhan said as she received us in her family’s rickety wooden house nestled in the middle of Khe Tang village. The life of the Khmu people here is still very difficult. Like other households, Nhan’s family is still a poor household. Her parents work hard on the fields all year round but still lack money. To be able to raise 3 children to study is a miracle.

Because of hunger and poverty, most of the children in Khe Tang village dropped out of school early, left the village to work for hire or stay home to help their parents on the farm. Many young women became victims of human trafficking to China. Many others could not resist the temptation and became drug criminals. In recent years, Khe Tang has become a hot spot for drugs in the mountainous district of Ky Son.

In that situation, Moong Thi Nhan determined to choose the path of education to escape poverty. During the 3 years of studying in Vinh City, Nhan never had her parents visit her like many other students who study far from home, but that did not bother this female student. “I have been used to being independent since I was young. When school is off, I take the opportunity to catch a bus and travel more than 200km to help my parents with the farm. I always consider it a joy after days of trying to study…”, Nhan said.

Moong Thị Nhàn quyết tâm chọn con đường học hành để thoát khỏi đói nghèo.
Moong Thi Nhan determined to choose the path of education to escape poverty.

In the recent high school graduation exam, Moong Thi Nhan scored 55.05 points in the Social Science block, ranking 11th in the province and was on the list of 20 students honored by the Provincial People's Committee. Regarding the C block score, Nhan scored 27.75 points, and the D block scored 26.3 points. Moong Thi Nhan became the valedictorian of the whole school with a total of 6 high school graduation exam subjects, and was the valedictorian of the D block and the second-place winner of the C block of the school. In addition, she is also the Khmu student with the most outstanding exam score ever. "I dream of becoming an English teacher. So my first choice is Hanoi Pedagogical University," Nhan said.

In Tan Ky district, the valedictorian of this year's exam is also a female student - Phan Thi Hoang Trang (18 years old, Tan Ky High School). With 53.60 points, Trang ranked 9th in the province in terms of total score in the Natural Science group. In the recent exam, Trang scored 9.4 points in Math, 7.75 points in Literature, 10 points in Physics, 9.5 points in Chemistry, 7.75 points in Biology and 9.2 points in English. This score is not too surprising for Tan Ky High School, because in recent years, Trang has been famous as an excellent student. Trang is also the first candidate of the school to score 10 points in a subject in the Natural Science group so far.

During her 3 years in high school, Phan Thi Hoang Trang always had the highest overall score in her grade. In the Provincial Math Competition in 12th grade, Trang won third prize. In addition, she was also honored as the "3 Good Students" of the province. Her family situation was not very good, Trang's parents worked as fruit sellers on the street, and only came home late at night. "My parents worked hard and often came home very late, so since childhood, the three of us taught each other about studying. My secret is nothing big, it is that in addition to studying in class, I have to study and explore on my own," Trang shared.

Học sinh Hoàng Trang là học sinh duy nhất của Trường THPT Tân Kỳ được tuyên dương.
Student Hoang Trang is the only student of Tan Ky High School to be honored.

The ceremony to honor students who won international and national prizes and achieved high scores in the 2023 High School Graduation Exam is an annual activity of Nghe An that has been held for many years, with the aim of honoring and spreading examples of Nghe An students who study well, overcome difficulties and replicate and further promote the emulation movement of good teaching in the whole province.

This year, in the list of 50 students honored, nearly 2/3 of the students come from village schools. Notably, this year, the top students in the Natural Science and Social Science groups are all students from disadvantaged schools far from the center. Among them, the candidate with the highest score in the Natural Science group is Duong Le Minh - Thanh Chuong 3 High School with 55.50 points. The student with the highest score in the Social Science group is Cao Duy Thong - Co Do High School with 56.65 points.