9th grade boy from village school shares secret to achieving IELTS 8.5

In this school year, Nguyen Quoc Tuan Kiet - class 9A - Dang Chanh Ky Secondary School - Nam Dan is the only 9th grade student in Nghe An province to achieveIELTS 8.5. This is also the candidate leading the list of candidates admitted directly to the English specialized class of Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted.

Special way of learning

Nguyen Quoc Tuan Kiet was born into a normal working-class family, with a mother who was a housewife and a father who was a baker in Singapore. Away from his father since childhood, when Kiet was 10 years old, his mother gave birth to his second child, so most of the time it was just the two of them at home. As a child, Kiet was active and agile. However, what impressed his neighbors the most was that he was a boy with a very good memory. Kiet was even affectionately called a "child prodigy".

Because his father worked abroad and understood the importance of foreign languages, Kiet's family decided to invest in Kiet's English studies since he was in elementary school. However, because his house was far from the city center, in the early years, Kiet studied at an English center near his home.

In 6th grade, Kiet passed the entrance exam to Dang Chanh Ky Secondary School. At this time, Kiet's English learning became more systematic when his mother decided to enroll him in an English center in Vinh city. Three times a week, traveling nearly 20km, Kiet and his mother drove to the city to study.

With an IELTS score of 8.5, Nguyen Quoc Tuan Kiet is the student with the highest entrance score to be directly admitted to the English specialized class at Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted. Photo: My Ha

Because he was taught English quite early, Kiet was quite outstanding compared to his peers. However, Kiet did not seem to realize this because he learned English completely out of love and never put pressure on this subject. In class, seeing that Kiet had talent, the teachers put Kiet in the team to train excellent students. Kiet's most outstanding achievement in 4 years of middle school was the third prize in the Provincial Excellent Student Competition in grade 9 in English.

As a student with quite a personality and not too concerned about awards, Kiet said that he was quite satisfied with his results. Meanwhile, his teachers had hoped that Kiet would have better results because at Dang Chanh Ky Secondary School - although a gifted school - few students showed good English skills like Kiet.

In the 2022-2023 school year, Kiet won third prize in English at the Provincial Excellent Student Competition. Photo: My Ha

Talking about his student, teacher Nguyen Tu Nga - English teacher - Dang Chanh Ky Secondary School recalled: Since grade 6, I saw that Kiet's language ability was different, there was a lot of knowledge that I only needed to say once and he remembered it very deeply. Kiet's learning method was also quite different, in addition to the materials provided by teachers, he searched for documents on his own to supplement his knowledge.

Foreign languages ​​also seem to be Kiet's "natural talent", although Kiet has never been considered a diligent or bookworm student. Kiet's teacher even said that sometimes when taking a 60-minute test, Kiet only needed 45 minutes to complete it. In the remaining time, Kiet would take out Chemistry questions in English to solve. Or, Kiet studied English and Chinese on his own, but he still studied well and communicated quite fluently.

No pressure for exams

Growing up in Nam Dan district, studying at the district's specialized school, Kiet never felt pressured about studying because he thought it wouldn't be too difficult for him to pass the entrance exam to the district's top public school.

This boy was also quite innocent when talking about the time he participated in the provincial excellent student exam: "When I walked out of the exam room, I saw many friends from my school crying because they couldn't do the test. I wondered why they were crying like that. It was just an exam. Why do they have to be so stressed?"

Nguyen Quoc Tuan Kiet is a very individualistic student and he learns foreign languages ​​with joy and love. Photo: My Ha

Nguyen Quoc Tuan Kiet said that when he took the IELTS exam, he never thought that a foreign language certificate would be a "ticket" for him to enter a specialized school.

The person who encouraged and motivated Kiet to take the exam was his father, who works in Singapore: Every year, he usually comes home twice. The rest of the time, they mainly communicate over the phone. Although he is not really fluent in English, he still uses his limited English to practice speaking skills for Kiet. He also encouraged him to take the English certificate exam to test himself.

With a good foundation in English, Kiet said it took him 8 months to prepare for the IELTS exam. During that time, in addition to reinforcing grammar at school, Kiet focused his time on practicing listening, speaking and communication skills with foreign teachers.

Previously, to enrich his English vocabulary, Kiet had a learning method not too different from today's students, which was to watch foreign clips and search online. At one point, to hone his skills, Kiet also turned to games with the aim of making friends from many countries around the world to practice speaking like native speakers, learn idioms that foreigners often use and practice speaking naturally.

Learning English early and the ability to self-study and research helped Kiet master knowledge and communicate fluently. Photo: My Ha

During the review period to get the certificate, Kiet said that "you don't need to study much but you have to seriously follow the given curriculum and do all the exercises that the teachers give in class".

What Kiet worries most about during the exam preparation process is the essays because Kiet thinks that many of the issues raised are quite abstract and macro compared to a 9th grader, such as topics about the environment, politics, and social issues. Therefore, to overcome this limitation, according to Kiet, it is best for students to have a rich vocabulary and learn more about natural sciences and social sciences. The most abundant source of documents that Kiet often visits to learn is Wikipedia - an encyclopedia where he can find a lot of meaningful documents.

To get a high score in the IELTS exam, Kiet shared a very special secret, which is "don't put pressure on yourself and don't consider this an exam. Instead, consider this as a lesson with a foreign teacher". In fact, Kiet also went through a fairly easy IELTS exam and in each part of the exam, he relaxed himself so that he could communicate comfortably with the examiners. The most difficult part of the exam, according to Kiet, was the writing part and Kiet spent about 30 minutes stuck because he had difficulty expressing himself and finding ideas for his writing. After a moment of anxiety, Kiet regained his composure and was able to confidently complete his exam.

With the final result of 8.5, Kiet had an especially excellent test when in Reading skill, he achieved a perfect score of 9.0, Speaking and Listening skills Kiet achieved 8.5. In Writing skill alone, despite having problems, Kiet still achieved 7.5.

With his achievements, Kiet became the only 9th grader in the whole province to achieve IELTS 8.5 and topped the list of direct admission to the English specialized class of Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted. This is also considered a miracle in district schools and a good sign for teaching and learning English in schools following the integration and international trend./.