Thai male student from Nghe An owns many 'huge' achievements

This Thai ethnic student has also brought a “new mindset” and “new motivation” to the school’s students with the desire to reach out to the world…

"Stranger" at the ethnic boarding school

English has always been one of the limitations of ethnic minority students. Even at the provincial Ethnic Boarding School, although this is the place where the best students from the mountainous districts gather, the English entrance score is still quite modest. The number of students with excellent scores can be counted on the fingers.

3 years ago, among the students admitted to the Ethnic Minority Boarding High School No. 2, Nguyen Quoc Cuong - a Thai student from Chau Kim commune, Que Phong district was different. Because, Cuong was probably the rare student, even the only one admitted to the school with a foreign language score of 9.4 points. That year, this male student was also the valedictorian of Que Phong district in the entrance exam to grade 10.

Nguyen Quoc Cuong is a Thai student, currently studying in class 12A1 at Ethnic Minority Boarding High School No. 2. Photo: My Ha

Nguyen Quoc Cuong got acquainted with English quite early, although nearly 10 years ago English was still a luxury subject for students in the mountainous district. Talking about this, Cuong said that since grade 3, his school had English and only had 1-2 lessons per week. But by the middle of grade 4, this subject had to be temporarily suspended because "the school did not have the funds to hire a foreign language teacher".

Cuong's dream of learning English would have been interrupted for many years if at the end of 4th grade, Cuong's father had not bought a TV and a dish to catch foreign channels. And like all children at that age, Cuong's favorite thing was watching cartoons on Cartoon Network.

The foreign language teacher was the one who accompanied Cuong during his time studying at Ethnic Minority Boarding High School No. 2. Photo: NVCC

In the early days, the boy mainly just looked at the pictures and guessed the content. After a while, Cuong started to memorize each line and practice memorizing new words. When he encountered a word he didn't understand, Cuong partly guessed and partly looked it up in the dictionary to explain it himself. In addition, Cuong also really liked English channels with subtitles. With this rather "rudimentary" way of learning, in grade 6, when English was taught systematically at school, Cuong could listen quite fluently and began to know basic communication. The boy was also quite diligent, so he studied by himself and soon plowed through the Basic Grammar book. In addition, thanks to the guidance and mentorship of his teachers, Cuong made rapid progress.

In grades 6, 7, 8, and 9, Cuong continuously took part in the excellent student competition at school and achieved first and second place. In grade 9, he won second prize in the district and was on the list of excellent students in the province. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this school year he and many other students of the same age had to "miss" the provincial excellent student competition.

Cuong and his friend during a volunteer trip in Que Phong district. Photo: NVCC

Days without Internet, without phone

One of the rules inEthnic Minority Boarding High School No. 2That is, students are not allowed to use cell phones or computers. Every time they want to contact their families, Cuong and his friends can use the landline phone in the dormitory. As for computers, the rare time they are allowed to use them is during IT classes in class.

That's the rule, but since grade 10, as soon as he entered school, Cuong set a goal of being in the provincial excellent student team and soon having an IELTS certificate to easily get into university.

Nguyen Quoc Cuong and his homeroom teacher when participating in the "Road to Olympia" contest. Photo: NVCC

However, with the circumstances of a boarding student, practicing the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing is quite difficult, because I do not have many opportunities to learn through modern platforms.

In difficult circumstances, Cuong also came up with his own "roadmap", quite methodical and scientific. Talking about this, Cuong recalled: When I first intended to take the IELTS test, I bought a basic IELTS book to classify the types of questions, focusing on listening and reading to have a reasonable test-taking strategy. After that, I did the test, practiced getting used to multiple choice questions, fill-in-the-blank questions, and fill-in-a-word questions.

To practice listening exercises in examsIELTS, Cuong takes advantage of the times he goes back to his hometown or takes advantage of the times he studies IT at school. At that time, he will go online and download good lessons shared by students to his music player. Every day, dividing his study time, Cuong will study by himself, do his own reading and practice his skills.

Nguyen Quoc Cuong (standing) is an outstanding student at Ethnic Minority Boarding High School No. 2. Photo: My Ha

To complete the writings, I also researched experiences online. Then, Cuong wrote them himself in class and asked a senior who was studying for IELTS to review them for him. When he didn't understand, he would ask his English teacher at school.

In grade 11, thanks to being selected to the school's excellent student team, Cuong's computer usage time was extended to some afternoons. This was a valuable time, Cuong took advantage of it to practice the test questions online. Also during this time, the school invited some foreign teachers to teach additional foreign languages ​​to the school's students. Thanks to that, every week Cuong had 1 class with a foreign teacher to practice listening and speaking skills and was corrected by the teacher with simple communication skills. 1 month before the official exam, he connected with a Vietnamese teacher to supplement some skills for the IELTS exam.

Student Nguyen Quoc Cuong shares his experience in IELTS and SAT preparation. Photo: My Ha

With this rather scientific roadmap, in the second semester of grade 11, Cuong boldly registered for the IELTS exam. However, in the first test, he achieved a score of 7.5. Of which, his listening and reading scores were 9.0. Talking more about this, Cuong said: I am not really satisfied because I think I can do better in speaking and writing. However, in my situation, I do not have much time to practice, nor do I have many opportunities to fully practice all 4 skills. The IELTS exam is just the first challenge and I think I have many other opportunities to prove my ability.

Receive 80% scholarship to VinUniversity

In early April, the high school graduation mock exam for students of Ethnic Minority Boarding High School No. 2 with Vinh University High School for the Gifted has just been completed. As expected, among the subjects registered for the exam, Cuong held the top position in 3 groups, which are Natural Science group, D group and A1 group.

Not only that, in mid-March, Cuong also made a special achievement when after only 3 months of studying for the SAT, Cuong achieved 1,520 points/1,600 points, in which, Cuong achieved a perfect score of 800/800 points in Math. With this result, Cuong is in the top 6% of candidates with the highest scores in Vietnam out of 5,852 candidates taking the exam and is in the top 1% of candidates with the highest scores in the world out of 5.5 million candidates taking the exam this time.

Why did he choose to take the SAT, an exam that few students at the Ethnic Boarding School aspire to? Cuong's simple answer is that he wants to receive a scholarship to study abroad, instead of just enrolling in a domestic university. In reality, with IELTS 7.5, third prize in the provincial excellent student exam in English, second prize in the provincial excellent student exam in Information Technology for grade 12, Cuong has many opportunities to choose to be directly admitted to the top universities in the country.

Nguyen Quoc Cuong is the first student from Ethnic Minority Boarding High School No. 2 to receive a scholarship to study abroad from VinUniversity. Photo: NVCC

Cuong's SAT test without a phone or regular Internet access initially encountered many difficulties because he admitted that "self-studying was not effective at first."

Talking about the reason, Cuong said: Students take the SAT, which consists of 3 parts: Reading, Math and Language. The amount of knowledge is not too difficult because we have learned the knowledge thoroughly at school. But with Math, the SAT test often puzzles, or gives tricks. If you do not read the questions carefully and do not have the ability to think, you can easily be fooled. With Language, although I have an advantage in English, the questions use punctuation marks such as question marks, dashes, colons, etc. quite a lot. Therefore, I think if I can learn systematically, with the support of a teacher, it will be more effective than self-study.

For the above reasons, before the exam, Cuong registered for a 3-month online course in the afternoons at school. In the evenings when there is no internet, he will study by himself in the dormitory. Besides the difficulties, for boarding students like Cuong, not being too dependent on the Internet helps him and his friends have time to review carefully, concentrate and can devote all their time to studying.

There is something quite special, that is, during the time studying for the SAT, Cuong also registered to participate in many other competitions, that is, with the school to try his hand at the Central and Central Highlands Informatics Olympiad. This time, Cuong brought home a Silver Medal for the school.

The Board of Directors of Ethnic Minority Boarding High School No. 2 awarded Nguyen Quoc Cuong and other students who achieved high scores in the High School Graduation Mock Exam. Photo: My Ha

At the same time, Cuong also participated in the TOEFLITP CHALLENGE 2022-2023 exam and won first prize in the province. In mid-April, Cuong will be the only high school student in the province to participate in the national final round held in Hanoi. Before that, in 2022, Cuong also represented the school in the "Road to Olympia" competition.

With his achievements and efforts, in early April, Cuong received good news when he was the first student of the school to receive an 80% scholarship to VinUniversity for a Bachelor of Computer Science.

This has also been Cuong’s long-standing dream, because he chose this major for the sole reason of wanting to use his “resources”, his knowledge of computers and the Internet to spread, to help people, to improve the community. Just like me, thanks to going to school, being guided by teachers, having access to the Internet, I learned about many new horizons, gained knowledge and dared to dream, dared to hope…

In the last days of grade 12, the "hot boy" of Ethnic Minority Boarding High School No. 2 is also determined to have his name on the list of students honored by the province in the High School Graduation Exam for the 2022-2023 school year.

In a school with a rich tradition, teachers always believe in Cuong. And Cuong, more than ever, has enough willpower and determination to believe in himself!