Poinsettia flowers in the mountains and forests of Nghe An

Average students still have the opportunity to excel.

Up to this point, teacher Le Thi Vinh - homeroom teacher of class 12C2, Ethnic Minority Boarding High School No. 2 still clearly remembers the entrance scores of each student when they were first admitted to grade 10. In that list, Lo Thi Hoang Kim - 1 of 2 female ethnic minority students commended by the Provincial People's Committee this time has a rather modest position when the total score of 3 subjects is only 17.25 points. Despite starting from a low score, by the end of grade 12, Kim had a breakthrough when she achieved 28.75 points for block C, in which, the score for Literature and Geography is 9.5 points and the score for History is 9.75 points...

Kim's house in Cua village, Chau Dinh commune, districtQuy Hopand for many years has been a near-poor family because of the purely agricultural economy. Meanwhile, the family has 3 children, the two grandparents are old and Kim's mother is weak and sick. The main labor in the house is mainly taken care of by Kim's father. Despite the difficult and arduous circumstances, since she was very young, Kim knew that the biggest wish of Kim's parents is for their children to study well. This is also the reason why, although Kim's secondary education was quite normal and she only studied at one school in the commune, she still boldly registered for the entrance exam to the Ethnic Minority Boarding High School No. 2.

Lo Thi Hoang Kim is the female student with the highest C block exam score at Ethnic Minority Boarding High School No. 2. Photo: PV

When I first entered school, although it was social science, Literature was Kim's weakest subject. For this reason, my first tests had quite low scores and there were many Literature tests that the teacher commented "I don't know how to do the test and I need to have a literature notebook to write down the types of questions"... Later, remembering her teacher's advice, Kim read a lot of books and often went to the library to refer to sample essays. In there, I wrote down any good sentences and learned from them for myself.

Another advantage of Kim during her school years is that she has time all day to be tutored by her teachers. Therefore, in addition to her regular study time in the morning, Kim practices on her own in the afternoon and every time she completes an assignment, she asks her teacher to check and give her feedback. Kim's efforts were finally recognized when at the school's excellent student selection exam in grade 10, Kim "broke through" and won first prize.

That was also the turning point for Kim to become more and more confident in herself and find passion and joy in studying. In the following years, Kim was always in the top of the class and atnational high school examIn 2021, Kim became the female student with the highest score in the C block exam in the school. Talking more about this exam, Kim said: "I am quite regretful about the History subject because I made a mistake on a question that I spent a lot of time thinking about and was confident in my answer. However, maybe I did not fully grasp the question, so the mistake was quite regrettable."

Lo Thi Hoang Kim will register to study Korean Studies at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities. Photo: PV

To get near-perfect scores in exams, Kim's experience is to study scientifically and not study too much, have a reasonable schedule to avoid creating pressure for students. During the exam preparation process, you should not memorize or study mechanically, but need to summarize the issues according to your understanding and draw mind maps, remember the arguments...

With a fairly high score, Kim is now confident in enrolling in Korean Studies - one of the majors with the highest benchmark score of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (the benchmark score last school year was 30.5). Kim also said that getting into university for a student with a family situation like hers will be very difficult, but she still tries to do it, because she always has her family behind her to encourage and motivate her. Kim herself also told herself that in the future, she will be more mature, study hard, work hard to have good academic results, support her parents and realize her dream of becoming a university student.

Never give up on your dreams

In the list of ethnic minority students honored in the 2021-2022 school year, Hoang Thien Nhat is the only student from Quy Chau High School and he is one of the 6 candidates with the highest A1 exam score in the province. In particular, Nhat's score in Math is 9.2 points, Physics is 8.25 points and Foreign Language is 9.8 points. Although this score is high, it does not affect Nhat's decision to choose a school much, because before taking the 2021 high school graduation exam, Nhat was directly admitted to the Faculty of Foreign Economics - Foreign Trade University, Hanoi.

Hoang Thien Nhat is the ethnic minority student with the highest D block score in the province. Photo: PV

At High SchoolQuy Chau, Hoang Thien Nhat is a male student known by many friends because in addition to having good academic achievements, Nhat is also a talented student with many gifts and actively participates in school and class activities. Nhat personally admits that he is an extrovert, so since his junior high school years, Nhat has dreamed of passing the entrance exam to the Foreign Trade University to be able to develop his strengths. This is also the reason why, although he grew up and studied primary school in Chau Binh commune, quite far from the district center, Nhat soon became familiar with English and was passionate about this subject. This passion was fueled when he went to junior high school, Nhat moved to town to study and was encouraged by his foreign language teacher and inspired when approaching the subject.

The biggest difficulty for Nhat during his high school years was that because he lived in a mountainous district, there were not many opportunities to learn English. Moreover, he did not have many opportunities to communicate with friends, not to mention native speakers...

To make up for the above limitations, Nhat is a determined student and always knows how to set goals for himself. Accompanying Nhat are his parents, who are junior high school teachers in Chau Binh commune. Nhat said: "When I entered grade 10 and decided to take the A1 block, many people wondered because this is a rather strange block. But my parents always supported and respected my decision."

Nhat's English learning process was also quite difficult and mostly self-study. Every day, Nhat set a schedule for himself and he always tried to complete all the goals from learning new words, writing more sentence structures, pronunciation and listening skills online. Nhat also told himself to join the provincial excellent student team and by grade 12, Nhat excelled when he won second prize in Foreign Language.

Because he is a teacher, Nhat's parents do not put pressure on him. However, Nhat puts pressure on himself and always tries to achieve the set plan. For example, in the high school graduation exam, Nhat does not have to focus on the score but he still tries to get the highest result "so as not to disappoint the wishes of relatives and family to have a child honored at the provincial commendation ceremony". Moreover, Nhat also wants everyone to understand that, although students in mountainous areas may have disadvantages because they do not study in favorable conditions, if they are determined and know how to develop their own abilities, they will still succeed.

Although he was admitted directly to Foreign Trade University, Nhat still tried hard to get high scores in the 2021 High School Graduation Exam. Photo: PV

With the above thoughts, Nhat is also very excited to have officially become a student of Foreign Trade University and in the first days of getting used to the rhythm of university life. In this new environment, Nhat also knows that compared to his friends, he still has many limitations, but believes that, with determination and confidence, Nhat will soon adapt and will be a good student to not disappoint the trust of his parents, teachers and friends.