Phan school student's efforts to win the International Math Olympiad

(Baonghean) - After 18 years of waiting, Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted has had a student win a high prize at the International Math Olympiad. The owner of the Silver Medal in Math this time is Hoang Anh Tai, a student of class 12A1…

Hoang Anh Tai (2nd from left).

Receiving the news of her son calling from Chiang Mai (Thailand) at 11:30 pm on July 14, Ms. Tran Thi Cau (Yen Hoa hamlet, Yen Son commune, Do Luong district) could not sleep, both happy and sad. She was happy because her son had passed the exam, had fulfilled his dream of bringing glory to the family and the country. But she was also sad because she wished that in this happy moment, Tai's father was still alive to be able to share the joy with her and her family.

Tai grew up to be who he is today, greatly influenced by his father - who until the last moment still wanted to give all the best things to his wife, children, and family. Talking about this, Ms. Cau emotionally said: The day Tai's father found out he had a serious illness was right at the time Tai was focusing on the Math team of Ly Nhat Quang Secondary School and his sister was in the final stage of preparing for the university entrance exam; the couple kept it a secret so that their children could study with peace of mind. The father tried to endure the pain, still working as a normal worker every day, saving the money for treatment, he kept it for his children to study. When Tai passed the entrance exam to grade 10 at Phan Boi Chau School, he had not studied for 2 months when his father passed away... Before leaving, the father's biggest wish was for his son to study successfully, be good, be a useful person so that he could later be a support for his mother and sister.

Tai had a talent for math since he was young. At the age of 4 or 5, he learned the multiplication table by himself. Seeing that his son was quite intelligent and had good thinking skills, but also being a teacher, Ms. Cau never put pressure on him. Teacher Trinh Thi Tuyet, Tai's homeroom teacher and math teacher for 4 years at Ly Nhat Quang Secondary School, recalled that: When she first entered middle school, when she entrusted her son to the homeroom teacher, Tai's mother only said: Let him learn as much as he can... With this same thought, Tai studied with a very comfortable mentality.

Besides finishing all the homework, Tai's biggest weekly passion is to follow the Youth Math newspaper, then figure out and solve the problems himself, and almost every issue Tai receives a reward. Being selected for the school's Math team, Tai is even more satisfied with his passion for Math and he can "forget to eat and sleep" because of this subject. Teacher Trinh Thi Tuyet still hasn't forgotten that during the time the team is focusing on the team, all 8 members of the Math team eat and live in the family. Occasionally, to relieve the pressure on the students, she gives tricky Math problems to "challenge" the students. Every time he receives a Math problem, Tai thinks a lot, sometimes while eating, thinking of an answer, he skips a meal, to solve it.

Later, when he learned that his father was sick, Tai was even more determined to study, hoping that "his father would get better because he saw his son doing well on the exam." And finally, in the provincial 9th ​​grade excellent student exam that year, Tai won the absolute top score of 20/20 and was one of the students with the best results when taking the entrance exam to the specialized Math class at Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted.

Being admitted to Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted, being taught directly by teacher Dau Hoang Hung, Tai's passion for Mathematics was "fueled" and "sublimated". A valuable thing about Tai is that he is very conscious of self-study, self-research, and highly focused. Tai's standard and calm personality also greatly influences his way of studying, doing homework carefully, meticulously, and thoroughly. It must also be said that Mathematics used to be Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted. However, since the Silver Medal of student Ho Ngoc Ky at the Asian Mathematical Olympiad in the 1998-1999 school year, the school has not had any more regional or international medals in Mathematics.

The “thirst” for medals has also become the motivation for teachers and students in the Math team, and not only the students, but also the teachers have to innovate and research themselves to gradually approach the international arena. On the school side, we always create conditions for Tai and the team members so that they can study and develop their talents to the maximum. The first achievement is that in 2 consecutive years of grades 11 and 12, Hoang Anh Tai won second prize in the National Math competition and both times he entered the second round to be selected for the Vietnam team to participate in the International Math Olympiad. And in 2015, for the first time in 18 years, during the trip to participate in the International Math Olympiad in Thailand, along with more than 400 members from 106 other countries, Tai excellently brought home a Silver Medal for the Vietnam team.

Song Hoang