The only female student in Nghe An to win a Gold Medal in Mathematics comes from a district school.

The female Gold Medal winner once gave up Phan school to choose a district school.

Dinh Thi Quynh Chau is the only female student of Nghe An team participating in this exam. Quynh Chau is also the only contestant not from Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted. Sharing her feelings, the 10T female student of Do Luong 1 High School said: I was quite surprised to know that the team only had one female member. However, I did not feel worried because this playground is for all high school students.

Portrait of the Gold Medalist of the 2018 Hanoi Open Math Competition. Photo: My Ha

In fact, Quynh Chau was admitted to the Math class at Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted in the 2017-2018 school year with a fairly high position, ranked 13th. However, due to family circumstances and health reasons, Chau chose a district school near her home instead of going to Vinh to study. Chau herself, although knowing that when making this decision, her chances of participating in major competitions would be narrowed, she never gave up hope and kept trying.

Her tireless efforts combined with her impressive academic achievements are also the reasons why Do Luong 1 High School and the Department of Education and Training chose Chau as a member of the Nghe An team to participate in the Hanoi Open Mathematics Competition.

And she did not disappoint everyone when she excellently won the Gold Medal, contributing to Nghe An's second place overall. This is also Nghe An's highest achievement after 5 times participating in the competition and Chau is the first student to bring the Gold Medal to Do Luong district in this competition.

Quynh Chau during the days participating in the contest in Hanoi. Photo: NVCC

In class 10T - Do Luong 1 High School, Chau is the most outstanding student even though this is a class that gathers many outstanding students of the district. Talking about Chau, teacher Dao Van Trung - Math teacher is very impressed with her because although Chau looks small, quiet and quite quiet. However, when studying Math, she becomes a different person, intelligent and has a very scientific logical way of thinking. Choosing Chau to train, teacher Trung is also very confident, even though this is the first time he takes on this responsibility.

The teacher said: The Hanoi Math Competition has expanded its criteria and contestants to be much different from regular competitions when it gathers 22 specialized schools in the northern provinces and international contestants.

Regarding the exam, in addition to the English exam, the content is also extensive, with much knowledge beyond the textbooks and included in the 11th grade curriculum. Therefore, while reviewing for the exam, we also had to improve our English, update new knowledge and get used to the international-oriented exam format.

Study and review for exams "sprint"

Coming to this competition, teachers and students of Do Luong 1 High School also had to sprint because they only had 3 months to prepare. During that short period of time, nearly a month, the two teachers and students could not contact each other because Mr. Trung also had to participate in creating questions for the Provincial Excellent Student Competition for Grade 11 and had to be "isolated" during the competition. To overcome this situation, teachers and students "creatively" came up with their own way of studying. The teacher transferred all documents and exercises for Chau to research and propose solutions to the problems. According to Mr. Trung, this teaching method helps promote the initiative and creativity of students and fortunately, "80% of the exercises that the teacher gave, Chau solved on her own".

Talking about Math, the "golden" girl said: Many people say that girls studying Math do not have the same advantage as boys. But, I especially love this subject because I feel it is as interesting as reading a good book. Moreover, girls studying Math are more careful and calm when doing exercises.

Quynh Chau (far right) with members of the Nghe An team. Photo: My Ha

Another lucky thing is that before tutoring Chau, Mr. Trung had already completed his degree in English. Therefore, not only tutoring Chau in Math, Mr. Trung also directly tutored Chau in Foreign Languages...

As for Chau, she had experience participating in this contest in 8th grade... After more than 3 months of studying for the exam, the efforts of both teachers and students were rewarded when Chau got more than 90% of the 15 questions correct. The day she found out she won the Gold Medal, her teacher was also the first person Chau called to tell her the good news.

Recalling that moment, Mr. Trung said: The girl, who usually doesn't talk much, screamed loudly on the phone. I myself was very surprised by this result.

Quynh Chau took a photo with teacher Dao Van Trung (far left) and leaders of Do Luong 1 High School. Photo: My Ha

Winning the Gold Medal, Dinh Thi Quynh Chau has partly fulfilled her dream of playing in the “big playground”. Chau’s victory also proves that the students’ abilities are limitless and have no distance. And anywhere, in any environment, if you try hard, if you have determination, success is completely possible./.