Finalist of 'Road to Olympia': Proud to be a student of Nghe An

PV: Hello Duy Anh, on November 14th the final round of the contest “Road to Olympia” will officially begin. Perhaps, the past few days have been very special to Duy Anh?

Nguyen Dinh Duy Anh:Actually, my life has not changed much in the past 2 months. Because right after the end of the 4th quarter qualifying round, I locked my entire personal Facebook page because I wanted to spend all my time preparing for the final match. Moreover, I also realized that, compared to the winners in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd quarters, my time is more limited and I need to prepare more carefully.

Of course, locking your personal Facebook page at this time is not easy because we are studying online and we have to exchange a lot of information with teachers and friends online. Nowadays, social networks are indispensable for students because we use social networks for almost all information, including reading newspapers and updating information about life. But for me, stopping social networks at this time and not receiving congratulations and encouragement will help me be calmer when entering the final match.

PV: We watched the last match of the fourth quarter and were really happy when Duy Anh was the winner. Were you personally surprised by this result?

Nguyen Dinh Duy Anh:The first week after returning from the competition, I was quite happy and surprised because I considered myself to be the “underdog” compared to the other 3 contestants. You probably don’t know, when I entered the competition, I didn’t dare to look at my scores in both the obstacle course and acceleration sections, and I didn’t dare to look at my contestants’ scores either. At that time, I just tried to do well on every question I encountered, and it wasn’t until the final round that I suddenly remembered that I needed to calculate my score to choose a question package. When I saw my score at that time, I was very surprised.

Fans of Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted cheer for Duy Anh. Photo: PV

PV: How did you feel when your name was called as the winner?

Nguyen Dinh Duy Anh:Actually, this is a “secret” of the recording of the quarter finals and when we watch it on TV, the match only lasts about 1 hour. But in reality, it is not like that. Before announcing the winner, there was a complaint from a fellow contestant and the organizers had to resolve this issue for nearly 1 hour.

In the rules of the competition“The Road to Olympia”, this is normal, because after each round of the competition, each contestant has the right to complain if the result is not convincing. Therefore, to have a complete broadcast program, the recording takes a long time and our quarterly competition lasted more than 3 hours, from about 5pm to more than 8pm. During the nearly 1 hour waiting for the final result, although I knew that the advantage was mine, I experienced many different feelings from excitement, anxiety to restlessness. Perhaps that is why, when I received the laurel wreath, I was calmer and of course I was very happy with this result.

PV: It seems that all the contestants participating in the contest “Road to Olympia” have prepared very early. So is Duy Anh an exception?

Nguyen Dinh Duy Anh:Since I was very young, before I could read, I knew about this program. It is not that I “knew” it very early, but because I was influenced by my mother. My mother is a die-hard fan of the program. From the first season in 1999 until now, for more than 20 years, my mother has not missed any of the final matches. My mother has also watched about 90% of the qualifying rounds. Because of this love, my mother always had a wish that her son would one day stand on the set of the competition “Road to Olympia”.

Nguyen Dinh Duy Anh at the Road to Olympia Contest. Photo: PV

That was my mother's biggest dream, but when I was little, I didn't realize it. It wasn't until grade 4 that I started to solve some accelerated questions because there were math questions related to IQ math that I often solved at home (mainly questions about rules). Starting from middle school, I thought I would participate in this contest, but in grade 8 and 9, I had to stop watching for nearly 2 years, because at that time I had to spend all my time reviewing for the entrance exam to Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted and couldn't watch at 1:00 pm on Sunday.

The Olympia fire that had been smoldering inside me was rekindled when I entered grade 10 - Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted and that same year, Tran The Trung won the 19th competition. I started preparing for the competition from that year.

PV: Before officially entering the weekly round, the qualifying round at the school level also seemed very difficult. Can Duy Anh share more about this?

Nguyen Dinh Duy Anh:Please look at this stack of books before you come back to me."Road to Olympia" contestI had to study very carefully. First of all, I had to read all the knowledge in the textbooks because a lot of the content of the contest was knowledge from school (especially in the weekly and monthly matches). Along with that, I had to practice solving a lot of smart math problems, probability math for grades 4 and 5. In addition, I read a lot of information online and if there was a strange concept, I would go to Google to search for related information pages. When participating in this contest, we also had to regularly watch the news to update all the information in Vietnam and the world, the developments on a daily basis. Mr. Tran The Trung was also the person who accompanied me from the first days I participated in the contest and currently I still have nearly 10 books that Mr. Trung lent me and referred to. Mr. Tran The Trung is also a person who has a great influence on me when I come to this competition. He shared with me a lot of experience, competitive spirit and motivated me so that I can come to the competition with the best mindset.

To come to this contest, I also experienced many different emotions. Like in the school round, although I had prepared carefully, it was not easy to go through the qualifying round at Phan school, which was the contest "Beyond the Knowledge - Fly high with knowledge". This contest was completely in the same format as the contest "Road to Olympia" and the only difference was that we had to do it on paper. From 28 registered contestants, we went through many rounds to choose the last 4 contestants to compete in the final round. In this round, the gap between me and the runner-up was only 5 points and the victory was only confirmed after the last question ended, there was no clear victory.

PV: Duy Anh has gone through many rounds and what was the most difficult round for you to reach the final match tomorrow?

Nguyen Dinh Duy Anh:In addition to the qualifying round at school, the monthly competition was also a memorable and quite stressful competition, especially the final round because before that, Tran Cong Minh had a breakthrough in the final round. However, the most difficult round was probably the quarter round, because right from the warm-up round, I did not have much advantage when I only got 50 points, the lowest among all the contestants. Therefore, I had to try very hard for the following rounds.

Another difficulty for me when coming to the final round was the waiting time of nearly 2 months to choose the contestant with the highest monthly score to participate in the quarterly round. Indeed, that time I was very nervous and tense but in the end luck smiled on me.

PV: Before the match on November 14, how did Duy Anh evaluate his opponents?

Nguyen Dinh Duy Anh:All candidates present atfinalThey are all excellent people and each has their own strengths. For example, Viet Thai has a very confident style of competition, Hoang Khanh is a person who answers questions very quickly and Hai An is a person with a great amount of knowledge, both breadth and depth. Therefore, I try to create a comfortable mindset for myself to come to this final competition. I also think that I come from Nghe An, the land of learning, the land of "spiritual land and talented people", so I will try my best not to disappoint the expectations of teachers, family, friends and the audience at home.

PV: We have come to the final match. How has the nearly 3-year journey of pursuing this competition changed you?

Nguyen Dinh Duy Anh:The Olympia competition means a lot to me. It is a playground for me to satisfy my passion, satisfy my love for knowledge and to express myself. This is also a competition and an opportunity for me to find new paths after completing high school. This competition is even more special because I have fulfilled both my dream and my mother's dream, I will try my best to fulfill that dream.

PV: Thank you Duy Anh and wish you a successful exam!