Valedictorian of a district school in Nghe An with the secret of 'three steps of learning'

In the recent 2019 National High School Exam, Nghia's admission score for block A was 27.85 (Math 9.6; Physics 8.5; Chemistry 9.75), the highest of all exam blocks in the school.

Compared to many students who scored high on this exam, Nghia has a slightly different learning method, which is to consistently follow the "three-step learning" secret: At school, learn basic knowledge, review advanced knowledge according to teachers' instructions, and go online to find good questions to solve.

Nghia revealed: “On the bookshelf in my study corner, there are no advanced books. It seems that I am not suited to reading advanced books. I usually pay attention to the lessons taught by my teachers in class, but when I get home, I always hug my computer.”

Computers are not only Nghia’s “second teacher” but also his passion. At the beginning of 10th grade, his family bought Nghia a computer for studying. He spent most of his time studying at home with the computer, from finding knowledge of specialized subjects, practicing exam questions and even… entertaining himself during stressful times. “I like to explore new and interesting exam questions online, then figure out how to solve them and practice how to do the exercises,” Nghia said.

Nghia (second from right) and like-minded friends.

Nghia said: After the exam, I didn't look at the answers and predicted that my score for the 3 subjects in block A would be around 28 points. When I received my test scores, I felt a little regretful because my Physics score was the lowest of the 3 subjects. I was at the top of the 3 mock exams at school.

Nghia is best at Physics and expected to get a good score in Physics, but his score was lower than both Math and Chemistry. According to Nghia, his low Physics score was due to subjectivity and carelessness in reading the test questions, which led to him getting some easy questions wrong.

Nghia's 12th grade class T1 is also the class with high achievements in the 2019 National High School Exam of Do Luong 1 School.

From his own experience, Nghia believes that in order to achieve high scores in the National High School Exam, in addition to studying, when taking the exam, candidates need to read the exam questions carefully, so as not to misunderstand the questions, allocate time reasonably when doing the test, skip difficult questions, and re-do them if there is time, especially do not get easy questions wrong. To do multiple choice tests quickly and correctly, in addition to mastering knowledge, candidates need to practice a lot of exam questions.

Nghia (5th from left) with friends on the last happy day of the school year.

Nghia is the eldest child in a family of two children, his parents are farmers in Hamlet 1, Dong Son Commune, Do Luong District. As a child, Nghia showed his intelligence early. From Grade 1 to Grade 12, he was an excellent student almost every year. In Grade 4, Nghia won the first prize in the Provincial Online English Competition (IOE), followed by the District Math Competition for Children. In Junior High School, he won the District Top Student Award twice in Math in Grade 6 and Physics in Grade 8, and the Provincial First Prize in Physics in Grade 9. In High School, Nghia won the Third Prize in the Provincial Science and Technology Competition in Grade 10 and the Third Prize in the Provincial Excellent Student Award in Physics in Grade 11.

Accompanying Nghia since grade 10, especially through the provincial excellent student exam, Mr. Nguyen Van Tien - Physics teacher shared: Pham Dinh Nghia is an intelligent student, loves to explore and create, has a high spirit of self-study and training, and is always ready to accept difficulties and challenges. With the score achieved, Nghia hopes to be admitted to the Computer Science major, Hanoi University of Science and Technology and continue to cultivate, train and try harder.