From a boy majoring in Math to the owner of an international Chemistry silver medal

(Baonghean.vn) - After 15 years, joy has come to Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted with the Silver Medal of Hoang Nghia Tuyen at the 2017 International Chemistry Olympiad.

» Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted students won silver medal at the International Chemistry Olympiad

"Turning Point" of a Math-Professional Boy

Hoang Nghia Tuyen was a student specializing in Mathematics at Dang Thai Mai Secondary School. Therefore, the fact that a student who won third prize in Mathematics at the Provincial Excellent Student Competition for grade 9 suddenly switched to reviewing Chemistry surprised many people. The person who guided Tuyen was none other than Hoang Nghia Luong - Tuyen's father because he simply wanted his son to study a subject that was "heavy" on application instead of studying a subject that "you can't learn for the rest of your life".

Making this decision, Tuyen and his father also made a bet with themselves because at that time it was the second semester of grade 9. Tuyen himself, at that time, was only "average" in chemistry, so when he learned about Tuyen's intention to take the exam to enter the specialized chemistry class at Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted, many teachers thought it was an "illusion". Having determined this, at that time, Tuyen almost put aside other subjects and focused on Chemistry, even though with his current knowledge, Tuyen was only placed in the same class with average students. After nearly half a year of pursuing, close to the exam date, Tuyen dared to take a risk, asking his father to ask the teacher to let him study with the specialized students at Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted to test his ability...

Hoang Nghia Tuyen - a student who won a silver medal at the 2017 International Chemistry Olympiad. Photo: NVCC

In the high school entrance exam that year, Tuyen was the “second best” in the Chemistry class at Vinh University High School for the Gifted. A week later, teachers and friends were surprised again when Tuyen scored 18/20 points and became the top student at Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted – surpassing many excellent students from other provinces.

What’s more special, also in the entrance exam that year, Tuyen was the only student to achieve double valedictorian status when the entrance exam scores for the three subjects Math, Literature, and Foreign Language were all extremely high with “equal” 9.5 points. After this exam, everyone started asking each other and trying to find out who Tuyen was. And the teacher who was tutoring her at that time humorously answered: Tuyen is a mysterious factor!

Talking about her achievements at that time, Tuyen said: Although Chemistry is a subject that I am new to, I find it very interesting and the more I learn, the more attractive it becomes. The interesting thing is that Chemistry is very close to life and I can apply the lessons from books to real life and see it as a way to absorb lessons quickly.

Hoang Nghia Tuyen and his father at home. Photo: My Ha.

The "regret" of the owner of the silver medal

The valedictorian achievement helped Tuyen have an easier time entering Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted. Impressions of Tuyen in the early days, teacher Nguyen Tuong Lan, a Chemistry teacher at the school, said: Tuyen is a student with good thinking ability, high independence, likes to explore difficult problems even though he is quiet.

When he first entered the Specialized School, Tuyen studied day and night due to the pressure of studying. Fearing that studying too much would affect his health, Tuyen's father had to go to school and ask the teachers to "intervene" and forbid him from studying too much. In addition to studying in class, Tuyen often went online, visited foreign websites to find difficult math problems and spent most of his time "self-studying and self-studying".

Hoang Nghia Tuyen and teacher Tuong Lan (middle) at the welcoming ceremony at Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted. Photo: NVCC

Fortunately for Tuyen, teacher Quynh Anh - the homeroom teacher and the tutor - teacher Tuong Lan are husband and wife. Therefore, although each person has a different field (Mr. Lan teaches Organic, Ms. Quynh Anh teaches General and Inorganic), the discovery, tutoring, and orientation of students is more convenient and effective.

Regarding the family, although my parents did not have the opportunity to study much (my mother worked in a textile factory, my father was a freelancer), they always created conditions for me to study. Sharing the reason, Mr. Hoang Nghia Luong said: “My family was poor in the past, my parents died early so my six siblings raised each other. I had to drop out of high school because I did not have money to go to school anymore. My life was difficult, but when it came to my children, I did not want any of them to lack education… Moreover, if my children could not study, that was a different story, but if they were smart and capable, I had to try my best for them.”

Tuyen's success began in grade 11 when she won second prize in the National Excellent Student Competition. In grade 12, Tuyen "broke out" to win first prize and won a spot in the second round to select the National team to participate in the International Olympic Competition. This was also an extremely difficult exam because while other subjects could select 5-6 students, Chemistry could only select 4 students for the team. To pass this round, Tuyen and 32 other candidates nationwide had to pass many stressful exams, even more stressful than the international exam.

After being selected for the team, Tuyen mostly "ate and slept" with the team in Hanoi and only had a few days to take graduation photos with his friends in mid-May. Coming to this exam, Tuyen was also under a lot of pressure because for the past 15 years, Phan School has been "thirsty" for a medal in Chemistry.

Hoang Nghia Tuyen (far left) with international friends in Thailand. Photo: NVCC

This could also be the reason why Tuyen entered the exam with a rather nervous state. Therefore, although Tuyen's ability was assessed as quite high, during the test, Tuyen made many regrettable mistakes even though the answers were still correct. As a result, compared to the student who won the Gold Medal, Tuyen's score was only less than 0.1 points.

Recounting this, teacher Nguyen Tuong Lan said: When discussing the grading, the teachers determined that Tuyen would be in the border area between the Gold Medal and the Silver Medal. When the results came out, everyone felt regretful and tried to argue to "change the color" of the medal. However, the lucky thing did not happen. This result also helped teachers and students gain a lot of experience, especially in test-taking skills, psychology...

With the Silver Medal in Chemistry, Tuyen is once again confident in the path he has chosen and will enroll in the Chemistry Department of Hanoi University of Science to continue pursuing his passion for research. The student Truong Phan also hopes to study well to study abroad and return to work in his home country.

My Ha