Nguyen Viet Hung, a 12th-grade English major student at Chu Van An Specialized High School, was surprised when he checked his national high school exam results on the morning of 16/7.
Hung scored a perfect 10 in math and physics, 9.75 in English, and 9.25 in literature. This made him the top scorer nationwide in both the A01 and D01 exam groups, the only student in the country to achieve this feat.
"I was very surprised because I thought someone else would get a perfect 30. This result exceeded my expectations," Hung said.
 |
Nguyen Viet Hung in his graduation yearbook photo. Photo courtesy of the subject. |
Nguyen Viet Hung in his graduation yearbook photo. Photo courtesy of the subject.
Hung plans to use his A01 scores to apply for the IT1 (computer science) program at Hanoi University of Science and Technology. In addition to his regular school studies, he took extra math classes and practiced around 20 practice exams. He only started practicing for physics about a week before the exam. As English is his major and he already has an IELTS score of 8.0, he did almost no review for that subject.
While preparing for the exam, Hung usually studied in the afternoons and evenings as he found it more effective. He spent his mornings relaxing and reading the news. He said he didn't study excessively and didn't set a fixed number of hours per day, keeping a relaxed approach.
Hung felt the exam was manageable. Aware that literature wasn't his strongest subject, he focused on concise analysis and evidence, similar to the IELTS writing style, rather than using elaborate language.
Addressing the prompt "every corner of the homeland is the Fatherland's sky", Hung used the example of southern Vietnam using electricity generated in the north to illustrate the unity and resource sharing within the country.
"I don't remember where I read this information, but I recalled it from geography class and used it as an example in my essay," Hung said.
He found the math exam not as difficult as previous years, but rather lengthy. He almost skipped two combination questions in the short answer section, thinking they were difficult and he was running out of time, but luckily found a shortcut that led to the correct answers.
The English exam also surprised him, as he expected it to be easier. However, his IELTS experience helped him navigate it with ease. His only incorrect answer was in the reading comprehension section about agriculture. He admitted to being careless when he saw keywords from the question in the passage, marking the answer without double-checking.
"This was my oversight. If I had been more careful, I could have achieved a perfect score in English," Hung said.
With these results, Hung is confident he will be accepted into the IT1 program at Hanoi University of Science and Technology. He plans to spend the coming days researching the program and university activities to prepare for his new student life.
Thanh Hang
