20-year-old female student achieves 9.0 IELTS

At the age of 20, Huyen is probably the youngest female student to achieve 9.0 IELTS in Vietnam that the press has ever known.

Previously, a student of Foreign Language Education at Vinh University and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Bristol (United Kingdom) took the IELTS test three times and scored 7.0, 7.5, and 8.5 respectively. In addition, female students also achieved 975/990 Toeic, 620/677 Toefl, 975/990 Toeic.

Sharing with VietNamNet, Huyen said that because her parents facilitated learning English from a young age, she had a pretty good foundation. The achievement of some achievements and receiving many compliments became the motivation that made Huyen always try to study better. Since then, gradually formed a passion for learning English in particular and foreign languages ​​in general. In addition to English, female students can communicate in Russian and German.

In the 10th grade at Vinh University for the Gifted, Huyen took a mock exam and got a score of 7.0 IELTS.

“At that time, I felt quite satisfied with this result and even felt a little lucky because when I took the mock test, I only got 6.5.”

However, during the next 4 months, Huyen found herself making no progress. This made me a bit discouraged and decided to focus on other subjects. Huyen then transferred to A class (Math, Physics, Chemistry).

When she learned that she could use IELTS to apply for admission to universities, Huyen decided to study for the exam again. This time, with the guidance of a friend, Huyen has a more effective study method. The second time taking the IELTS test, Huyen got 7.5.

“This is a very important milestone. After getting 7.5 IELTS, I believe I can continue to conquer a higher level. And indeed, on the 3rd test last July, I got 8.5 IELTS” – Huyen said.

Winning 8.5 IELTS is already a remarkable achievement. However, after receiving the encouragement from everyone around, plus a little regret when she couldn’t say all her thoughts in the Speaking test, Huyen decided to study for the IELTS one more time.

The secret to getting 9.0 IELTS overall

With the goal of getting a high score in the IELTS exam, Huyen shared that she always tries to get a perfect score in Reading and Listening skills. These are also my two strongest skills.

In the Listening test, the technique that Huyen applies is to take notes (write down) the main ideas as much as possible to avoid missing information and leading to mistakes in the following sections. From her own experience, Huyen believes that most of the emphasized words that attract our attention are often not the right answers. Therefore, in the Listening test, you must maintain maximum concentration.

Meanwhile, in the Reading section, Huyen is really interested in the time factor.

“You need to divide the time appropriately for each lesson, Skimming and then underlining the main idea is also a method to help maximize the score of reading skills.”

Huyen said that Reading is also the skill she spends the most time practicing. During the exam preparation time, Huyen often takes 2 mock exams/day for many consecutive days.

Huyen also takes advantage of the knowledge learned from these two skills to apply to Speaking and Writing. Specifically, when practicing Listening, Huyen tries to remember good sentences in communication to use in the Speaking section or to use logical ideas in the Reading section to improve thinking as well as use vocabulary for the Writing section.

Writing is the skill that Huyen says she has the most difficulty with.

“In the first 2 exams, I always only got 7.0 Writing despite my best efforts. So, my biggest goal is to increase my Writing score. I signed up for an online intensive writing course, spending about 2-3 hours a day on this skill.”

According to Huyen, I was instructed to expand the topics instead of just following the outline. The advisors took the time to review and comment on each article carefully and meticulously.

Huyen also spends more time on Writing Task 2 by listening to Ted Talk, watching movies or celebrity speeches. The female student said this helps to learn how to think and good sentences to use in her writing.

As for Writing Task 1, Huyen notes that you should not add too much to avoid rambling, leading to mistakes and deduction of points. At the same time, putting dots and commas in the right places and not abbreviations is also a way to not lose points in this skill.

Thanks to her efforts, in the 3rd exam, Huyen raised 1.0 point compared to the first 2 times, reaching 8.0 Writing.

With her speaking skill, Huyen went online to search and practice speaking with a foreign friend, so she had good reflexes.

In the 3rd exam, even though she got 8.5 Speaking, the female student was still quite sorry that she couldn’t express it all. Thanks to experience, the recent retest, Huyen achieved 9.0 Speaking.

“I think the important factor that helps me get the maximum score of 9.0 Speaking is because I can use many idioms and difficult vocabulary effectively instead of using a lot but cumbersome and lacking logic like before.”

Huyen confided that she never pressured herself to study all four skills, but instead broke down the goals to complete.

The advice for female students of 9.0 IELTS for those who are preparing for the exam is to always keep calm and consider studying as a hobby to achieve higher efficiency instead of being too focused on your goals. In addition, it is necessary to have long-term preparation to avoid rushing IELTS exams.

“Please diversify the way you study and create as many environments as possible to be exposed to English as much as possible, thereby improving your ability. Don’t rush for anything, we always need time off to see where we are lacking and make up for it.” Huyen confided.

Dinh Tien Dat – representative of VSPACE – which supports Huyen’s review process, shared that Huyen’s strength is perseverance, eager to learn, always ready to open up. Therefore, the advisors supporting Huyen easily grasped and promptly supported the female student to overcome her weaknesses.

“Huyen had a hard time with the writing part, because you don’t know why your writing score couldn’t improve. Knowing that difficulty, Nguyen Le Dang Khoa, sat down with Huyen, together with you to analyze the score bands of the IELTS examiner and help you improve your weaknesses accordingly.

Dat also believes that learning IELTS is not just for the score but for the passion of knowledge, using English as a tool to explore his knowledge. And Huyen is a person who has a real passion for languages.

Sharing with VietNamNet, Huyen said she was quite interested in studying Artificial Intelligence. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and wanting to be close to her family, the female student decided to return from the UK after 6 months of studying at the University of Bristol. However, Huyen continues to pursue the school’s online program.

“People often say that it’s hard for girls to get into this industry, but because I like it, even if I have to sit in front of the computer all day, I don’t feel tired, but it’s quite interesting.”

In addition, female students also intend to become teachers. “After achieving 9.0 IELTS, I kept receiving offers to be a teacher at English centers. This makes me very happy.”