Trung Hieu, a maths major at Hanoi High School for the Gifted under the Hanoi University of Education, says the three years he spent at the high school changed his mind.

The student from Vinh Phuc, who was confident in his abilities, was shocked as he regularly did not understand the lessons.

“Teachers believed that the students at this school could easily receive knowledge, so they did not give thorough explanations,” he recalled. Meanwhile, the schooling environment was very competitive, teachers always gave extremely difficult exercises,” he recalled.

“I was then under pressure as I felt I was inferior to my classmates," he said.

However, he later realized that thanks to the competitive environment, he could make progress, and then he became more determined and mature. Hieu gradually caught up with friends and became familiar with the learning framework.

His achievements improved step by step. He attended the Road to Olympia, a well-known TV show designed for high school students of excellence and won several prizes.

Thanks to achievements at high school and the TV show, Hieu was admitted to Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST) under the talent enrollment program.

At the university, Hieu once again felt pressure because he could not adapt to the new teaching and learning method.

“In the first semester, I registered 11 credits for three subjects, Analysis, Algebra, and Philosophy. But I still felt amxious about them,” he recalled.

“Being a maths major at high school, I thought I had advantage in maths. I also believed that I would pass the maths exam as I could grasp knowledge,” he said.

“However, to my surprise, I just got a 5.5 score on the mid-semester maths exam,” he continued.

The unsatisfactory exam score served as an alarm to Hieu and he realized that he needed to have a better learning method.

After adjustments in his learning method, Hieu gradually got used to the ways of teaching and learning at university. In the second semester, he registered for 19 credits and got A or A+ in all subjects and won scholarships.

But he once again underwent a crisis period in the first semester of the third year. He did not know what he wanted to be. Meanwhile, he had to study many difficult subjects.

“While my family members and I took a domestic tour, I had to stay in the hotel rather than go out to review for my exams,” he said.

At that time, he needed to submit schoolwork in Data Structure and Algorithms and he only had eight hours to do it. As he feared that he may fail the exam, he decided to stay up all night. He burst into tears at 3am, as he had to submit the work prior to 6 am, and he still could not finish the work.

“This was the first time I had such an experience – being sleepless and crying about school work,” he recalled.

After he tried to calm down, he gathered his strength and ended up fulfilling the work just 30 minutes before the deadline. It was the most challenging moment faced by Hieu, who understood that pressure could encourage people to go ahead and work more effectively.

During the years of studying at HUST, Hieu nurtured the dream of studying abroad, and wanted to study in an English speaking country. Finally, however, he applied for master’s and doctoral scholarships at the Polytechnic Institute of Paris in France.

“I believe that research on embedded AI in cybersecurity is a potential research orientation. This will require a lot of learning and working, but this is not a barrier for me. The challenging curriculum at the institute will create a foundation for me to conquer new pinnacles,” he said.

Hieu has left Vietnam for France to begin a new journey in his life. After obtaining master’s degree, slated for late 2025, the man from Vinh Phuc will become a PhD student there.

Thuy Nga