Huy is now a 12th grader majoring in English in the Tuyen Quang High School for the Gifted. 

With a passion for English since his childhood, Huy often watches foreign cartoons and American sitcoms. In addition to learning English through movies, he maintains the habit of thinking in English. 

“When I see an event or phenomenon, I often ask myself in English and practice speaking by myself. This helps me use English frequently, not only through listening, speaking, reading, writing, but also thinking,” Huy explained.

After winning third prize on the national English exam, Huy decided to try IELTS and SAT. In recent years, many universities enroll students based on international certificates. Therefore, Huy decided to obtain a seat at university this way. 

Huy also wanted to know his ability, so he planned to study for SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test).

"When I started preparing for the exam for certificates, I just thought that I would study and try my best and feel free from pressure. As I started preparing for the exam very early, I could try many times to obtain the highest possible results,” Huy said.

However, on the first try, he scored 8.5/9 on IELTS and 1560/1600 on SAT, becoming one of the one percent of the highest SAT scorers

Huy said "Listening" was the easiest section. “Maybe because I began practicing listening very early, and I listened to English every day,” he said, explaining why he got a perfect score in Listening.

Huy found Writing and Speaking more difficult because examinees have to have many skills, including explanation, summarizing, strong and convincing arguments, and coherent sentences. Therefore, examinees need to quickly outline arrangement of ideas and have rich vocabulary to express what they want to say.

In order to obtain high scores on IELTS, Huy said it is necessary to enrich vocabulary and be quick in outlining ideas. Also, using English daily by reading newspapers, watching films and writing short paragraphs is also very useful.

As for SAT, he thinks that it is more challenging than IELTS, because it not only requires rich vocabulary and raises more difficult questions in reading and grammar, but also requires knowledge in many different fields. To begin preparing for SAT, learners need to have good English foundation, rich vocabulary, and excellent skills in reading comprehension.

According to Huy, the most difficult part of SAT is ‘words in context’. This is a type of question that requires a wide range of vocabulary.

“I felt most confident when solving maths questions. Maths is the advantage of the majority of Vietnamese students, because the maths questions on SAT are easier than the maths curriculum in high school in Vietnam,” he said.

The main way he prepared for the SAT was solving exam questions as much as possible, especially on the days before the exam. Huy also participated in some SAT discussion groups to exchange experiences and improve his knowledge.

When doing the test, Huy tried to answer questions quickly, make sure to get the easy questions right, and not spend too much time on difficult questions. If he did not know the correct answers, Huy used the exclusion method to increase the probability of choosing the correct answer. 

According to Huy, candidates with a good English foundation can shorten the time to study and prepare for the two exams. Though who still don’t have good English skills need to build a solid foundation of knowledge before starting learning in-depth.

“You can start expanding your vocabulary. After that, you need to learn grammar carefully and deal with many reading comprehension tests. Also, you need to listen and watch foreign films in English to improve your listening skill,” he suggested.

With high scores on IELTS and SAT, Huy will have great advantages in the upcoming university entrance exams. However, he is studying hard to obtain high results at the high school finals, slated for July.

“I still am not thinking of studying abroad. I plan to apply to the Hanoi Foreign Trade University and some economics schools,” Huy said.

Thuy Nga