The student reads math books for entertainment: Books are like toys, reading makes you forget all your worries

Tran Minh Hoang, a 12th grade student at Ha Tinh High School for the Gifted, has a rather strange pastime: reading math books.

Tran Minh Hoang and the computer passed down from his parents for decades - Photo: V.TUAN

The student who won the silver medal at the 2024 International Math Olympiad is one of the students who received the title of "3 Good Students" at the central level on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Traditional Day of Students on January 9 this year.

The silver medal in the International Math Olympiad is a great reward for my efforts, and also a reminder for me to try harder.

TRAN MINH HOANG

Books as toys

Hoang just went to Hanoi to receive the Third Class Labor Medal and a certificate of merit from the Ministry of Education and Training last week. He brought along an old computer "as heavy as a wooden chopping board" - a companion that helped Hoang solve exercises, look up documents and even read books. It was also the computer that Hoang's parents, teachers, used to prepare lessons more than ten years ago.

The corner of the screen has popped out, the keyboard is no longer legible, but he still carries it everywhere. Mr. Tran Minh Do (Hoang's father) said that his son likes reading books more than surfing on his smartphone. Hoang went to a specialized school in the province, living in a dormitory more than 50km from home. His parents can only contact him after 5pm because besides going to class, he buries himself in books and searching for documents.

Perhaps that is why the student from Nghi Xuan district (Ha Tinh province) is good at both natural and social subjects. Both parents are math teachers, so Hoang and his brother were instilled with this passion from a young age. The younger brother is good at math and the older brother Hoang was once a national excellent student in physics.

On the family bookshelf are books that have been kept since the time Hoang's grandparents went to school, with old fonts and discolored paper. Math books have become Hoang's favorite "toys" and daily entertainment. "Books are like my toys. Sometimes when I'm bored, I flip through a book and see it again, and I forget all my worries," Hoang laughs.

Learn foreign language to read English books

Joining the gifted student team, he had less time but he still could not give up the habit of reading. Thanks to the guidance of his teachers, Hoang searched the internet to read ebooks. But there were not many math documents in Vietnamese online, so he had to read foreign books, adding to the motivation to learn a foreign language.

When he first entered 10th grade, his teachers selected Hoang as a reserve to prepare the successor force for the math competition team. But that student became the first 10th grader of the school to "compete" with the seniors in the team. And right in his first appearance, Hoang "won" the first prize in the national math competition when he was only in 10th grade.

Last year, Hoang won a gold medal at the Iran Geometry Olympiad in the Intermediate category. Teacher Tran Dinh Huu (a teacher at Ha Tinh High School for the Gifted) said that his friends often call Minh Hoang a math prodigy, but he said he doesn't like that nickname.

Hoang is quiet, loves football and is active in school activities. So it is not surprising to see Hoang in the Hoa Phuong Do volunteer team, then in the 2024 Exam Support Team. He also won third prize in the Golden Bell contest "The Union in My Heart".

Gold board with math

In grade 6, Minh Hoang won the special gold medal in the MYTS competition, the SMO silver medal and the SASMO gold medal. His achievements continued when in grade 7, he won the Distinction prize in the IKMC competition, the AMO and SEAMO gold medals. Also in the same year, in the magazine Toan Tuoi Tho 2, Hoang won the silver prize in the math competition by mail, the first prize in the Math Club for Children, the third prize in the math competition in the magazine Toan Hoc Va Tuoi Tre and the fourth place nationwide in the IGO 2020 competition (Iranian geometry).

That form was maintained in grade 8 when Hoang won first prize in the province's excellent math competition for grade 9 students, a gold medal in the VMTC competition, the Distinction IKMC prize, first prize in the Math Club for Children, and a gold prize in the math competition by mail in the Math magazine for Children 2, and first prize in the math competition in the Math and Youth magazine...

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/cau-hoc-tro-doc-sach-toan-de-giai-tri-sach-nhu-do-choi-doc-quen-het-buon-phien-20250108102745307.htm