Former Literature student is a PhD candidate, achieved 9.0 IELTS

At the same time, she passed the entrance exams to both the Computer Science major of the University of Technology, Ho Chi Minh National University and the English Pedagogy major of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education. At that time, Nhu Quynh decided to pursue a career in teaching.

Ha Dang Nhu Quynh, born in 1996, is currently a PhD student at Reading University (UK). In early January, Quynh took the IELTS test and achieved a perfect score of 9.0/9.0. This is a score that very few Vietnamese people have achieved, up to now.

Ha Dang Nhu Quynh just achieved IELTS 9.0 (Photo: NVCC)

Nhu Quynh is a former student majoring in Literature at the High School for the Gifted, Ho Chi Minh City National University. She loves writing and has been thinking about completing her own book. Although she is somewhat dreamy, Quynh considers herself to be very individualistic and logical.

So, at the threshold of university, the girl majoring in Literature decided to take the entrance exam and passed the Computer Science major at the University of Technology, Ho Chi Minh National University and the English Pedagogy major at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education. Encouraged by her family, Quynh finally chose to pursue a "pedagogical career".

“Before, I only focused on learning grammar and vocabulary to do well on my homework. Later, I realized that English communication is very important in both life and work. Therefore, I decided to ‘start over’ with this subject,” Quynh said.

After graduating with honors in English Pedagogy, wanting to further improve her teaching skills, Nhu Quynh continued to study and obtained a master's degree in English teaching at the University of Nottingham (UK).

Ha Dang Nhu Quynh is currently a PhD student at Reading University (UK). (Photo: NVCC)

The first time Quynh achieved 8.5 IELTS was in her third year of university. Four years ago, she continued to try this certificate and still achieved 8.5. According to Quynh, although the distance from 8.5 to 9.0 is a short distance, it is not easy to improve.

“With a score of 8.5, the level of completion and accuracy in using language is quite high. Many people who reach this score will not know what they are lacking to improve,” Quynh said.

After a period of teaching foreign languages, Quynh decided to retake the exam to see if her skills had deteriorated and whether she was still capable of achieving higher goals. Quynh's goal this time was to challenge herself to achieve a perfect score.

Quynh assessed that Reading skill is the part that she is most confident in and can get the most points. In this exam, Quynh applied the Linearthinking method to help deepen the essence, increase logical thinking through the application of mathematical thinking, including simplifying the problem (simplify) and making connections (make connections).

When applying these two mindsets, according to Quynh, candidates can filter main and secondary information, simplify the content of the reading, and no longer fear long, complicated content that confuses the mind and distracts them with secondary information.

Quynh considers the Writing skill to be the most difficult. In previous tests, she always stopped at 7.5 without increasing her score. “The biggest mistake I made when studying for IELTS was focusing only on ‘upgrading’ the language and forgetting that ideas are equally important,” Quynh said.

Therefore, when writing, Quynh often likes to polish her vocabulary and grammar, but her ideas are sketchy, general and abstract. Learning from experience, this time, for each argument she makes, Quynh includes specific examples and evidence, adding weight to her writing. Thanks to that, she has conquered the 8.5 score in this skill.

With the Speaking skill, Quynh also changed her test-taking strategy. Instead of trying to cram big words, strange idioms and proverbs into her writing, she aimed to speak more naturally and expressively, using rhetorical devices such as comparison and metaphor. In addition, similar to the Writing skill, Quynh often gave more specific examples when speaking to create more opportunities to use thematic vocabulary.

Quynh's biggest regret in this exam was the Listening skill, when her score dropped from 9.0 to 8.5. She assessed that she lost focus on 2 questions, which caused her to not get a perfect score in this part.

However, considering the total score of the whole test, Quynh still achieved 9.0 as expected. Quynh said that the improvement in her IELTS score this time came from changing her English learning method.

Since high school, Quynh has mainly studied by accumulating, diligently collecting vocabulary and grammar. This time, Quynh has changed her learning method to thinking. “To use English fluently, learners must have an approach that is suitable for their thinking and the way their brain operates and remembers,” Quynh said.

The young teacher said that people often tend to focus on "plowing" the test or expect to learn tips to help increase their score quickly in a short time. However, practicing test questions should only be done in the final stage of IELTS review, because this only helps learners get familiar with the test structure, not increase their background knowledge.

In addition, IELTS is essentially just a test of language proficiency, so using tricks will not help you “miraculously” increase your score in a short time. “The only way to increase your score is to make an effort and use a learning method that suits you,” Quynh said.

After achieving 9.0 IELTS, the 29-year-old girl plans to focus on completing her doctoral thesis at Reading University (UK), while continuing to improve her methods and invest in teaching English.

Young teacher achieves 9.0 IELTS: 'Taking IELTS is not as quick and easy as getting a driver's license'Achieving 9.0 IELTS after 4 attempts, Anh Khoa believes that we should not expect that preparing for this exam will be as quick and easy as getting a driver's license. Candidates must practice enough and with the right method to see clear progress.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/cuu-hoc-sinh-chuyen-van-la-nghien-cuu-sinh-tien-si-dat-9-0-ielts-2364979.html