A 9th-grade student in Ho Chi Minh City achieved an IELTS score of 8.5 on their first attempt.

In the exam held at the end of March 2025, a 9th-grade student in Ho Chi Minh City achieved an IELTS score of 8.5 on their first attempt.

Trong Ban has just achieved an IELTS score of 8.5.

That's Trong Ban - currently studying at Hong Ngoc Primary and Secondary School, Ruby School (Tan Phu district) with IELTS component scores of reading 9, listening 8.5, writing 7.5 and speaking 8.

Despite achieving high scores, Trong Ban shared that his English learning journey was a natural and continuous process, not something that stopped at a single exam.

Learn English through games and YouTube.

Trong Ban started learning English in a very relaxed way. When he was little, he often watched game videos on YouTube. Although he didn't understand much at first, the repeated listening helped Ban gradually become familiar with the intonation and pronunciation of English.

That passion is nurtured as you continue to independently learn English through movies, stories, and songs. Thanks to this, your vocabulary and English reflexes accumulate day by day through self-absorption, without being forced.

Whenever Trọng Bân encounters new words while listening to music or watching movies, he carefully notes them down, looks them up thoroughly, and repeats them many times until he remembers them. At the same time, he creates more opportunities to encounter new words each day, such as making flashcards or writing notes on easily recognizable items in his room.

When using your phone, you also switch everything to English, exposing yourself to the language daily, almost "living" with English, and accelerating your learning ability. You see this as an effective way to improve your vocabulary instead of rote memorization.

In particular, Trong Ban really enjoys learning English while playing games. These are games that require players on the same team to constantly talk to each other to coordinate smoothly during matches. And because his "teammates" are all from different countries, the main language used is English.

So, from elementary school onwards, Trong Ban frequently talked in games. "I taught myself English like that from elementary school. I've never been to an English center," Ban said.

Conquer IELTS 8.5

Upon entering junior high school, Trong Ban began learning English with clearer goals instead of just for fun. He started trying his hand at many international competitions, such as international math competitions in English from the US, Australia, Singapore, and other countries.

By the time I was in 9th grade, one of my main goals was to take the IELTS exam to see how good I was.

Trong Ban said that he didn't study for the IELTS exam at any centers, but only with guidance from teachers at school.

Trọng Bân quickly realized the vast difference between studying for exams and studying for leisure, and the pressure of revision.

For example, the writing section, especially the essay writing, was Ban's biggest fear when preparing for the IELTS. She confided that, as a middle school student with limited social experience, finding ideas for essays was always a challenge.

To overcome this, Ban proactively reads newspapers and watches videos about society and current events. Each time, he learns a new perspective, a new way of reasoning, and suitable vocabulary to apply to his writing.

Trong Ban "took advantage" of the teachers at school to help his classmates edit their writing. The teachers were also very supportive, carefully correcting each of Ban's essays so that he could learn from the experience.

Regarding the speaking section, Ban believes that the most important thing is to speak fluently, so you shouldn't focus too much on using advanced vocabulary.

You choose to speak from your own experiences and understanding, which helps you feel more confident in the exam room, even when you don't have much time to think.

Mr. Vu Thai Duong, a teacher at the school, believes that an interesting characteristic of English is that the more students use it, the more they practice, make mistakes, correct them, and then practice again, the better their skills will become. Ban is a very clear example of this, as he already has a very good natural foundation in English due to frequent daily use.

Teacher Duong said that the teachers mainly support students with additional methods, guidance, and resources. The teachers often assign more in-depth readings and academic materials on topics such as social sciences and science to expand knowledge and vocabulary, which will be useful for the writing and speaking sections of the exam.

"However, your achievements depend greatly on the self-effort of each individual," Mr. Duong said.

Besides IELTS, she also won first prize in the city-level excellent student competition.

In 9th grade, Trong Ban boldly tried his hand at the city-level English competition for gifted students in the 2024-2025 school year and won first prize.

For Ban, this is a great platform where he not only tests his abilities but also expands his network with like-minded friends. Thanks to this training process, Ban learned how to use more advanced grammatical structures, apply academic vocabulary, and hone his logical thinking skills.

Ban shared that he used to be quite anxious before each exam, even fearing he wouldn't get enough points to win a high prize. But for Ban, daring to experience new things and stepping out of his comfort zone was a way to better understand his own abilities.

Ban plans to take the entrance exam for the specialized English class at Le Hong Phong High School for Gifted Students. She intends to continue improving her English skills and also learn Chinese, as learning foreign languages ​​has become a passion for her.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/hoc-sinh-lop-9-o-tp-hcm-dat-ielts-8-5-lan-thi-dau-tien-20250417093900584.htm