teacher, 9.0 IELTS

Nguyen Thanh Loc, 27 years old, graduated with honors in English Language from Ho Chi Minh City University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology (HUFLIT) in November 2021. He started studying IELTS since grade 10 and wants to pursue a career in teaching IELTS.

He got 6.5 IELTS on his first test in grade 11. Despite many difficulties in "improving his level", Loc still maintained his passion for academic English and after 8 tests, the 9X teacher achieved a perfect score of 9.0 IELTS in December 2024.

“When I saw my score on the system, I was so surprised I didn't know what to say, my hands were shaking and I was really emotional,” Loc confided.

Loc said that behind his 9.0 IELTS score was a long journey of self-study. The first days of finding an effective learning method were very difficult, Loc had to force himself into a daily practice framework. From that, Loc concluded that there is no shortcut to success, and the same goes for IELTS. Daily practice is very important and trains learners to be disciplined.

“Every day I can spend 30 minutes to an hour sitting down and studying academic articles to help myself get familiar with the topics that the IELTS exam asks, ” Thanh Loc shared.

Thanh Loc has achieved perfect scores in Listening many times. His experience is to often listen to podcasts at 1.25-1.5 times the normal speed to practice quick reflexes, combined with reading newspapers summarizing the information of the reading to have strong vocabulary on all topics in the Listening and Reading sections.

Previously, Loc often "failed" in Reading skills, even though he took the test many times, his score was still "stuck" at 7.5 Reading points. After many years of experience, Loc improved by summarizing, trying to understand information in small parts to avoid confusion, instead of reading the whole article. This is useful with the "Matching Heading" format, which requires choosing a title that matches the main idea of each paragraph.

With the True/False/Not Given format in the IELTS test, which requires candidates to determine whether information is true, false, or not mentioned, Loc often eliminates the False option first, then determines True or Not Given.

This time, not only did he get a perfect score in the Listening section, he also got a 9.0 in Reading. As for the Writing section, Loc raised his score from 7.5 in the last test to 8.5 by paying attention to the scoring criteria. From the 7.0 Writing mark and above, the examiner focuses on how the candidate uses collocations and develops sub-ideas to support the main points.

To achieve a score of 8.0 or higher in Writing, candidates need to have specific thinking and use precise vocabulary. For example, instead of writing "public facility", it should be specified as " educational facility" or "road facility".

“In the Writing section 1, which requires describing a table, Loc usually scored 6.5. After reviewing the criteria, I realized that if you just stop at describing the increase and decrease in data, the test taker will always hover around this mark. Meanwhile, to achieve 8.0-9.0 or higher, candidates need to analyze more deeply and put the data into a specific context. For example, instead of writing "0% of people play the sport ...", you can express it as "this sport does not attract the interest of citizens" (gain no interest from citizens)" , Loc cited.

For topic 2, which requires writing an essay on a problem, Loc applied the Analytical Hierarchy Process structure - developing the essay from micro to macro to increase coherence and connection.

Thanh Loc was honored as an Excellent Teacher at an English center in Ho Chi Minh City in December 2024.

Regarding the Speaking skill, Loc regretted that his Speaking score had dropped from 9.0 to 8.5 compared to the previous test. He believed that the reason was that he focused too much on arguing and rarely used connecting words, which affected his fluency and grammar diversity. During the review process, Loc focused on deepening vocabulary by topic, expanding ideas and giving real-life examples to demonstrate understanding.

At the same time, Loc reviews by topic group, such as when studying about means of transport, he will synthesize related topics to have an overview. Part 3 of the Speaking test requires candidates to answer extended argument questions, Loc applies multidimensional thinking (Dimensional Thinking) to analyze comprehensively.

Thanh Loc noted that many candidates mistakenly think that the faster they speak, the more fluent they are, or the more "big words" they use, the higher their score and the more "Western" they sound.

In fact, these can lead to errors in stress and sentence stress or unnatural expression. Therefore, test takers should speak slowly, stress the final syllable and pause appropriately to improve their intonation and score. To use vocabulary correctly, they need to know not only the meaning, but also the usage and context to apply it appropriately.

Thanh Loc confided that this 9.0 IELTS score is a certification of his own efforts and also an affirmation of the academic values that the young teacher conveys to his students.

He is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages at Edith Cowan University, Australia, and is involved in a book writing project to convey his personal experiences and academic values.

“Loc's passion is still pursuing the teaching profession and upgrading himself to deliver the highest value to those who are passionate about conquering IELTS,” Loc shared.

Le Thu

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/thay-giao-9x-dat-9-0-ielts-sau-7-nam-on-luyen-ar966524.html