Ho Chi Minh City 10th grade valedictorian shares "golden formula" for comprehensive learning

(Dan Tri) - It is not the formula of intensive extra study from a young age, but the self-awareness, awareness of learning and special passion that created a valedictorian Lu Tran Quynh Lan in the 2025 Ho Chi Minh City 10th grade entrance exam.

With impressive scores (10 points in math, 9.25 points in literature, 9.5 points in foreign language), Lu Tran Quynh Lan, a student at Tran Quoc Toan 1 Secondary School, Thu Duc, said she was very surprised to be the valedictorian of the 2025 Ho Chi Minh City 10th grade entrance exam.

Passion for mathematics and the dream of conquering the national excellent student exam

Sharing with Dan Tri reporter, Quynh Lan said that what impressed her most in this year's exam was the practical question in the general math test, a question she had never encountered before.

However, with a special love for math, I successfully conquered this challenge to get a perfect score of 10.

Regarding literature, Quynh Lan assessed the test as "adequate", the skills to analyze the lesson were all in the curriculum. English was similar, similar to what she had learned and been exposed to.

Lu Tran Quynh Lan, a student at Tran Quoc Toan 1 Secondary School, Thu Duc City, is one of the two valedictorians of the 2025 Ho Chi Minh City Grade 10 Entrance Exam (Photo: Provided by the character).

Talking about the time to do the test, Quynh Lan revealed that she finished the literature subject 5 minutes early and the math subject 30 minutes early. With the extra time, she spent it checking her work carefully.

In the specialized exam, the female student assessed that this year's specialized math exam was long, and she regretted the practical question about car speed.

"I did this part hastily, thought of a solution but when I put pen to paper I got it wrong. I also regret the last question about the number sequence because I didn't have enough time," Lan said.

An interesting thing about Quynh Lan is that although she studied the integrated program since grade 6, she did not choose English as her major, but her greatest passion is math.

"In 6th grade, when I studied math, I found many interesting theorems and formulas. Studying foreign math programs was very interesting, easy, not too academic, which motivated me to pursue this subject more deeply," Quynh Lan explained.

She was often on the school’s math team participating in competitions. During her four years in middle school, she won four prizes, from encouragement to first prize in the Thu Duc excellent student competition. In grade 9, Lan won third prize in the whole city.

On the morning of June 23, when the 10th grade specialized standard score was announced, Quynh Lan also officially knew that she passed the math specialized exam at Tran Dai Nghia High School for the Gifted with a total specialized score of 42.75, 7.5 points higher than the standard score of 35.25.

When asked about her upcoming goals in high school, Quynh Lan shared: "I will try to study hard so that I can participate in the national excellent student competition in the future."

Self-discipline is the key to success

Sharing about her daughter's learning process, Ms. Tran Thanh Ha, Quynh Lan's mother, revealed that she is very self-motivated in her studies.

"Quynh Lan is very self-motivated in her studies so she hardly needs her parents to remind her. Her family only reminds her to allocate her study and rest time reasonably," said Ms. Ha.

Ms. Ha recounted that when the teacher announced that her daughter was the valedictorian, both mother and daughter burst into tears and were very happy. The math and English scores were within expectations, but the literature score of 9.25 was the biggest surprise because Quynh Lan only thought she would get about 8 points in this subject.

Before that, Quynh Lan mostly studied by herself or studied an integrated program at school. She took extra English classes for a short time when she was young, but in recent years she has not taken extra classes at a center.

Only when I was in 9th grade, facing the important high school entrance exam, did I start taking extra classes for the exam subjects.

The female student said the secret to studying is to always have a firm grasp of basic knowledge and grammar structures, then focus on difficult, advanced knowledge.

Quynh Lan loves math and was admitted to the specialized math class at Tran Dai Nghia High School for the Gifted (Photo: Provided by the character).

Lan divides her study and review schedule into topics, usually starting by systematizing her knowledge, then practicing with questions, sources of lessons from teachers and collecting from Facebook groups.

In particular, as a student studying the integrated program under Project 5695, Quynh Lan has a favorable environment to practice foreign language skills and apply foreign languages ​​in daily communication with foreign teachers and friends. She uses an AI-integrated website to practice her foreign language skills every day.

Mr. Nguyen Huu Thang, Quynh Lan's homeroom teacher, commented that she is very active in studying and always has a high sense of self-study, is highly appreciated by all teachers, studies all subjects with a total score of over 9.5, in the top of the class.

Yesterday morning, the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City announced the 10th grade exam scores of more than 76,400 candidates. Of these, only 39 students scored 10 points in math. In literature, 22 students scored 9.25 or higher.

Along with Quynh Lan, Nguyen Minh Thu, a student at Pham Van Chieu Secondary School, Go Vap District, was also the valedictorian with 2 scores of 10 in math and foreign language, literature 8.75 points, and specialized 4.25 points.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/thu-khoa-lop-10-tphcm-chia-se-cong-thuc-vang-de-hoc-toan-dien-20250624081751228.htm