CLEARLY DEFINING HIS STUDY GOALS EARLY ON, Nguyen Dinh Chinh invested considerable time and effort into learning English, despite the busyness of school. With determination and discipline, this “young talent” from the WISE family achieved a 7.5 IELTS score.
Nguyen Dinh Chinh is currently a high school student at FPT High School. He first learned about IELTS and began studying while still in middle school, which is quite early compared to many other IELTS learners. He has been closely connected with WISE on his journey to conquer IELTS and quickly reaped wonderful results with an impressive 7.5 IELTS score.
I. Achievement Table
Nguyen Dinh Chinh achieved a commendable IELTS score of 7.5. He has proven that continuous effort and finding an effective learning environment can lead to achieving high desired scores.
With these impressive scores:
- Listening: 8.0
- Reading: 8.5
- Writing: 6.5
- Speaking: 6.5
OVERALL BAND: 7.5
II. The Study and Exam Preparation Methods of This “Young Talent”
Speaking about his IELTS study methods, Dinh Chinh shared: “In addition to the very effective 6-step vocabulary learning method and the Automatic Listening method suggested by teacher Hien, I also study Real English to practice Speaking. Every day, I dedicate about 2-3 hours to self-study IELTS at home.”
Despite a busy school schedule, Chinh always knows how to organize and allocate time for self-study and additional practice at home.
“When it comes to my experience with the four skills, to be honest, I excel in three skills (Reading, Listening, Speaking). I achieved an 8.0 in Listening thanks to regularly watching foreign programs on YouTube (TED talks, Kurzgesagt in a nutshell…), foreign gamers (Pewdiepie, Markiplier…), and listening to US-UK pop music for entertainment while practicing Listening. When I encounter something I don’t understand, I don’t rush to skip it; I turn on subtitles to see what the word is and how it’s pronounced. If it’s a new word, I look up its meaning, which has helped me significantly expand my vocabulary.”
When asked about the skill he finds most challenging, Chinh honestly shared: “In my opinion, all four skills are equally difficult, but personally, I still find Writing somewhat challenging because it requires a lot of social knowledge and data interpretation skills.”
“There are many materials available for IELTS preparation, but you need to know how to select them. I’m used to practicing with the test sets in Cambridge IELTS and Barron’s IELTS.”
III. Always in Control, Even in a High-Pressure Exam Room
Talking about techniques for tackling the exam, Chinh demonstrated that he is calm and knows how to control situations very well.
“Regarding techniques for achieving high scores, I’ve noticed that your IELTS score is directly proportional to the time you invest in practice:
Reading: This section requires you to have scanning and skimming skills; you shouldn’t spend time reading everything in detail.
Listening: Read the questions, underline the keywords, and check for synonyms of those keywords.
Speaking (personal experience): If you’re good at Listening, you’re likely also good at Speaking. During the Speaking test, you should avoid the habit of translating from Vietnamese to English and being overly focused on grammar, as this will decrease your fluency.
Writing: Avoid overusing difficult vocabulary and writing overly complex sentences, as this can confuse the examiner and cause you to lose points for presentation.”
Regarding vocabulary learning, Chinh readily shared: “To learn vocabulary, whenever you encounter a difficult word, look it up using an online dictionary, then use Google Images to find illustrations of that word and use Google News to see how foreigners use that word. Don’t learn vocabulary in isolation; learn it in context.”
When sharing why he chose WISE English, Dinh Chinh said: “I chose WISE English for many reasons. Firstly, the staff and teachers are all very friendly and dedicated. Secondly, the learning materials are of high quality, and WISE English organizes many extracurricular activities to enhance English skills (like the trip to Hoi An that I participated in). The learning environment is well-equipped and bright.”
Finally, he didn’t forget to send a message of encouragement to those also on their journey to conquer IELTS: “To those studying IELTS, I wish you all the best in achieving your desired results. The above is all the experience I can share about IELTS, and I hope it will help you in some way.”
Thank you, Dinh Chinh, for such sincere sharing. WISE English believes these experiences will be incredibly helpful for many students feeling confused during their studies. We wish Dinh Chinh to always maintain his passion for English and achieve even higher scores in future exams.
