Hanoi female student achieved perfect SAT score of 1600/1600 after 6 months of studying

Nguyen Kieu Anh, a 12A1 student at the Foreign Language Specialized High School, received the results a few days ago. With an SAT score of 1600/1600, Kieu Anh is among the few students in the world to achieve a perfect score on this test. Previously, in March, the female student achieved an 8.0 IELTS.

“These are all important certificates, helping me get closer to my dream of studying abroad,” Kieu Anh said.

Nguyen Kieu Anh, a 12A1 student at Foreign Language High School. *Photo: NVCC*

Kieu Anh made a breakthrough in English in middle school, after receiving a “shock” of low final scores in this subject. Therefore, during the summer of 7th grade, the female student spent most of her time relearning all the grammar and skills. Thanks to that, she rose to the top of the class and was selected to join the school’s English team.

“The more I dig into this subject, the more interesting it becomes. That’s why I try my best to pass the entrance exam to the Foreign Language Specialized High School,” Kieu Anh said.

Having been accepted into her dream school, the female student said that this is the place that helps her “live in a language environment, have the opportunity to practice and develop English skills”. It was also here that Kieu Anh began to nurture her dream of studying abroad.

After achieving an 8.0 IELTS, at the end of April, Kieu Anh switched to studying for the SAT. The female student assessed that studying for the SAT would take more time than IELTS because it requires a wide vocabulary, and the reading and grammar sections are more difficult. The female student set a goal of achieving 1,530 points - the minimum threshold to apply to many top universities.

However, in the first two exams, Kieu Anh did not achieve the expected results. One of the mistakes female students made was thinking "the more practice tests they do, the more confident they will be."

“At that time, I did the exercises continuously. When I made a mistake, I just looked at it and continued to do the next one. As a result, my score remained the same.”

After that, Kieu Anh changed her study method. Instead of chasing quantity, she did each question carefully, focused on each mistake, analyzed the cause and found a way to fix it. She used the method of making an “Error log” .

“This is a method of listing the mistakes, explaining why they were wrong and how to improve. Then, before doing a new test, I will reread the notes to avoid repeating the same mistakes. Thanks to this method, my score has gradually improved,” Kieu Anh shared.

Before taking the third test, Kieu Anh had reviewed more than 100 SAT test questions. This time, after carefully analyzing her weaknesses and adjusting her study strategy, the female student took the test with a calmer, more confident mindset and achieved a perfect score.

Kieu Anh just achieved a perfect SAT score of 1600/1600. *Photo: NVCC*

Kieu Anh said that the Math section of the SAT is not too difficult for Vietnamese students. The test mainly focuses on thinking, not too much on knowledge. In addition, the test often has "traps", so candidates need to be more careful and observant.

Previously, Kieu Anh often lost points in geometry because the content of the lesson was long but the time was limited. The student improved this by studying the formulas carefully, practicing speed and allocating time reasonably.

For the Reading section, the topics are often diverse in fields, from nature, environment, economics , society, history, literature, etc. Kieu Anh believes that mentioning these fields is not to test knowledge but to test students' skills, logical thinking, and critical thinking.

Therefore, the types of questions that often cause great difficulty for candidates are those that require inference from the given data to guess the author's intention.

“Such reasoning questions require candidates to have good critical thinking and the ability to connect information. In addition, candidates need to have a diverse vocabulary on many topics to be able to read and understand the passage and give correct answers,” Kieu Anh concluded.

To improve this problem, female students often read international newspapers with many specialized terms to supplement new knowledge. In addition to strengthening vocabulary, reading also helps Kieu Anh improve logical thinking and grasp the problem.

“Once I understand the flow of the lesson, I will find information faster and gradually eliminate wrong answers,” Kieu Anh said.

Ms. Le Thi Thanh Ha, Kieu Anh's homeroom teacher, assessed this achievement as "very worthy" because the female student always invests and is meticulous in her studies.

“Kieu Anh is eager to learn, hard-working, and has clear goals. She is also a rare student at the Foreign Language High School to achieve this result. Achieving a score of 1600/1600 on the SAT can be considered a phenomenon,” Ms. Ha commented. She believes that this result will open up many opportunities for Kieu Anh.

Meanwhile, Kieu Anh hopes that a 1600 SAT score and 8.0 IELTS score will be a favorable condition to help her get admitted to a top university in the world in the upcoming study abroad application season.

The 'hidden' criteria that make students with 1600/1600 SAT still fail to get into American universities . Experts say that not all students with high average scores, winning many awards, and doing research will be accepted into American universities. Universities often have some 'hidden' criteria in admission. Sometimes, students with 1600/1600 SAT can still fail.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/nu-sinh-ha-noi-dat-diem-sat-tuyet-doi-1600-1600-sau-6-thang-on-luyen-2455089.html