The road to becoming valedictorian of a male student at an International School

Tran Le Hoang Thang, a student majoring in business data analytics, is the valedictorian of the 2020-2024 class of the International School, Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU-IS). At the graduation ceremony, which took place at the National Convention Center on August 11, Thang represented nearly 400 graduates in giving a speech in English.

"I know many friends who are very talented and hard-working, so I never thought the valedictorian title would belong to me. It's really more successful than expected," Thang expressed.

Thang said he has good English skills because his parents invested in his studies from a young age. In 2017, he passed the 10th grade English major exam at the Foreign Language Specialized High School. During his years there, Thang participated in many English speaking competitions, discussing environmental and educational issues... He originally planned to pursue international relations in college.

However, Thang was advised by his father to study a major that could both take advantage of English and keep up with the world's development trends.

Thang remembers reading many articles mentioning data and artificial intelligence, believing that this will be a "hot" field in the coming years, with high applicability. Therefore, although he did not excel in natural sciences, Thang boldly chose to study business data analysis - a field of study that combines applied mathematics, computer science and business operations.

"I'm also worried, but I want to overcome my limits," Thang shared.

With an IELTS score of 8.0 and a student at a specialized school, Thang was admitted directly to the school, and did not have to take a preparatory English course like most of his friends. The male student later passed the scholarship round and had all his tuition waived by the school.

Thang said that at first he had to struggle with the "less-supervised" learning style at university. In high school, male students often only memorize knowledge in class and do the exercises taught, rarely researching on their own. Meanwhile, in university, self-study is very important.

"I found it difficult, only understanding 50% of what the teachers taught, so I had to practice self-study to catch up with the knowledge, even surpass the curriculum," Thang said.

Thang's learning method consists of four steps: determining knowledge goals; outlining each specific task; reading related scientific articles; self-reflecting to anticipate and prepare to answer the lecturer's questions.

Having taught two subjects in Thang's class, Dr. Bui My Trinh commented that the student stood out with a good voice, good presentation skills, and finding key points to analyze deeply and logically. Thang also demonstrated this in the question and answer section.

"Listening to him tells you how well you grasp knowledge and how smart you are at solving problems. Many speakers who came to share with the class also commented the same about Thang," said Ms. Trinh.

For Thang, the most difficult exercises are practical exercises, such as in the project subject. CiaoLINK, a company specializing in financial technology solutions, ordered a tool to measure the popularity of KOLs and influencers in real time to use in product marketing strategies.

"After listening, I was shocked, feeling that it was beyond the level of a third-year student. The time it took to do homework for that subject was equal to the time spent on four other subjects combined," Thang recalled.

Taking on the programming part, the male student often sits at the National Library from 8am to 6pm, often scratching his head to fix errors in the code. Each time like that, Thang goes down to the yard to walk around a few laps to relax, then comes back to work. Thang considers breaks as important as studying, helping to regenerate energy to solve problems more creatively and productively.

Finally, Thang created a ranking that could change weights such as followers, views, channel subscriptions... according to needs to find the most suitable character for the product promotion campaign. The group's article achieved A+, was praised for its work process, time management skills, and data collection and processing.

With good academic achievements, Thang has received many scholarships and represented the school in exchange activities. At the end of last year, the male student was a delegate at the program of Meeting with Vietnamese and Chinese Friendship Scholars and Young Generations.

Thang is also active in extracurricular activities, especially in debate and startup competitions. In four years, the male student won prizes in seven competitions, including third prize in SV-Startup, the national startup festival for students organized by the Ministry of Education and Training in March 2023.

The valedictorian of the International School said the secret to studying a lot and doing a lot of activities is to focus on what you prioritize, depending on the time. For example, two weeks before the final exam, Thang will focus on studying and reduce the time for extracurricular activities.

"You have to know how to allocate time and focus on the immediate goal, so that no work is left unfinished," Thang explained. This is something Thang learned from his Swiss best friend, an international student at the school.

"But I still can't arrange my time as precisely as you," the male student admitted.

Looking back on his four years of university, Hoang Thang thinks he has been more successful than he expected. After graduating, Thang is researching and preparing his application for government jobs.