Vietnam team in top 10 countries with highest Biology Olympiad scores

The Ministry of Education and Training has just announced the results of the Vietnamese national team participating in the International Biology Olympiad (IBO) 2025, held in the Philippines.

Accordingly, all 4 students from the Vietnamese team won medals, including 1 gold medal, 2 silver medals and 1 bronze medal.

PHOTO: HNUE

Specifically, the only gold medal belonged to Nguyen Luong Thai Duy, an 11th grade student at Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted (Hanoi), ranked 7th out of 298 contestants.

The two silver medals went to Nguyen Huu Thanh, a 12th grade student at Tran Phu High School for the Gifted, Hai Phong City, and Bui Hoang Dai Duong, a 12th grade student at Quoc Hoc High School for the Gifted, Hue City.

Le Hoang Kieu Anh, a 12th grade student at Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, won a bronze medal.

This achievement has put the Vietnamese team in the group of 10 countries with the highest total score. At the same time, it contributes to continuing the impressive series of results at the international Olympic competitions in 2025 in particular and in recent years in general when Vietnamese students achieved high results in all subjects.

The 36th International Biology Olympiad was held in the Philippines from July 19 to 27 with the participation of 81 delegations from 81 countries and territories (including 3 observer delegations), and 298 contestants.

Practical exam continuously for 12 hours

IBO 2025 consists of two official exam days: one day of theory with two exams, each 180 minutes long, and four labs, each 90 minutes long. In reality, due to the extra time to prepare samples and equipment, the candidates took the practical exam continuously for 12 hours, from 12:30 on July 22 to 0:30 on July 23.

The 2 theoretical exams have 85 questions, with topics revolving around practical global issues such as: environmental pollution, green growth, carbon neutrality, combating climate change, community disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment of some basic diseases according to the principles of precision medicine.

4 practical exam rooms include:

Biomedical: with competencies in electrocardiogram interpretation, blood and urine biochemistry tests, X-ray image interpretation, measurement and selection of antibiotics for common pathological cases.

Molecular and cellular biology: with the capabilities of analyzing genes, proteins, measuring the activities of molecules in cells to identify and predict the evolution of parasitic pathogens.

Ecology and systematics: requires anatomical and taxonomic skills for identification, monitoring, and sustainable fisheries and aquaculture development.

Microbiology: with skills to classify and study the growth of bacteria and fungi that cause food poisoning in humans.

The International Biology Olympiad is often considered the leading comprehensive international competition in high school natural sciences worldwide, requiring comprehensive knowledge of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, environment, and basic laboratory skills, ranging from the molecular, organismal to the ecosystem and biosphere levels.