Won international gold medal after 3 weeks of training

Ngo Duc Minh is one of 26 Vietnamese contestants participating in the final round of the Asian Mathematics Olympiad (AIMO) 2023 in Malaysia. He is the owner of one of the two gold medals, and also won the Star Cup of the competition thanks to the second highest score overall. This is also Minh's first year participating in this playground.

The result surprised and made Mr. Dang Minh Tuan - Representative of AIMO organization in Vietnam - happy. Because Duc Minh is not a candidate from a key school in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City but studied at a "village school" - Dong Giao Secondary School, Tam Diep city, Ninh Binh province.

Portrait of Ngo Duc Minh, a student at Dong Giao Secondary School, Tam Diep city, Ninh Binh province (Photo: NVCC).

Ngo Duc Minh's father is a cement factory worker and his mother is an elementary school English teacher. He has loved math since he was a child and is currently a member of the math team at Dong Giao Secondary School.

Besides the extra hours for the national team, Minh does not take any extra math classes. During the day, he studies at school and at night, he studies at home. After finishing the exercises assigned by his teacher, Minh goes online to find new exercises both in Vietnam and abroad.

Minh studied completely on his own when participating in the AIMO math playground. The types of problems in AIMO are similar in difficulty to traditional competitions for gifted students, so they are not unfamiliar to Minh. "However, the difference is that AIMO math is entirely in English and some problems require high levels of logical thinking and creativity, and cannot be solved by practicing according to the exam format," Minh said.

Ngo Duc Minh went on stage to receive the Star Cup for the contestant with the best performance in the AIMO 2023 competition (Photo: NVCC).

In the international round, Minh received 3 weeks of online training from the teachers of AIMO Vietnam Organizing Committee before going to Malaysia to compete. Although satisfied with the result, Minh was still surprised when his score was the second highest overall, despite the strong competition this year.

Don't stay up past 10:30, entertain yourself with classical music and cycling

Ngo Duc Minh's schedule at home is quite "loose" for a student who is studying for the national math team. Minh usually sits at his desk at 7:30 and finishes at 10:30. His study schedule is reasonably interspersed on weekends because Minh thinks two days off is too long. However, Minh will spend a whole session cycling.

On normal days, after stressful school hours, Minh relaxes with classical music. Minh has a special interest in music. Since the age of 9, Minh learned to play the piano and since then the piano has become his greatest entertainment. Minh said that he listens to many classical composers but finds the three musical geniuses Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin interesting.

Daily life image of Ngo Duc Minh (Photo: NVCC).

For Minh, mathematics and classical music have a harmony in that every day he finds new and interesting things. The deeper he goes, the more beautiful he finds them. The deeper he goes, the more passionate he becomes.

When asked about his future goals, Minh shared that he hopes to pass the entrance exam to the specialized math class at Luong Van Tuy High School for the Gifted in Ninh Binh. He is also actively practicing English to make it easier for him to explore and learn math documents in open libraries at leading schools around the world.