Every step is sure

After two days of intense competition with 4 hours and 30 minutes each day at the National High School Excellent Student Competition for the 2024-2025 school year held recently, Truong Thanh Xuan, a student of grade 11 Math 1, Bac Ninh High School for the Gifted, Bac Ninh province, excellently won second prize with 27.5 points, becoming the female student with the highest achievement of the Bac Ninh province Math team.

With the 4th position out of 48 contestants, Thanh Xuan has registered her name in the selection round of the National Team for the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) 2025, scheduled to be held in Australia next July. More notably, Thanh Xuan is the first female student from Bac Ninh province, currently in grade 11, to compete in the International Mathematical Olympiad, and is also the only female student in this year's Team, after 5 years without a female.

Proud of student Truong Thanh Xuan's achievements, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Do, Vice Principal of Bac Ninh High School for the Gifted, commented: "As an 11th grade student, Thanh Xuan joined the excellent student team with the mindset of competing to gain experience and learn from experience. With each steady step, months of hard work in training and studying, the results achieved are worthy achievements for her."

With his passion for Mathematics, Mr. Do believes that Thanh Xuan and his friends will continue to achieve good results in the upcoming international arena.

Few people know that Thanh Xuan's passion for Math came naturally and very early. The female student shared that she was lucky to be born into a family where her mother was a student specializing in Math. Her mother helped Thanh Xuan approach this subject and right from grade 5, she won a Silver Medal when participating in the National Math Club for Children.

In grade 2, Thanh Xuan continued to spend 4 years training with the Math team and excellently won second prize at the Bac Ninh provincial level in grade 8 and third prize in grade 9.

Revealing the secret to mastering Math, Truong Thanh Xuan said: “I believe that I should not put too much pressure on myself to achieve results, but learn Math based on interest and joy. Every time I study, I will classify the exercises into certain types and study deeply to understand why I do it this way and not that way, what are the hints from the problem… For a math problem, the most important thing is to find the original idea. Learning Math to understand the nature is better than doing many exercises. If I encounter a difficult problem, I will try to do it, if it is too difficult, I will ask my teachers and seniors, but I will not give up.”

Thanh Xuan always promotes the spirit of self-study and research outside of school hours. She spends 2-3 hours in the evening and does not stay up late to avoid affecting her health, ensuring clarity for the next morning's class at school. When studying, Thanh Xuan often selects documents carefully to avoid wasting time and seeks guidance from seniors. Later, she searched for more knowledge and good solutions on the Internet.

“The teachers supported me a lot, from documents, suggestions on how to do the test to organizing the test, from there I knew my strengths and what I needed to improve,” Thanh Xuan said.

In particular, she does not force herself to study when she is stressed or stuck. Instead, she will find other light activities to relax her mind, such as walking or singing to relax her spirit before continuing.

Actively participate in extracurricular activities to practice thinking

Studying steadily, diligently and methodically is the way Thanh Xuan conquers Math. However, with this achievement, everyone thinks that the female student must be a “bookworm”, someone who only knows how to study, but in fact Thanh Xuan also enjoys participating in other extracurricular activities such as public speaking, presenting, and being an MC.

According to Thanh Xuan, this is a way to entertain, practice critical thinking, logic, and problem-solving. “From debate, I learned how to come up with ideas, gain more practical knowledge, come up with arguments, build logical arguments, create a domino chain leading to what I want to say, and conclude the most concise argument from an initially vague idea. I also cultivated a confident demeanor, the way to talk and listen to others' arguments and opinions. The same goes for mathematics, scientific critical thinking is formed when I can prove why this is not that, what is the basis, and how to prove it,” Thanh Xuan shared.

With the goal of winning a medal, in the near future, Thanh Xuan will supplement her knowledge, learn more English to read more study materials, and prepare best before entering the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO 2025).

It is known that in addition to Truong Thanh Xuan, Bac Ninh High School for the Gifted also has 2 other students who made it to the Olympic teams: Ngo Quang Minh, a 12th grader specializing in Chemistry, a member of the Vietnamese team participating in the International Chemistry Olympiad, and Nguyen Cong Vinh, a 12th grader specializing in Physics, participating in the Asian Physics Olympiad.

Vietnam’s International Mathematical Olympiad team is mostly male. The last time the team had a female student was in 2020. Chu Thi Thanh, a 12th grader at Vinh Phuc High School for the Gifted, Vinh Phuc province, was the only female member of the team at that time and won a bronze medal.

The list of the 2025 International Mathematical Olympiad team is as follows:

STT	Candidate's full name		Date of birth	Class	Unit
1	Nguyen Dinh	Pine	03/08/2008	11	Vietnam National University, Hanoi
2	Tran Minh	Hoang	September 5, 2007	12	Ha Tinh Province
3	Vo Trong	Revelation	February 27, 2007	12	Nghe An Province
4	Truong Thanh	Spring	03/04/2008	11	Bac Ninh Province
5	Nguyen Dang	Courage	February 19, 2007	12	Vietnam National University, Hanoi
6	Le Phan Duc	Man	August 24, 2007	12	Ho Chi Minh City

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/nu-sinh-duy-nhat-cua-doi-tuyen-viet-nam-du-thi-olympic-toan-quoc-te-2025-tiet-lo-bi-quyet-hoc-toan-post410264.html