Teacher Cao Thi Lan Thanh (middle) and her two students Truong Van Quoc Bao (left) and Nguyen Hoang Vu

This is the first gold medal in informatics gained by Nghe An’s students at an Asian informatics competition.

Bao told VietNamNet that he had ‘double joy’ when winning the gold medal, because the achievement affects his obtaining a seat on the national competition team to attend the International Informatics Olympiad.

“To be able to attend the international competition, I have to win a silver medal at least with high scores. I won’t have the opportunity even if I win a bronze medal,” he explained.

Asked about his secret to success, Bao said in informatics, self-study plays a very important role. The environment for someone to study informatics is favorable because it is easy to access foreign knowledge streams which are shared widely.

Bao said he doesn’t study all the time as people think. He just studies when he feels comfortable, but when he finds something interesting, he will spend a lot of time thinking about it.

If students did not follow strict discipline, they could fall into the gap of games. And if a student is undisciplined, he or she is not qualified to become a member of the team.

“It may take me one or two days to solve an exercise. Sometimes I go the wrong way and then I have to start from the very beginning to solve it and go another way,” he said.

He said learning about different algorithm types to practice skills has been the most time-consuming.

There are two things that need to be done to deal with a question – finding algorithms and using programming skill to solve a question.

“The former is very important, and the latter is no less important as it is the step of realizing your idea. It determines if you can finally solve the question,” he explained.

Both ability and great effort needed

Cao Thi Lan Thanh, deputy headmaster of Phan Boi Chau High School, who has been teaching informatics to Bao since the 10th grade, said his gold medal was not a surprise because Bao is very clever. He knows how to study and receive knowledge transferred by teachers.

“You need to have both real ability and great effort to gain success. Bao has both of these factors. He is clever and eager to learn, and learns very seriously,” she said.

After the first semester of the 10th grade, her students had to study online for five months. The period showed Bao’s great efforts and his determination in self-study.

“I kept teaching the students in the team of excellent students to prepare for the competition. After the online teaching period, Bao made big progress,” Thanh recalled.

Thanh set a rule that students must not use mobile phones to play games and surf on social networks during the study process.

But one day, when Bao was a 10th grader, the teacher discovered some students, including Bao, surfing on social networks when she was away. She told the students that they had lost their right to be members of the competition team.

If students did not follow strict discipline, they could fall into the gap of games. And if a student is undisciplined, he or she is not qualified to become a member of the team.

“Bao then cried, wrote reports admitting his mistake, and stood in front of my house, asking me for a chance to come back to the class,” she recalled.

After a fifth report and a lot of apologies, Thanh agreed to give Bao a chance.

Later, he came first at the open competition for excellent students in the coastal areas and Northern Delta. This was the first step that led to Bao winning the gold medal at APIO and his expected success in the future. 

Thanh Hung

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