After securing a first prize in the national Math competition, he has been honored with the Le Van Thiem Award and selected for the Asia-Pacific Mathematical Olympiad.

Minh was an inspiring student in 2025 when he clinched the top entrance position for the Mathematics block at two renowned gifted schools (High School for Gifted Students under the University of Natural Sciences and High School for Gifted Students under Hanoi National University of Education).

Minh also skipped grades to win First Prize in the National Merit Exam for high school students for the 2025-2026 school year despite being only in 10th grade, scoring 34/40 points and ranking among the top three candidates. Notably, he was the only 10th grader in the country to win a First Prize in Mathematics in this year's competition.

Recently, the 10th-grade student from the Math 1 class of the High School for Gifted Students under Hanoi National University of Education continued to impress by receiving two more pieces of good news.

Specifically, the Vietnam Mathematical Society recently decided to present the 2025 Le Van Thiem Award to Minh along with three other students and two teachers. Minh was the only 10th-grade student among the four students to receive this award in 2025 (the other three were all in 12th grade). This is a prestigious award from the Vietnam Mathematical Society for Mathematics teachers and outstanding students nationwide.

A few days prior, Minh was selected and summoned by the Vietnam Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics (Ministry of Education and Training) to the list of participants for the 2026 Asia-Pacific Mathematical Olympiad (APMO). The competition will take place on March 10. The Vietnamese team has 22 contestants, in which Minh continues to be the only 10th-grade student featured.

In fact, Minh is not an unfamiliar name to the Mathematics community in Hanoi.

Previously, in the entrance exam for the 10th grade at the High School for Gifted Students under the University of Science in 2025, Nhat Minh achieved a total of 29 points (including 9 points in the qualifying Math round and 10 points in specialized Math) and became the school's valedictorian. 

Additionally, in the entrance exam for the High School for Gifted Students under Hanoi National University of Education, Minh continued to be the valedictorian among math examinees with 10 points in the general Math test and 9.75 points in specialized Math. This impressive result led many to describe Nhat Minh as a "super master."

The male student also won first prize in the 9th-grade city-level Math competition in Hanoi and has about 50 medals and awards from domestic and international Mathematics competitions.

Minh said that with Mathematics, he does not study to beat others, but learns out of his own passion. Every day, he spends a few hours reviewing the knowledge learned in class and finding new problems on Math forums and groups.

Before each exam, Minh usually spends time summarizing learned knowledge and test-taking experience to achieve the best results. During the exam, Minh always tries to complete basic questions as quickly as possible to save more time for difficult ones.

Minh is disciplined and often sets rules for himself. He is self-motivated but does not stay up too late to prepare the best state of mind for the next morning.

These days, Nhat Minh is continuing his training schedule for the Asia-Pacific regional competition and preparing for the selection round for the 2026 International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) team. This important selection round will take place in late March 2026, which will choose six out of a total of 48 students nationwide to compete in the 2026 IMO. The High School for Gifted Students under Hanoi National University of Education has four students in this round, including Minh, two 12th graders, and one 11th grader.

Minh shared that he does not set too high expectations because this is a difficult round with the most excellent 11th and 12th graders in the country, but he will put in his best effort.

"During the recent national merit exam training and competition, I realized there are some parts of knowledge regarding combinatorics and geometry where I still have shortcomings. I will focus on improving those parts before moving to the comprehensive review stage and searching for previous years' exam papers to test myself," Nhat Minh said.

Thuy Nga