Thành Vinh – 7.0 IELTS: from a stuck 4.0 to Hanoi University of Science and Technology
Thành Vinh – 7.0 IELTS: from a stuck 4.0 to Hanoi University of Science and Technology
Studying hard, scores not moving
Vinh had studied at a well-known English centre for a long time. His scores stayed at 4.0–5.0. Every Reading test left him drained. Every writing task left him frustrated.
In grade 11, with the university entrance exam approaching, he started to worry in earnest.
“I kept studying but didn’t improve. My friends had already reached 6.0–6.5. I felt left behind and didn’t know where to start again…”
The turn: back to the root, not more practice tests
Vinh came to MEA as a last resort. He did not expect much.
What surprised him was that nobody put him straight onto practice tests. The first job was to go back to the basics: thinking in English, sentence structure, and the logic behind each skill.
Teachers did not just mark the errors. They explained why the errors happened. Writing stopped being formula-stuffing and became learning to express ideas like someone who genuinely understands English. Reading stopped being word-by-word translation and became grasping the whole before selecting the detail.
And he learned at his own pace. No rush, no skipping, no comparison with anyone else.
“At first I still made a lot of mistakes. But my teacher said: mistakes are there to be fixed. I gradually realised that if I learn the right way, I can do it just as well as anyone.”
Eight months later
Vinh registered for the IELTS test. When the results appeared, he went quiet.
- Listening: 7.5
- Reading: 7.0
- Writing: 6.5
- Speaking: 6.0
- Overall: 7.0
“I used to think I couldn’t do it. But I did. My mum was surprised too. I’m happy not just because of the score, but because I truly understood English.”
What remains after the exam
Vũ Thành Vinh is now a student at Hanoi University of Science and Technology.
The number 7.0 will age. What stays with him is a way of learning: knowing why he got something wrong, knowing where to start, knowing how to put his own ideas into English. That keeps working long after the certificate goes into a drawer.
One small thing you can try today
If you are stuck where Vinh was stuck, try exactly one thing in your next Reading passage: do not translate word by word. Read the paragraph through, close it, then summarise it in a single sentence of your own.
If you can write that sentence, you understood the paragraph. If you cannot, the problem is comprehension — not a shortage of practice tests.
Read more student journeys in the MEA Library.