10-Year-Old Vietnamese Boy Excels in IELTS with a 7.5 Score

Nguyen Minh Duc, a 10-year-old boy from Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, scored overall 7.5 in IELTS with 8.0 in listening and speaking, 7.0 in reading and 6.5 in writing. He took the test on August 13, 2023 and his expectation was 7.0 overall. According to IDP and the British Council, only 10% of the test takers in Vietnam scored 7.5 or above in 2022.  

Duc grew interest in English language at the age of two when he was at a kindergarten. His school used to organize English classes with foreign teachers on weekly basis. When he was three, his parents hired a foreign teacher to teach him English at home. They also bought him children’s English books. Out of self-interest, Duc researched for online resources to learn English on a diverse range of topics. This learning habit helped him a lot in the IELTS reading test and what made the IELTS listening test easy for him is the habit of watching English movies. In the IELTS examination, he found the second writing task a bit difficult for him as the theme was a little beyond his age level.