Lã Châu Giang (the 3rd from left to right) and other members of IJSO 2021’s team.

Lã Châu Giang - students of Hanoi - Amsterdam High School, is one of the 4 students who won a Gold Medal and was also among the Theory winners.

A turn of the tide

Châu Giang said that ever since day one of studying in a 6th grade Math specialized class in Hanoi - Amsterdam High School, she has always nurtured a dream of taking part in the Olympiad. At 7th grade, when her brother, Lã Triều Dương, won a Silver Medal at IJSO 2018, it motivated her to pursue her goal even more. 

In 8th grade, Giang switched to Chemistry due to her sudden change in interest. As a result, Giang had to actively make up for her lack of background to keep up with her peers. “I didn’t have a solid foundation when I got to know Chemistry so I had to frequently attend extra classes” - Giang recounted.

Thanks to her intensive study and training, Châu Giang earned two First prizes at the 8th grade City-level Chemistry Olympiad and the 9th grade City-level Science Olympiad. Afterwards, Giang got admitted into Hanoi - Amsterdam High School’s Chemistry Class as runner-up in the entrance exam, with her Chemistry score at 9,75.

Owing to her outstanding academic achievements during her time in the 10th grade, Giang slowly realized her dream when she was chosen by her teachers as one of the students to partake in IJSO. Being accepted into the team was both an honor and a responsibility for her not to fail her teachers and to earn a good score in the test. 

“I always told myself to give the best I’d got and never let my teachers’ efforts be wasted. That was truly one of the largest pressures I had. Even though they will be proud of me regardless of the results, I was motivated to pay back their hard work with a prize for myself” - Giang explained.

Overcoming obstacles

Giang recounted the little 3 months she got to study and learn all types of new things, which overwhelmed the team. Adding to that, due to the spread of Covid-19, the team had to study online during the first month before studying offline for the next two months. However, in the latter period, the trainers became F1 so the team had to once again study online for another few weeks. 

Despite aiming and preparing for IJSO since Middle School, beginning at the official training, Giang was still astounded by the extensive knowledge required. Studying 3 subjects at once confined her and other members in the team to an extreme studying schedule, from 7h30’ AM to 5h30’ PM, even going past midnight on the last few days.

Another hardship endured was the few practical lessons at the lab. “I messed up a lot of experiments. And in those times, I felt hopeless and frustrated with myself for being a burden to the team and slowing down the overall progress”, Giang shared her experience: IJSO this year was organized online after a year of hiatus. Online competitions were an advantage for Vietnamese students, since they didn’t have to spend time traveling and getting used to the home country’s climate. Nonetheless, this year’s exams were much harder compared to last years’, especially Chemistry, so when the results came in, she was elated and in disbelief of herself actually winning the first prize.

According to Giáo dục và Thời đại