The "City-ranking Contest for Excellent Students" is annually held by the Department of Education & Training - Ho Chi Minh City in order to help students systematize and enhance their knowledge as well as encourage students' self-study awareness. The contest includes: Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Computer Science, Literature, History, Geography, English, French, Japanese, and Technology. The tests are based on the content of the current text books. There are 2,916 students taking the tests at Tran Van On High School in district 1, and 374 others at Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted, and Centre of Career and Technical Education – district 11. In the contest, each district has about 12 contestants per subject to take part in the contest. If a district had at least one winner in a subject in the previous school year 2010-2011, they can send 5 more students taking part in the contest of that subject in this year. (According to website http://edu.hochiminhcity.gov.vn)

Activeness and smartness are an accurate description of a cute schoolgirl who does always have a brightening smile on her face – Vasudevan Janani Quynh Mai of class 9/2 at Pasteur campus – The Asian International School. She has gained a quite high score and become the second prize winner in the district-ranking English contest for excellent students, then attended the city-level contest of the academic year 2011-2012.

Vasudevan Janani Quynh Mai (in the middle) and
her classmates

On March 21, 2012, Vasudevan Janani Quynh Mai, along with over 3,000 other students in Ho Chi Minh City, took the city-ranking contest for excellent students 2011-2012 – ninth grade; finally, she became the second prize winner after trying her best in studying. In fact, she completely deserves this achievement thanks to her academic efforts at The Asian International School.

Mr. David Edward helped Quynh Anh to choose reference textbooks

During 9 years for studying at a modern environment of The Group of Asian International Education, she has continually been an excellent student since being at The International Primary School (IPS). As a child, Quynh Mai developed her self-independence and creativeness as well as activeness when attending extra-curricular activities, clubs and music events at school.

At The Asian High School (AHS), she went on achieving an excellent student and never missed any competitions. Moreover, she continued to win other top awards such as: the fourth prize in the English Speaking Contest 2011-2012 at The Asian International School, the district-level excellent English student and the city-ranking second prize of the academic year 2011-2012. Not only has she been good at education but also proved her self-motivation through The Asian International School’s extra-curricular activities; besides, she has always been an excellent artist who was the “Pasteur Idol” in the Singing Contest 2009-2010. Vasudevan Janani Quynh Mai is truly a good example for other students.

She achieved the fourth prize in the “English Speaking Contest 2011-2012” at The Asian International School

Considering her academic methods, Quynh Mai said: “My approach to learning is self-study, and fearless to ask questions on what I have not fully understood. At class, I discuss the study with my classmates so that I can absorb my subject much more and find many different academic methods out. She also adds more to experience of learning English: “At home, I spend more time to study textbooks introduced by the teachers; besides, I often take part in team working with my friends to discuss and practice English more. Studying at The Asian International School is a good opportunity since I can contact with many foreign teachers to practice listening and improve my pronunciation.”

Ms. Tran Thi Thanh Vuong – teacher of Quynh Mai’s class – said in pride: “Quynh Mai is a good and polite student; she has self-study awareness in all school’s activities. Especially to English, she usually carries out many researches, tries to read books diligently, pays much attention to teachers’ explanation, and makes well-prepared lessons before coming to school. Whenever getting confused, she often asks teachers to explain more and takes part in discussion with her friends. She is a very good and potential student, and I am very proud of her.”

Quynh Mai was discussing with her teacher about
confusing matters

Ms. Tran Thi Thanh Vuong and Quynh Mai were in Computer Science class

Vasudevan Janani Quynh Mai adds more: “Although I could not achieve the first prize as expected, I also felt very happy because thanks to this competition I could have a chance to practice and complete more new knowledge and experience. I would like to express my thanks to my teachers and school for giving me an opportunity to show my ability.” She also shared a little bit her future ambition: “I wish to become a good doctor to save many people’s lives, make a lot of good social things as well as travel anywhere I like to broaden my knowledge and discover the world.”

With the current achievements, we wish Quynh Mai to continue to get ahead in her education and gain more achievements. It is absolutely sure that the enthusiasm and effort themselves will help her to fulfill her dreams.

      List of The Asian International School students achieving the city-raking prize in the academic year 2011-2012:

No.	Full Name	Class	Subject	City-ranking Prize	Campus
1	Phan Thi Minh Tam	9/16	English	First	Cao Thang
2	Vasudevan Janani Quynh Mai	9/2	English	Second	Pasteur
3	Tran Anh Khoa	9/8	English	Second	Cong Hoa
4	Phung Nguyen Khang	9/5	English	Second	Tran Nhat Duat
5	Ho Vuong Anh Khoa	9/14	English	Third	Cong Hoa
6	Tran Chan Hung	9/19	English	Third	Cao Thang
7	Liu Khai Hung	9/16	English	Third	Cao Thang
8	Tran Ngoc Phuong Thao	9/4	Math	Second	Tran Nhat Duat
9	Nguyen Duy Hai Dang	9/5	Math	Second	Tran Nhat Duat
10	Pham Hoang Phuc	9/11	Chemistry	Third	Cong Hoa