For final year students, achieving foreign language output standards is an important goal, along with internship reports and graduation theses. In recent years, universities have tightened graduation requirements for students in the hope of improving the quality of bachelors.
For example, according to new regulations at the Academy of Journalism and Communication, students majoring in professional fields need to achieve a minimum of 5.5 IELTS or 785 TOEIC equivalent to level 4 in the foreign language proficiency framework to graduate.
According to Nguyen Anh Tuyet, a final year student: "Although this is the average score of young Vietnamese people, it has caused me a lot of difficulties."
Sharing about her journey of learning English, the female student confided that she is not a person with strengths in learning foreign languages. Anh Tuyet also had to miss 2 semesters of English classes for different reasons.
“I feel very regretful for not knowing about the certificates and investing in studying more seriously. If I had the certificate earlier, I could have converted it and not had to take English courses at school,” the female student expressed.
In order not to miss her graduation date, Anh Tuyet invested in studying IELTS at a center since her third year, with the total course fee of up to 35 million VND. However, the review time also coincided with the time when the female student was doing an internship and participating in scientific research. Losing focus on her studies, Anh Tuyet wasted a test with a cost of about 5 million VND when she did not achieve the required score.
Nearing the end of the first semester of her final year, the female student is considering switching from taking the IELTS exam to taking other certificates:
"I am very confused and thinking about taking the graduation certificate exam that the academy organizes so that I can graduate on time" - Anh Tuyet shared.
However, the female student feels regretful for having invested tens of millions of dong in studying and preparing for the IELTS exam but not achieving the expected results.
“If I had the chance to learn earlier, I would have started studying in my second year. Studying early helps me grasp the knowledge firmly and have time to take the exam more times,” the female student added.
Not as difficult as Anh Tuyet, Nguyen Thi Tra My, a final year student at the Academy of Posts and Telecommunications (Hanoi) passed the foreign language certificate exam right at the beginning of her final year. Tra My chose a less expensive international certificate, TOEIC, and spent about 5 million VND on studying and taking the exam. The female student started studying from the second semester of her third year and achieved a score of 730.
“The output standard of my school is 450 points, if I want to apply for a job later, it will be very difficult. Therefore, I went to the centers with the hope of getting the highest score, not just with the purpose of meeting the output standard” – Tra My expressed.
Before achieving high results, the female student also spent time studying English at school. Tra My felt that she did not make much progress and was easily distracted by the crowded class. Predicting that starting over at the center would be extremely expensive, the female student self-studied the basic knowledge and only registered for a test preparation course.
According to Tra My: “If students have good academic performance and good self-study ability, they will not need to spend money on courses at the center. However, investing a large amount of money is also a commitment to themselves to be more disciplined in studying. On the other hand, I find that studying at the center will quickly achieve the desired results.”
