All About Math Olympiad Training & Questions

[mathsparks]

BusyB:

Thanks to VeryKaisu2010 and CoffeeCat.


NUS too far, so I've gotten from this enrichment centre called Maths Oasis when visiting with a friend. By the way, anyone heard of their Maths Olmpiad courses - are they good? Any recommended ones from any experienced parents / kids?

Thanks in advance.

My son was with Maths Oasis for about 3 semesters. Didn't go to Maths hub as distance was too far, and had no luck with learning interactive.

Maths Oasis don't just specialise on RIPMWC, they cover typical olympiad qns and work on past year qns too. But before each major competition, they would've short modules that focus on just that competition alone, like smops, nmos, etc.

They also have separate classes for PSLE Maths.

Classroom's quite tiny though. Here's their webby http://www.mathsoasis.com/

[HyperKiasu]

CoffeeCat:

HyperKiasu:

Any idea whether there is an age restriction for the competion? Can P4/5 participate?

Which competitions?
For SMOPS, they have recently limited to p6 only.
NMOS is pitched at p5 level, off limit to p6, p4 are allowed to take part.

I checked the websites, NMOS opens to all primary levels except P6. However the NMOS sample questions doesn't read like Olympiad math, much easier than those of SMOPS. care to share why (apart from SMOPS only for P6)

[HyperKiasu]

CoffeeCat:

Depends on your or your kids' motivation. If it's just for fun then nope but if you are hoping for better performance then yes. The competition is stiffer nowadays as compared to in the past since many children are \"motivated\" and undergo mo training.

If the kids are self-motivated+smart+parents' guidance, still need to go training? I thought the benefit from course for this kind of kids is practice, more practice, more and more practice.....then if practice can be done at home, then why still need to go the training course? :? sorry really duno what the training centre can offer....

[Almighty]

CoffeeCat:

Almighty:

Almighty wrote:

HI,
Anyone writing SMOPS 27th of april?

Huh? Anyone writing?

What XXjustakidXX?? What r u trying to convey by yr reply???

Why do you keep thinking theres a SMOPS on 27th apr??? :?
We only heard of SMOPS on 24th apr which is just over.

YEh ...it was 24th.HOw was the paper?

[life butter well]

My daughter was there. When she came home, I asked her how it went. She said it went great. I asked her if that was because she knew all the answers, and she said no. She thought it was great because they gave out free chocolate and packet drinks when the students had finished. (She’s always thinking about food!)


When I asked her about the actual questions, she said they were difficult.
She could answer about twenty of the questions and guessed answers for ten. For the twenty that she answered, she doesn’t feel confident that she did them all correctly.

[CoffeeCat]

life butter well:

My daughter was there. When she came home, I asked her how it went. She said it went great. I asked her if that was because she knew all the answers, and she said no. She thought it was great because they gave out free chocolate and packet drinks when the students had finished. (She's always thinking about food!)


When I asked her about the actual questions, she said they were difficult.
She could answer about twenty of the questions and guessed answers for ten. For the twenty that she answered, she doesn't feel confident that she did them all correctly.

lol which school gave out free food, so nice of them. Well that's an idea of the relative difficulty of smops. Is there any questions she can remember?

[CoffeeCat]

HyperKiasu:

CoffeeCat:

Depends on your or your kids' motivation. If it's just for fun then nope but if you are hoping for better performance then yes. The competition is stiffer nowadays as compared to in the past since many children are \"motivated\" and undergo mo training.

If the kids are self-motivated+smart+parents' guidance, still need to go training? I thought the benefit from course for this kind of kids is practice, more practice, more and more practice.....then if practice can be done at home, then why still need to go the training course? :? sorry really duno what the training centre can offer....

back in my generation, the self-motivation+smart+guidance might be sufficient but probably not so now. As with all academic competitions, the level of difficulty is almost proportional to time. Now the unofficial smops syllabus includes concepts and applications either beyond the primary maths syllabus (a bit of secondary and a tiny bit of jc) or not taught in conventional school curriculum. Which is why some of the nonroutine and harder questions can stump even some of our primary school teachers.

I know there are tuition centres that offer math Olympiad training by giving students past papers to practice ( this is so primitive, what I was subjected to) but the better ones adopt a topical approach to help students to grasp concepts better. This topical approach, coupled with the resources of the centres and experience of capable trainers is what the better mo training courses offer.

Also, even though armed with solution books, a motivated student might still has trouble with certain concepts or not able to understand the model solution or failed to appreciate the underlying principle. If the parent'guidance is good enough then naturally this issue is minimized. If not that's when private trainers or centres come in.

[life butter well]

She’s not sure of the exact wording, but one of the questions was…


A goat has a rope attached to its neck. The string, which is 14m long, is attached to a ring, which is attached to a 20m rail. Not including the diameter of the ring, how many square meters of grass can the goat eat?

[CoffeeCat]

HyperKiasu:

CoffeeCat:

[quote=\"HyperKiasu\"]Any idea whether there is an age restriction for the competion? Can P4/5 participate?

Which competitions?
For SMOPS, they have recently limited to p6 only.
NMOS is pitched at p5 level, off limit to p6, p4 are allowed to take part.

I checked the websites, NMOS opens to all primary levels except P6. However the NMOS sample questions doesn't read like Olympiad math, much easier than those of SMOPS. care to share why (apart from SMOPS only for P6)[/quote]NMOS wants to cater to pre-p6s, to give younger kids a chance to participate in maths competitions sooner, so their syllabus is reduced and questions more reader-friendly so as not to frighten them.

[kiasiparent]

life butter well:

She's not sure of the exact wording, but one of the questions was...


A goat has a rope attached to its neck. The string, which is 14m long, is attached to a ring, which is attached to a 20m rail. Not including the diameter of the ring, how many square meters of grass can the goat eat?

I would assume the rail is fixed and pi = 22/7

So total area includes a rectangle and a circle.

rect = 28 x 20 = 560
circle = 22/7 x 14 x 14 =616
560 + 616 = 1176