All About Math Olympiad Training & Questions

[Pen88n]

verykiasu2010:

Understand a K2 kid (next year P1) is currently training for SMO junior !!


Incredible ! Whose kid huh ?

Huh??? Either the parent is \"ultimate kiasu\" (verykiasu, you lose to this one who might have drill and drill from young), or that kid is a super genius (usually even super genius need kiasu parent to know how to prepare him for such thing).

Actually, why need to attend K2 / P1 - go direct to upper pri will do. Better still, homeschool to prepare him for uni :lol:

[sleepy]

I wonder whether Maths Olympiad training provided by school (conducted by external vendor) is sufficient training?


Only 12 lessons. Parents co-pay. Fees are cheap though.

[Vanilla Cake]

mjl:

My daughter is very exasperated! The book 'Olympiad Maths Trainer 6' by Terry Chew has tonnes of mistakes. At last count, she has spotted 30 inaccuracies in questions and answers, as well as ambiguities! :stupid: She expected more as she is still doing the questions . . .

Just a suggestion, why don't you write to the publisher to notify them about the inaccuracies in questions and answers, as well as ambiguities so that they can be rectified and clarified?

[verykiasu2010]

sleepy:

I wonder whether Maths Olympiad training provided by school (conducted by external vendor) is sufficient training?


Only 12 lessons. Parents co-pay. Fees are cheap though.

insufficient

[mjl]

Vanilla Cake:

Just a suggestion, why don't you write to the publisher to notify them about the inaccuracies in questions and answers, as well as ambiguities so that they can be rectified and clarified?

Hi Vanilla Cake,

If it is 1 or 2 mistakes, it's okay to write in. For your info, I did write to the author for one of the first few mistakes that we discovered. There were some \"ding-dongs\" as the author could not see my point initially and he thought I could not understand his question so he explained further, but eventually he saw my point and agreed there was a mistake and said he would amend in the next version. You see, 1 question already took up much of my time and effort. For 50 or more mistakes (my daughter did about half the book and already found 30 mistakes, so she has expected a lot more), it is just not worth our effort and time to notify the publisher (unless we are paid to check for errors in the book :lol:, this is the author's and publisher's jobs) !!

[mjl]

sleepy:

I wonder whether Maths Olympiad training provided by school (conducted by external vendor) is sufficient training?


Only 12 lessons. Parents co-pay. Fees are cheap though.

Hi sleepy,

Just be aware that some of these trainers are not qualified/trained in Maths Olympiad. My daughter's neighbourhood school got this training centre (starts with K) to give 6 sessions of training (yes, cheap, about $30 after co-pay). She was able to point out a number of mistakes made by the trainer (who could hardly understand my daughter's points and insisted he was correct, until she gave up on him) and in the worksheets. At the end of the training, she and her friend wanted to give \"poor\" under the rating section (shading bubbles), but the trainer had the gall to disallow them from doing so, saying \"poor\" rating was not allowed. In the end, they wrote their comments under the open-ended \"comments\" question.

[kwokwc]

My son’s form teacher told them that she will be getting them ready for Maths Olympiad training. I am just wondering what can I do to help him in the training?

mjl, you think the school training is enough? Anything that I can do extra?
My son loves Maths and his maths concept is quite unique in a way. We tried solving problem together before and I must say, he is fast and special in his own way. The way he solve some maths problem is something that I can’t see. But his answer is correct.

Just wondering if there is any course for parents to aid our kids in Maths olympiad training?

[mjl]

kwokwc:

mjl, you think the school training is enough? Anything that I can do extra? My son loves Maths and his maths concept is quite unique in a way. We tried solving problem together before and I must say, he is fast and special in his own way. The way he solve some maths problem is something that I can't see. But his answer is correct.

hi kwokwc, I thnk the training provided by the school teachers is sufficient. It is also good for your son to join the school Maths Club. From what you have described, he may have potential in Maths Olympiad.

For a P5 student, I would strongly recommend the following solution books (most recent one as well as the previous years'):
- National Mathematical Olympiad of Singapore (NMOS), organised by NUS High
- Singapore - Asia Pacific Mathematical Olympiad for Primary Schools (SAPMOPS), organised by Hwa Chong Institution

The above books can be purchased from the schools that organised the olympiads, or from Learning InterActive Pte Ltd (#04-39 Bras Basah Complex). Note that the form teacher is likely to get the P5 students to start with the NMOS questions in preparing them for Maths Olympiad training. The 2010's NMOS questions are rather challenging, perhaps you can request the form teacher to pass a set to your son first.

kwokwc:

Just wondering if there is any course for parents to aid our kids in Maths olympiad training?

Maths Hub does conduct such a http://www.mathshub.com.sg/schedule.cfm?registerOnline=1&id_term=12&id_centre=13&showParentsWorkshop=1. However, I don't think it is necessary for parents to attend. For students with potential, IMHO, there is no need for them to attend external Maths Olympiad courses conducted by training centres. Just let your boy try out the NMOS questions on his own, if he can't solve them at the first attempt, then try again another time (and only refer to the solutions as a last resort). I have left my email address in your pm. Feel free to email to me if you have more queries.

[ksunflower]

Hi,


May I ask the KS parents, when do you start training your child for Maths Olympiad, be it NMOS, SMOP or SMO Junior/Senior?

[jtoh]

verykiasu2010:

Understand a K2 kid (next year P1) is currently training for SMO junior !!


Incredible ! Whose kid huh ?

:!: