All About Math Olympiad Training & Questions

[Merlion]

Good question from PowerPuff Mum ! :celebrate:

[Fairy]

Merlion:

Different maths competitions have different age requirement. For example NMOS is for P4 and P5. I think P1 or P2 is a bit too young to think about maths competition. you might want to think about GEP selection test first because if your son is really gifted in maths, there is a very good chance that he will be selected for GEP. Please take note that school text book's maths is quite different from competition's maths. A kid can score 100% in school test but that does not mean that the kid can do well in maths competition. You need to be truely gifted in maths in order to do well in maths competition.

Personally, I think skills in competition Maths can be trained. I also know of people who (not trained in competition Maths) did better in their School Maths than those who won Platinum Awards in Competition Maths.

Someone who received rigorous training in Competition Maths (who must be good in Maths in the first place) will be able to answer more of the questions compared to those who are (a) good in Maths, but no/little training &/or (b) Not good in Maths, but with training. Awards are given out on a relative basis. ie. Able to perform better than the majority in your cohort.

Unless MO training becomes part & parcel of the school syllabus and everyone gets similar level of training. The awardees will always be those who bother to get proper training and are dead serious about drilling themselves for the competition and getting an award. Hardwork, besides brain power, does pay. There are many who sign up for the competition after attending only some crash course.

[Merlion]

> I also know of people who (not trained in competition Maths) did better in their School Maths than those who won Platinum Awards in Competition Maths.


I agree and this is very common. It is easy to prepare for school maths test because more or less the questions are kind of "expected". But MO is a bit different, there are too many types of questions and it is not easy to prepare the kid. The kid must be smart enough to apply what he has learnt in school / home to the questions in the competition in a very limited time. A kid can be trained to get into Special Round but I think the kid must be gifted in maths in order to win a Gold / Platinum award.

[Merlion]

Just to share with you something that I learnt from a talk last month. The speaker of the talk told us that most of the Maths competition winners were not TOP students in their school maths test. The reason is that they found the school maths material too boring and refused to be "drilled" with these kind of questions. They still do well in the school tests but not TOP.

[kiasiparent]

PowerPuff Mum:

kiasiparent:

The NMOS exam round 1 was relatively easy. Any students who have decent calculation skills and good logical mind should be able to do well. Round 2 was rather difficult.

I have only one question for Kiasiparent.
Have any of your offsprings won a gold or silver medal for any Maths Olympiad WITHOUT any training?

No. My boy is only 2 years old.

And i have never won participated in any singapore maths competition before. Only participated in some competitions like the AMC and New South Wales which i got distinction, credit and participation sometimes.

[kiasiparent]

Merlion:

Just to share with you something that I learnt from a talk last month. The speaker of the talk told us that most of the Maths competition winners were not TOP students in their school maths test. The reason is that they found the school maths material too boring and refused to be \"drilled\" with these kind of questions. They still do well in the school tests but not TOP.

Not really. There are some who remain top whether in school syllabus or competition. Look at lim jeck. http://www.limjeck.com/index.jsp

Its not fair to compare a few maths competition winners to the whole cohort.

[kiasiparent]

r1 answers

1) 81
2) 40%
3) 60
4) 75
5) 90%
6) 4
7) 40
8 ) 98
9) 1
10) 30
11) 12
12) 30
13) 25
14) 180 minutes
15) 450
16) 55%
17) 201
18 ) 2
19) 7
20) 60
21) 3
22) 11
23) 97
24) 231
25) 385
26) 4231
27) 3220
28 ) 9990
29) 552
30) 75

r2 answers
1) 2007
2) 126
3) 120
4) 484
5) 784
6) 25
7) 48
8 ) 517
9) 360
10) 6
11) 6
12) 212
13) 88
14) 6
15) 34
16) 6
17) 21
18 ) 74
19) 3
20) 10

My answers may not be correct.

[Merlion]

> Not really. There are some who remain top whether in school syllabus or competition. Look at lim jeck.


That’s why speaker said "Most", not "All".

> Its not fair to compare a few maths competition winners to the whole cohort.

I am not comparing. I am just sharing what I heard / learnt in the talk.

[Merlion]

> No. My boy is only 2 years old.


He should do well in 2017 NMOS Round1. I think you should have all the NMOS 10 years series' questions and answers ready for him by then. Cheers ! :celebrate:

[Suz855]

Original Title: Maths olympia qn - soln anyone?


Qn :
3 boys Albert, Ben and Chris participated in a 100m race. When Albert crossed the 100m mark, Ben was at 90m. When Ben crossed the 100m mark, Chris was at 90m. By how many metres did Albert beat Chris?

Thanks