crm:

love.actually:

This year GEP, strangely many commented English is easy and Math is very easy, at least from my DS's class. I believe standard will be raised since this year GEP is too easy. Even students from mixed abilities classes find both papers easy.

Over the past years, those who find English easier than Math will normally go to round 2. It does not matter if cannot complete Math paper but the kids definitely need to complete English paper in order to have higher chance of getting into the selection round. In conclusion, students who are powerful in vocabulary will benefit. Son says most words were being taught in P1 and P2. There are only a few that looks alien to him.

Hi may I know your kid is from top elite school? It sounds amazing that they found both papers are so easy

He's from one of the co-ed GEP-SAP school... But then MOE says all schools are the same so it should not matter which school right?
His teacher reminded the class to do English carefully and try to finish the whole paper. Hence, I guess English is more important though of course, need to do well for Math too.

This year GEP, strangely many commented English is easy and Math is very easy, at least from my DS’s class. I believe standard will be raised since this year GEP is too easy. Even students from mixed abilities classes find both papers easy.

Over the past years, those who find English easier than Math will normally go to round 2. It does not matter if cannot complete Math paper but the kids definitely need to complete English paper in order to have higher chance of getting into the selection round. In conclusion, students who are powerful in vocabulary will benefit. Son says most words were being taught in P1 and P2. There are only a few that looks alien to him.

sembgal:

love.actually:

Regarding which centre is the best, based on past 2 years results, obvious answer is Yishun. It consistently produced the most numbers of 1st and 2nd prize winners.

Any website to refer to?

Unfortunately no, they do not published the results on website. Many parents (including me) will Kaypo, walked around and checked out the results of other centres since all results are pasted on the wall by centres.
Maybe Yishun is the headquarter that's why the better overall performance. It is the first CMA center so I guess the teachers are perhaps more experienced.. I can't comment much on the teachers as my kids are not from Yishun. It's too far away from my house.

Regarding which centre is the best, based on past 2 years results, obvious answer is Yishun. It consistently produced the most numbers of 1st and 2nd prize winners.

8th International Mental Arithmetic Olympiad was held yesterday. No doubt it was a great event that both my children really enjoyed, I was totally drained after the prize presentation and thought there are some rooms for improvement.


1. Allocate the seats at Agora Hall 1 & 2. Limit 2 tickets (seats) to each participating child + 1 parent. In view that there are more than 1000 participants, the seats are really limited. I saw so many people bringing whole kampong of "supporters" and selfishly blocking the seats even when their children were competing at Agora 3 & 4. Many parents ended up standing and squeezing behind while watching the live-feed. I am sure it was really uncomfortable and we had so many overseas participants and visitors. It shows nothing but how ugly Singaporeans are.

2. While watching live-feed, parents noticed there were students who continued writing for at least a couple more seconds after Master Tai announced loudly "停". However, the invigilators did nothing. There should be tougher rule to this. It was too obvious especially the first few rows where the camera kept focusing on them.

3. Releasing of results. It was a complete chaotic at 4pm when results were released. Almost all parents rushed forward to check if their kids are among the top 3s. Too much of squeezing and pushing! My goodness!! Instead of pasting the tiny A4 size results slip on the wall by centres, each centre should send the results by sms / email to the parents. Centre manager can simply take a photo of the results and send a mass email to all parents. If the child is among top 3, come back and re-assemble at Agora Hall 1 & 2 at 4.45pm for the prize presentation.

Hope that next year will be more organized. If Republic Polytechnic is too small to accommodate so many people, maybe the Olympiad should be held at Singapore expo.

I think 3.5 to 4 years is probably a good age to start, as long as the child knows 0 to 10. On the other hand, it is also never too late to start. My boy started late too. However, I think it is good to start younger so that they can complete the course by end of P2. In P3, there will be a lot more homework from school and CMA homework is quite a lot too. There are 3 to 4 books and an audio CD - 70 questions. In total, each child does about 150 to 200 questions per week. My DS enjoys but DD just complete the bare minimum.


Putting academic results aside, what I find really effective is it trained my children how to stay focus and be meticulous in their work. DS is in P3 now and I am glad he was able to obtain 98% for overall semester 1. In the recent SA, he completed his paper in 30min and had 1hr to check the answers. For math, it's really about speed and accuracy. There are some students who could not complete the math paper. Likewise for my DD in p1, she managed to get perfect score for her math assessment (of course P1 is super easy but also super easy to make careless mistake) so I hope she remains consistent.

I am just sharing my personal experience and I do hope it will benefit your child too. Out of so many enrichment classes that my children attended (from piano, international chess, ballet, phonics, speech & drama etc...) in their pre-school days, I find abacus and phonics among the most useful ones. The only regret is I should have let my DS start CMA when he was younger so that he could have complete DAN level by now.

Hope this sharing helps...

Apart from addition and subtraction, I am particularly impressed with how fast my kids pick up multiplication. After 2 terms, they should already mastered single digit time table. By the time the kids enter P1, I believe majority are able to do 2 digits x 1 digit mentally. E.g. 25 x 8 / 68 x 7 .. You will be impressed that the kids are able to count faster than we pressing the calculator.

Hi nlimm, 2 weeks ago, there was a selection test. Elder one was invited to participate but not the younger one. However, I told teacher I am keen to let the younger one participate too, for the experience and fun of it. The teacher-in-charge agreed so I registered for both of them.

CMA 8th International Arithmetic Olympiad will be held on 7th June @ Republic Polytechinc. It's a very interesting annual event and there are participants from several countries. Do let your child participate and join in the fun.

My elder one started CMA only when he was in K2. That was \"quite old\" as many kids started when they were in N2 or K1. I did not regret sending him to CMA as it does helps him in mental calculation when he entered Primary school. Teachers commented he is fast and accurate. He shows model drawings and workings in problem sums and uses mental to check the answers. Not sure if it's the training from CMA, it does helps him to pick up concepts fast. For The CD, yes, I also let him do 20-30 questions per week. Now in P3, he's doing 3 digits 8 numbers. Very tough in my opinion. However, I also heard different views from other parents that abacus confused their kids in school and they withdrew their kids subsequently. I think it works differently for each child. Even for my younger one, I find she did not progress as fast as her brother but still, it helps her.