leooel:

I remember, it should be TOP 30!

Verifying that Platinum awardee, Top 20 SMOPS and Top 30 APMOPS not aware of such training. GEPper, not MSer. Anything else to cover?

:stupid:

tck:

Misty Rain:

It is good to set the records right. At least, mainstreamers can be aware of unfair treatments, if there any, in such MO competitions.

But it's strange that some claimed that there is no training to prepare the SMOPS Platinum holders for PMWC by Po Leung Kuk. Perhaps, parents of Platinum holders can verify this?

Verified.

Sorry, verifying that some Platinum holders are not aware of such training. GEPper, not MSer.

Misty Rain:

It is good to set the records right. At least, mainstreamers can be aware of unfair treatments, if there any, in such MO competitions.

But it's strange that some claimed that there is no training to prepare the SMOPS Platinum holders for PMWC by Po Leung Kuk. Perhaps, parents of Platinum holders can verify this?

Verified.

leooel:

But GEP primarys should know such training and selection.

And you know this how? Another unsubstantiated allegation.

leooel:

52 is the Platinum. I do not make sure they are all GEPpers. I only know a MSer in TOP 20 did not know such things.

Well, evidently some GEPpers in Top 20 are also not aware. So looks like this is probably a special arrangement made by HCI for selected schools they are targetting (Chinesey ones). So your initial suspicion that GEPpers got an unfair insider information/MO training while MSer was left out is totally wrong. This is how rumours get started, would have been better for the MSer to clear up with HCI than to anyhow spread such things.

Which brings us to this next question, if indeed HCI targets Platinum awardees from selected schools to train for MO, instead of using a transparent means of training, say, the top 10 from SMOPS (as NUSH does with NMOS and RI does with RIPWMC), is this fair? Or is this within each school's prerogative, much like it's RI's prerogative whom it wants to accept for DSA?

leooel:

Misty Rain:

[quote=\"layperson\"]HCI did sent a team of 4 to Hong Kong for PWMC by Po Leung Kuk. 2 students are selected from Nan Hua and Tao Nan respectively. The contest is usually held in mid July. Accommodation in Panda hotel, food, air ticket and tours of Disneyland are fully sponsored.


RI also sents a team too. It is selected from top 4 Singaporean or PR in RIPMWC.

I wasn't aware that HCI sent one team too. Do you know the selection criteria?

From the ~TOP 52 children of SMOPS, after the training.[/quote]Sorry, I know of GEP kids in Top 20 SMOPS and there was never any training offered by HCI. Unfair to GEP kids?

layperson:

HCI did sent a team of 4 to Hong Kong for PWMC by Po Leung Kuk. 2 students are selected from Nan Hua and Tao Nan respectively. The contest is usually held in mid July. Accommodation in Panda hotel, food, air ticket and tours of Disneyland are fully sponsored.


RI also sents a team too. It is selected from top 4 Singaporean or PR in RIPMWC.

Special arrangement for Hokkien Huay Kwan schools? How are students selected? If only for Hokkien Huay Kwan schools, maybe some of the forummers here should cry foul over how unfair this is to non-Hokkien Huay Kwan schools. The GEP-has-unfair-advantage-over-MS horse has been flogged to death already :xedfingers:

leooel:

I think there is a MO training by HCI (?) after APMOPS, which is also used to select a team to for an international contest. No person told the MSer the results after APMOPS. This is the difference between GEP pri. or Mainstream ones?

As far as I know, HCI does not train any team for international competitions. SMOPS/APMOPS do not lead to any additional MO training either. You get your medals and voucher, and that's it.

For P6, there are two international Math competitions, one trained by NUSH and the other by RI. So your little MSer friend was wrong to have felt wronged :lightrod: He wasn't robbed of any MO training or subsequent international contest.

leooel:

Such imbalance or unfair always exists. I know some GEP primarys, such as Nanhua has such MO training from Pri.3 or 2(?). I know a MSer is in TOP 20 in the last years' SMOPS. But he knew his place one month after the ceremony, and lost the chance to be MO training after the ceremony.

My friend's son who was MSer in Nanhua some years ago (now in HCI) was offered MO training when he was in Nanhua too. This is not a programme offered exclusively to GEPpers. But I do believe the teachers screen and offer to the ones who are better in Math. Nanhua doing this isn't because it's a GEP school, it is providing MO training (by external vendor if I'm not wrong) to its strong Math students.

Why would the MSer only know of his position after the ceremony? Top 20 is announced at the ceremony, together with the top 30 APMOPS. And what MO training is this? There is no special MO training offered to top 20 SMOPS kids. I stand corrected.

It is a tradition of RI. Some MSers even being ~TOP 10 of SMOPS cannot get the COs or WLs from RI via DSA. Maybe TOP 3 is a help? But you know it almost is impossible because MSers often have not so many MO trainings as the GEPPers.

The connotation is that if only MSers had as many MO trainings as GEPpers, they would do better (be among the Top 3), and this is an impossibility because GEPpers have more MO trainings. An unsubstantiated conjecture.

Firstly, as far as I know, there are no special MO trainings for GEPpers only. If GEPpers who top Olympiads do attend trainings, these are on their own accord and these centres are open to all students. Let’s not begrudge the kids who excel in Olympiads, be they MSers or GEPpers, those who attend trainings or don’t. Why pit one group against the other? These are just 12-year olds.

Nobody knows what RI is looking for. There have been cases of GEP kids who do well in Olympiads, hold key positions in school, and are rejected. But while we don’t know what RI is looking for, RI knows what it’s looking for. It has had years of assessing DSA applicants and its pool of successful students must have done well enough through the years for the school to continue wanting to take in a certain type of student.

Even among GEPpers who are among the top in Olympiads, nobody feels they are a shoo-in when it comes to RI. The red carpet is rolled out to the outstanding sportsmen and maybe the creative ones. Being excellent academically and outstanding in Math and Science at the primary school level, don’t seem that big a deal to RI, they have plenty of these and have ready supply from other countries.