Introduction
Taking part in a mathematics competition allows students to sharpen their problem solving skills and serves to generate interest for mathematics amongst them. Annually,there are various mathematics olympiads which primary school students can participate in and some of the more prominient ones are listed in this article.
The Asia Pacific Mathematical Olympiad for Primary Schools 2009 (APMOPS 2009) is organised annually in April -May by the Hwa Chong Institution-Aphelion Consortium. There are two rounds to this mathematics competition for 6th graders.
The first round of the competition is usually held in April and is conducted across the different centres across the Asia-Pacific region. The contest held in Singapore is commonly known as Singapore Mathematical Olympiad for Primary Schools (SMOPS).
Awards for SMOPS
Students compete for the following awards in the SMOPS.
1) Top 10 individual prizes, awarded to the top 10 scorers.
2) 3 Honourable Mention Team Awards and 5 Honourable Mention Individual Awards.
3) Top 3 school awards, given to the three schools with the highest combined score of its top three students.
In addition, students who are ranked amongst the top 10% or top two hundred participants(whichever is lower) will be invited to write the second round of the contest known as the Asia-Pacific Mathematical Olympiad (APMOPS) 2009. This year’s contest was held on a Saturday, 30 May 09.
APMOPS 2009
During APMOPS, students get the opportunity to interact with other mathematically talented students from the various countries. They also compete for the forty individual prizes which will be given out on afternoon of 30 May 09.
Format of the APMOPS Contest
The APMOPS contest challenges students to complete six questions within two hours.
No mathematical tables or calculators are allowed for the contest. Students have to show all the workings for each question. Each question carries 10 marks and the total score is 60 marks.
National Mathematical Olympiad of Singapore (NMOS)
The NMOS is a competition organised by the NUS High School of Mathematics and Science. This competition is designed to spur interest amongst students for mathematics. This competition is usually held in the months of July-August and welcomes students in Primary 5 and below to participate to challenge their mettle with other mathletes. Various awards are given to students who managed to achieve quality scores in competition. Usually the registration begins in May of every year.
American Mathematics Contest 8(AMC 8)
The American Mathematics Contest 8 is the first of a series of mathematics competitions organised by the Mathematical Association of America and is administered by Maths Oasis Pte Ltd in Singapore. This International competition welcomes students who are interested in mathematics and enrolled in grades 8 or Secondary 2 and below to participate.
Students get to challenge themselves with mathematics that is beyond what they usually encounter in school and they can experience a wide spectrum of topics available in Middle School Mathematics. The multiple-choice format of this competition makes it attemptable by many students. Students need to complete 25 questions within a forty-minute period and there is no penalty for wrong answers.
Annually, more than a hundred thousand students participate in the AMC 8 contest.High scoring students in this contest can look forward to challenge themselves in higher levels contest such as the AMC 10. AMC 12 or American Invitationa lMathematics Examiniations. These are the various mathematics competitions and olympiads students in Singapore can participate in annually from the primary school levels onwards.
Source by Penny Chow
