里包恩 Is Cool!

My favourite Japanese Anime - Katekyo Hitman Reborn!! It is cool!

Training, and More Training!

I think I am in trouble! There is so much training in the coming weeks. From 9 am to 5 pm, Mon to Sat, from 25 May to 11 July. That is about 7 weeks of continuous training, and after that, another 10 days in Germany.

How am I going to catch up with my school work after I return to school on 24 July?

Help!!!!

Regrets?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Who is Rich and Who is Poor

I read something recently:

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the purpose of showing him how poor people live.

They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"

"It was great, Dad."

"Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.

"Oh yeah," said the son.

"So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.

The son answered:
"I saw that we have one dog and they had four.
We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end.
We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.
Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.
We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.
We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.
We buy our food, but they grow theirs.
We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them."

The boy's father was speechless.

Then his son added, “Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are."

Isn't perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don't have.

Appreciate every single thing you have!

"Life is too short and friends are too few."

(end of passage)

SIMO NTST Results

We got the selection test results today, when the 6 persons who will be representing Singapore in the 50th International Maths Olympiad to be held in Germany, Bremen, from 12 - 22 Jul, were revealed. As expected, Ivan (RI JC), Jia-Han (RI JC) and Ryan Chan (NUS High) have been selected. These 3 are definitely too pro to be not selected!

The others are: Barry Tng (RI JC), Daniel Low (RI JC) and most surprisingly, me. That means, 4 from RI JC and 2 from NUS High.

Being selected, it means the 6 of us have to be at NUS or NUS High to undergo more intensive Maths training, from 25 May to 10 Jul. That includes most of the June holidays. I think I will have to skip some, or alot of lessons during the July period.

The good thing is, the whole trip is sponsored, which means I don't have to pay a cent!

Exam Period

It is exam period now. I will blog again after the exams are over.

8 - 18 May - Exam period. Last paper on 18 May - Vectors in 2 & 3D Space.
20 - 22 May - Marking days
25 - 26 May - Script checking
27 - 29 May - Post-exam activities

I will be attending the SIMO Camp from 5 - 10 June, held at NUS High. It is a 6 Days-5 Nights Free-Lodging-Free-Food (5 meals a day) stay-in camp for the senior team trainees and national team trainees. During the camp, there will be lectures and problem solving in the morning and afternoon, and games and talks during the evening. Hope it will be a fun camp!

SIMO NTST Day 2

We did Q4 to Q6 of the test today. Q4 was on number theory. Q5 was geometry, a lot harder than yesterday's Q1. Q6 was on combinatorics. It took me 3 hours just to solve Q5 and I wrote rubbish for the remaining 2 qns. For Q6, I drew the construction, wrote n=6 and gave a false proof. I wasn't sure what I was writing for Q4. I am sure I FAILED today's test. For the whole 2-day test, I solved 4 out of 6 qns. Ang Yan Sheng (my Year 3 senior) did 1 qn today too, just like me. Ryan Chan (my Year 4 senior) did all 3 today (in total 6 - today's 3 plus yesterday's 3). I think Ryan, Ivan Loh (RI JC1) and Jia Han (RI JC2) should get selected for the final squad. Not sure of the remaining 3.

Some people were complaining that Ivan kept saying 'fail' or 'shi bai' during the test. One thing I like about the NTST is, I am able to skip Chemistry make-up lesson this afternoon at NUS High. Hahahaha.

SIMO National Team Selection Test Day 1

I took the Day 1 of the Singapore International Mathematical Olympiad (SIMO) National Team Selection Test at NUS today, on Labour Day. But I laboured for 4.5 hrs. Ivan Loh from RI-JC laboured for less than 2 hours and everyone was so 'suan' (I think it means, envious or jealous of him). There were 3 questions and I solved 2.9 of them. It was easier than the normal IMO and at least 7 people could solve all of them. Q1 was a geometry qn, Q2 was inequality or algebra and Q3 was number theory. Q2 was a question in the RI's training 2 days ago and it was unfair as the RI students already knew the solution. Q1 was the easiest and I doubt anyone do not know how to solve it. Q3 was a pure whack method, where you used brute force to solve it.

I took 10 minutes to solve Q1, 2 hours to solve Q2 and 1.5 hrs to solve Q3. The rest of the time I did nothing.