Tuesday 26 January 2010

Failed at CMO 2010

Most of the things in China failed. The food tasted horrible, the room was small, the room was cold and the excursion was prosaic. While the teachers stayed at a warm comfortable hotel room with power plugs and internet, we stayed in a hostel room without any power plug or internet cable. The water was freezing cold, the toilet was the squatting one and the shower was just above the squat toilet. The first dinner we had at the hostel was atrocious, so for the subsequent lunches and dinners, we ate outside.

I can only think of 1 good thing about China - the things are quite cheap.

The CMO questions were relatively easier than the IMO's, but since there was no coordination sessions which involved the team leader/observer to evaluate our solutions and to agree on marks awarded (IMO practice), we lost partial marks everywhere and got low marks. As a result the Singapore team did not perform very well, getting only 3 silver medals and 3 bronze medals. The silver medals were won by Ang Yan Sheng, Ivan Loh and Ryan Chan.

If I had another chance at CMO, I wouldn't want to go. I also heard that next year's CMO would be at a place with a temperature of -26 degrees celsius.

Tuesday 19 January 2010

CMO 2010

I will be in Sichuan-Chongqing, China, from 20 to 25 January for the China Mathematical Olympiad 2010.

Itinerary:
20 Jan (Wed) - arrival
21 Jan (Thu) - opening ceremony
22 Jan (Fri) - 1st day of contest
23 Jan (Sat) - 2nd day of contest
24 Jan (Sun) - excursion / closing ceremony
25 Jan (Mon) - departure

I heard the temperature is 4 - 8 degrees celsius, which is freezing cold :-(

Thursday 14 January 2010

Modules in Year 3 Semester 1

This is a routine post at the beginning of each semester, about modules taken, from most-like to least-like or should I say, from hate-a-little to hate-a-lot ;-)

1. MA5106/5402 Calculus II and Calculus III (You know why)
2. CS3203 Basic Procedural Programming (You also know why, but I haven't started this elective module yet, I may rank this no. 1 and Maths no. 2)
3. PC3110 Mechanics (I think it is more maths than physics)
4. CM3107 Physical Chemistry 1A (It is more physics than chemistry)
5. FA3101 2D Design - Intermediate (The teacher is mundane)
6. ACE (I prefer just listening and not doing anything :-))
7. EL3103 Introduction to Expositions
8. CL3101 Chinese 3A
9. BL3105 General Botany
10. Da Vinci
11. PE

Timetable is rather packed this semester. Total 7 hrs of Math each week (though I can only join M10506 for 2.5 hrs due to timetable clash, and meet Mr Chia in the staff room at other times), 3 days end at 4 pm and 2 days end at 6 pm.