Photo and Video from Germany

Mr Chia (Deputy Leader), Daniel, Ivan, Ryan with Simon, Barry, Jia-Han, me, Dr Wong (Leader), Shu Li (Team Guide)

This was recorded by Jun Wei (note: sound was cut-off halfway through the video)

IMO 2009

Just came back from Germany. The Singapore team won 2 Silver medals, 3 Bronze medals and 1 Honourable Mention. We are ranked 30 out of 104 countries. The top 5 countries are: China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and North Korea.

At Changi Airport Terminal 3, 12 July, leaving for Germany. 11 of us were on the same plane (6 participants, 1 deputy leader - Mr Chia, 4 observers - Jun Wei, Jiawei, Mr Teo, Mdm Teo). Dr Wong, Dr Tay and Dr Hang left a few days earlier.

On the opening day. Ryan is holding Simon, our mascot.

Excursion at Breman.

Excusion again. Took photo with one of the speakers and our tour guide.

Ok, things that I can remember:
a) The food there tasted horrible. Every grain of rice there was very big and does not stick, so the rice kept falling off my plate.
b) Everything there costs more than 2 times the price in Singapore, especially in the airport where a bottle of mineral water costs 3 euros (S$6).
c) At 10pm in Germany, it’s as bright as 6pm in Singapore. At 3am in Germany, it’s as bright as 6.30am in Singapore.
d) I heard the China team completed the first day very quickly, and were writing more solutions to the same questions to hope for special prize.
e) We went to a climate house, where one of the rooms was a very dark rainforest. Ivan got lost there. Later he saw us at another room but when he went there, we were gone. Since he was far behind time, he ate at the café and was more behind time. Later we made an announcement: “Ivan, please come to the exit.” Then he met us there.
f) “fer-sa-gern” (don’t know how to spell or pronounce) means fail.
g) Germany does not sell chicken rice.
h) Ryan bought a very small soft red bolster for 10 euro, I think.
i) They played werewolf with the Philippines, while I was asleep.
j) We played werewolf with the China team.
k) Seashores are windy, even the birds are blown away by the wind.
l) The red light is a lot bigger than the green light (in Germany’s traffic lights).

The exam hall. There was a total of 565 participants in the hall.

World's Greatest Business Mind (Hilarious!)

This is good & hilarious! You can watch me on TV. Haha.

http://www.worldsgreatestbusinessmind.com/20090715-Lim-Jeck%20-create.html

You can also be the world's greatest business mind. Just change the url to your name.

Now in Bremen

Hi. The internet cable works!

Off to Bremen, Germany

Tonight I will be flying to Germany for the 50th IMO.
The itinerary is as follows:
12 Jul: Singapore / Frankfurt
13 Jul: Frankfurt / Bremen
14 Jul: Opening Ceremony
15 & 16 Jul: 1st and 2nd day of competition
17 & 18 Jul: Excursion
19 Jul: 50th IMO Anniversary Celebration
20 Jul: Excursion
21 Jul: Closing Ceremony & Farewell Dinner
22 & 23 Jul: Depart back to Singapore
I heard the legendary Terence Tao will be there. He was the youngest person to win a gold medal at the age of 13 in IMO 1988. He is now Professor Terence Tao!
I will not update my blog until I return from Germany.

Photos from South Africa

My sister just came back from South Africa, from the IWYMIC maths competition. The teams from RI & RGS won 1 Gold, 2 Silvers, 4 Bronzes and 1 Merit for individual awards. My sister won a Silver medal. Some photos taken are below:

SMO 2009 (Open) Special Round

The SMO (Open) special round was held at NUS LT27, and it started at 9.06 am. There were 5 questions. Q1 was geometry, which for the first time, I whacked using trigo instead of using normal synthetic proof; Q2 was a very easy number theory qn; Q3 was quite difficult algebra, Q4 was a very difficult inequality qn and Q5 was a not-so-difficult number theory qn.

It took me about 4.499999 hours to solve Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q5. I tried Q4 but since it was inequality, and I HATE inequality, I did not spend much time to work on the question, because I simply could not remember all theorems on inequalities, such as AM-GM, Power mean, Cauchy Schwartz, Jensen's, and alot of other random theorems discovered by some long-name people.

The competition ended at 1.36 pm.

My sister is flying to South Africa tonight (2 am) with her three RGS friends and teacher. She is taking part in the World Youth Mathematics Inter-City Competition held at Durban. RI also sends a team there.

Modules this Semester

This semester, my most-like to least-like modules are:

1. CS2201 Visual Basic .NET Programming. Initially I was on waiting list for this elective. Luckily they open a 2nd class due to its popularity, I am so very lucky as programming is my favourite! But I will be missing 4 weeks of this module :-(
2. MA4109 Calculus I. I heard that this module is comparable to calculus courses at college and university level. Guess it would be tough.
3. MA4401 Polar Coordinates, Parametric and Vector Functions. This is an honours module.
4. CM2104 Foundation Chemistry 2
5. PC2110 Foundational Physics II. This semester, we should be learning electric & magnetic forces and simple circuit knowledge.
6. EL2105 Language for Literary and Functional Purpose
7. CL2102 Chinese 2B
8. HY2101 Southeast Asia – From Colony to Nation (Selected Countries)
9. PE. I am lucky that I can skip this for 4 weeks :-)

Good thing about this Semester is, there is no Biology module. Also, I will just be sitting in for History - no projects, tests and exams. That means, all my modules are mostly subjects that do not need memorising/studying. Yay!

NUSH Parent Support Group Y2 Gathering

We had a gathering for families of the Year 2s yesterday afternoon, organised by the NUSH PSG (year 2 reps). It was a picnic at the Botanic Gardens, near the Symphony Lake. As you can see from the photos (courtesy of Kendrick's father), not many people turned up. The following people were at the gathering - Kendrick & family, Rania & family, Cheryl's parents, Jordan's (205) family and my family. I think the parents of a 202 student also came. It seemed that families from 203 formed the majority. There were lots of food, like mee-siam, Japanese rice with seaweed, fried chicken wings, chicken shreds with mushrooms soup, meat balls, fish balls, corn pudding, tidbits, packet drinks. Some of us played cards, while the adults chit-chatted with each other, sharing stories (complaints on classes, teachers and students?).

We left at about 6.30 pm.

SMO 2009 (Junior) Special Round and Start of Term 3

Today is the only Saturday that I don't have IMO training, as there is the SMO (Junior) and SMO (Senior) Special Round. I met some of my NUS High friends at NUS LT25, like Kendrick, Jonathan and Yao Rui and other friends like Jethro (RI) and Benny (HCI). After the super long 3 hours, I did all 5 questions. Ryan Chan and Kang Zi Yang (RI) took the Senior test and managed to answer all questions too. My sister took the Senior test and she did 3.

Monday is already the start of Term 3. I wish it would start earlier, since I don't have to go to school anyway. I think I will go back to school in the morning before training starts. So in other words, I have 2 weeks of training left, and after that, I will be in Germany for 2 more weeks, and perhaps after that, I might be quarantined at home for another week, for getting H1N1 or if Germany become one of the affected countries. In total, I would miss more than a month of school.

Mozart In the Office

Creative music!

Interesting Facts About IMO

The 50th International Mathematical Olympiad is less than 1 month away. Here are some interesting facts about the IMO:

a) The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959.
b) Since 1959 the IMO has been held every year except 1980 - it was cancelled due to internal strife in Mongolia (will this year's IMO be cancelled due to H1N1?)
c) Singapore first took part in IMO in 1988.
d) China is the only nation that won IMO all-member-gold for multiple times (8 times).
e) Terence Tao (Australia) won a gold medal at the age of thirteen in IMO 1988, becoming the youngest person to receive a gold medal.
f) Singapore won her only gold medal in IMO 1996. It was won by Thevendran Senkodan from RJC.
g) Christian Reiher (Germany) is the current top contestant in the IMO Hall of Fame, winning 4 gold medals and 1 bronze medal. Reid Barton (USA) is second, with 4 gold medals.
h) The only country to have its entire team score perfectly (score: 42/42) on the IMO was the United States, which accomplished this remarkable feat in IMO 1994.
i) The easiest IMO must be the IMO 1987, as participants must score a perfect 42 to win a gold medal. Someone who scored 41 was ranked 23rd in that IMO.

SIMO Camp

First day: we ate, did some math problems, ate again, did more math problems, ate, then slept. As you could see, we were always eating and solving math problems. Ryan Chan was my room mate. The food was not very nice as some were spicy and there was no chicken rice (my favourite). The hostel room was as bad. The bed was hard and the toilet was very tiny, probably it only had the length and width of a normal room door's width. At night, we, I mean they (senior team and national team, minus the 6 of us in the IMO team), had ice breakers.

Second day: we ate, did some math problems, ate again, did more math problems, ate, then slept. (I copy-and-paste from first day, as the schedule is quite similar). At night, we had a talk by the X-men, not the wolverine one. X-men are people who have participated in previous IMO.

Third day: we, I mean they, had their vertical training, where they were given 4.5 hours to solve 10 questions in a group. The hardest questions were 8 and 10, but 8 seemed to me like an easy problem. At night, we had an amazing race, which I failed miserably.

Fourth day: we had our first quiz, which was a disaster. Q2 was an extremely easy problem but everyone except Aidi got 0 for that particular question. At night, we had a talk by Jun Wei, one of the younger X-men, about his trip in IMO.

Fifth day: we had our second quiz, which was also a massive failure. In the evening, we had a buffet at a certain NUS bistro/restaurant. According to Ryan, the buffet cost only $15 per person, no wonder the food was lousy and not appetising. Then we went back to the hostel. We stayed in the music room until 12 midnight. Actually, at 11pm, all the gates and doors would be locked and no one could enter or exit, but ingenious us put a slipper at the music room door so it could not close.

Sixth day, which is the last day, we, I mean they again, had their oral quiz in the morning (we conducted the quiz), which was about mine sweeper. After lunch, we packed and left the hostel room for good, no ... not until I reach year 5 (when 1-year hostel stay is compulsory for NUS High students).

I am glad to be back at home :-)

Photo of me solving a geometry problem, courtesy of Shi Fangying (RGS).

Special Round Puzzle

This is a 900-pc round puzzle, which I have completed over a few days (1-2 hrs per day). My mother said she fixed this puzzle with her two younger sisters when they were teenagers, like 30 years ago! Recently, she got it from my 7th aunt.

I think it is harder than the normal rectangular shape puzzle as it is difficult to look for the edge pieces (some inside pieces also have similar almost-straight edges), and there are no corner pieces.

I will be going for the SIMO camp, from 5 - 10 June, and will not be updating my blog till I come back from the camp.

More SMO failures

I took the SMO Open today. Like the Junior and Senior papers, this year's Open paper is also harder than the previous two years'. I am sure I scored less than Ivan. Here are my terrible answers:

12560, 54, 2009, 8, 902, 2, ?, 500, ?(224), 2009, 90335, 38889, 88(96), 21856(21855), 4021, 8997, ?, 447, ?(127), 2008, ?, 1, ?(263), 15, 13405?

As you can see, there are more '?' than the junior paper although it has less questions, which means I failed more than the junior paper. Also note that none of the answers or questions have the numbers 26 and 7(actually it has the number 7 since it is such a common 1-digit number), which means it was not set by Mr Teo. Also note that there are 2 answers with 2009, 1 answer with 1, 1 answer is 2 and 1 answer is 2008.

SMO fail!

This year's SMO (Junior) is harder than last year's, or 2 years ago's. I also made many careless mistakes, as many questions need tedious calculations so I did not have time to check any question. I failed totally this year! Here are my answers:

B(C), A, A, B, D, A(C), B, D (E), E, A, 337, 59(47), 513, 2520, 6, 519(173), 2, 2012, 7, 6, 286, 26, 26(7), 641(133), 5?, 26, 7, 2009(948), 111, 142(90?), 7, 85, 63, 1220, 79497

Notice the number of answers being 26 or 7? I am very sure that some of the questions are set by Mr Teo. Many questions also have the numbers 26 and 7 in them.

Can someone who has taken SMO (Junior) or SMO (Senior) [taken by my sister this year] share your answers in the comments field?

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!