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.

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 :-(

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.

3D Pyramid Puzzle

Chance of Being Selected for IMO

In China, about 200,000 participants will take part in the national China Mathematical Competition held in October every year. Out of the 200,000 participants (and some more from CWMO and CGMO), eventually 6 will make it into the China IMO team. The chance is about 0.003%.

In Singapore, about 2,000 participants will take part in the Singapore Mathematical Olympiad (SMO) Open category each year (in exact figures, 1895 participants in 2007, 1945 participants in 2008 and 1877 participants in 2009 -statistics obtained from the Singapore Mathematical Society website). Out of these participants (and some more who have not taken part in SMO Open but are recommended to take the Open category Special Round), only 6 will make it into the Singapore IMO team. The chance is about 0.3% (only counting those who take part in the SMO Open, not the whole cohort!)

Therefore, it is 100 times harder to get into the China IMO team than to get into the Singapore IMO team! I won't be surprised if there are young Maths talents in China who may be able to beat Terence Tao's (Australian) record of being the youngest IMO Gold medalist (at 13) but unfortunately due to the stiff competition, they can't make it into the China IMO team (top 6) earlier!

Maths Olympiads in China

In China, every year in October, there is a national China Mathematical Competition, from which about 120 students are selected to join the Chinese Mathematical Olympiad (CMO), in January the following year. CMO lasts for five days, and the format and difficulty of the problems mirror those of the IMO - a 2-day competition where participants solve 3 problems each day in 4.5 hours. From CMO, about 20-30 students are selected to form a national training team.

Because of the differences in education and culture, Maths competitions in the Western part of China do not develop as fast as the eastern part. To promote Maths interest in the western China, the China Western Math Olympiad (CWMO) has been conducted since 2001, and the top 2 winners are invited to join the national training team.

From 1986 till a few years ago, the China team did not have any female trainee. To encourage more women to join the Maths competitions, since 2002, the China Girls Math Olympiad (CGMO) has been conducted to select female students gifted in Maths. Again, the top 2 winners are admitted directly into the national training team. The winner of CGMO 2007 joined the national training team in 2008 and she won a Gold medal for China in the 49th International Math Olympiad (IMO) held in 2009!

The China national training team undergoes intensive training and a 2-week Maths camp. After 6-8 tests, plus 2 qualifying examinations, 6 students are finally selected to form the national team, to take part in IMO in July that year. With a very huge pool of participants to select from, dedicated & experienced coachers, perservering & talented trainees and numerous stringent selection rounds, it's no wonder the China team has been doing very well in the IMO. Since 1985, China has taken part in the IMO 24 times (she missed the IMO held in Taiwan in 1998!) and has won the top ranking for countries 15 times!

Besides IMO, Singapore has also sent representatives to take part in the CMO, CWMO and CGMO. A team selected from our own national training team will participate in the CMO to be held in Chongqing, Sichuan, from 20-25 Jan 2010. The team comprises Vincent Tjeng (RI-JC), Ivan Loh (RI-JC), Lee You Jun (RI), Ryan Chan (NUSH), Ang Yan Sheng (NUSH) and I (NUSH). Our trainers cum teachers-in-charge Mr Lu and Mr Teo are also going. This trip is fully sponsored by MOE :-)

Hunter x Hunter

Hunter x Hunter is a nice and cool Japanese comic/anime! It is about Gon Freecss (the boy dressed in green), who one day discovers that the father he had always been told was dead is actually alive and well. He learns that his father, Ging Freecss, is a legendary, top-notch Hunter. The fishing rod (see picture) belongs to his father and is quite useful to Gon throughout his journey to look for his father.

Gon leaves home to take the Hunter qualification exam, where he meets Kurapika (the chain dude), Leorio (with tiny black specs) and Killua (white-haired). The four of them become good friends, while going through the grueling exam to get a Hunter license. Each year, less than one in a hundred thousand can pass the exam.

Kurapika has scalet eyes which are very powerful and will automatically surface when he is agitated. He wants to kill the Phantom Troupe for some reasons that are too long for me to narrate here. He looks like a girl but is a boy.

Leorio wants to be a doctor and loves money alot. He is kind of dumb and loves to shout and quarrel with Kurapika. He hates Tonpa, the Rookie Crusher, whom he met in the Hunter exam.

Killua is from a family of elite assassin. During the exam, he plucks a criminal's heart in a split second and crushes it. He says his skill is only elementary and that his father can take out the heart without any traces of blood. He is the only one of the four good friends to fail the exam in the final phase as he kills someone on impulse, agitated by his brother (Illumi)'s taunting remarks.

There are so many things to say about this story with its many fascinating characters (e.g. Hisoka the creepy magician, Illumi, Chairman Netero, Honzo the baldie etc) and unique storyline. So just go and watch or read it. It is really a very absorbing story. Even my mother is addicted to watching it. Of course that includes the 3 of us.

Above picture: Hunter x Hunter DVDs and comic books which we borrowed from the library. Each DVD has 5 episodes in it and each DVD box contains 3 DVDs. We had borrowed volume 1 and 2 from the library (the only 2 the library has) which totaled 30 episodes, from the beginning to the end of the Hunter Exam. That is from comic book 1 to half of book 5. But the DVDs have extra scenes that the comic book does not have. The library has up to book 25. The beginning (1st episode) is kind of boring but from the time when Gon begins to journey towards the venue of the Hunter exam, it gets very exciting and entertaining. When we went to Jurong Regional Library to borrow, initially we couldn't find the DVDs in the Young People DVD anime section where other anime such as Inuyasha and Naruto were located. But later we found the Hunter x Hunter DVDs in the Adult DVD section, which was kind of wierd!!

(posted by Lim Min)

Books from Australian Mathematics Trust

My mother exchanged the book vouchers which we won in the Australian Maths competition, for the above 3 books. The green one (Australian Maths Olympiad) is lousy. The solutions are too whacking, there are many errors and two of the questions are exactly the same (1982 & 1986). Buy it at your own risk.
The giant red ugly, hideous, with ridiculously simple questions and costly (if without voucher) book is for my younger sister.

A to Z Transformation

This palm drawing is done by my younger sister, Lim Li, the video is recorded by my older sister, Lim Min, and the video is uploaded to youtube by my mother.

Comic Books

If you can't find some comic books in the library, here is where they have gone to. My sisters wanted the Skip Beat comic books, not me. I only read Naruto and Case Closed. We have been reading comic books every day.

Case Closed

This comic series is about a 17-year-old high school prodigious detective named Jimmy Kudo who was turned into a small tiny first-grader (and thereafter known as Conan Edogawa) after 2 men in black poisoned him. Read to find out how Conan solved many mysteries and criminal cases ... you can either borrow the comic books from the library or read from http://www.onemanga.com/Detective_Conan/

You can also watch the episodes on youtube.

My sisters and I like such detective stories!

How to get Rank 1 in CSU Math Contest

This week, both my younger sister and I were ranked 1st in the CSU (Columbus State University) Math Contest
http://www.colstate.edu/mathcontest/index.php

How to get Rank 1?

- Go to the CSU Math Contest website slightly before 1 pm on Monday

- Get ready a calculator and whatever materials you may need (e.g. pen, paper)

- The questions would be uploaded promptly at 1 pm. If you are not sure if the time on your watch is accurate, refresh your web page every few seconds

- You have to do the questions real fast!

My Semester 2 Results

As expected, Chinese and English are my worst subjects.

Chinese: B+ (4.0)
English: B (3.5)
Chemistry: A+ (5.0)
Physics: A+ (5.0)
Maths Calculus: A+ (5.0)
Maths Honours: A+ (5.0)
VB .Net Programming: A+ (5.0)
Kitchen Chemistry: Merit

A+ >=85 (5.0), A >=80 (5.0), A- >=75 (4.5), B+ >=70 (4.0), B >=65 (3.5), etc.

Overall, I am happy with my CAP/Semestral GPA of 4.7.

Teachers' Comments

Chinese 2B - Jeck writes well but he has to maintain consistency in his performance. He is a pleasant student who is capable of attaining better results.

Foundation Chemistry 2 - Lim Jeck has done well in this module. He has no difficulty understanding the concepts taught, and is able to acquire new knowledge quickly, as well as transfer his knowledge to other contexts. He has very high academic potential.

Kitchen Chemistry - Lim Jeck is a bright boy who shows interest in the practical sessions. He has the ability to do better for the module with more consistent effort to produce quality work.

Introduction to Visual Basic .NET Programming - Lim Jeck is a very bright boy who has the potential to do well in computing. He is always able to pick up the concepts taught quickly and apply them immediately to a problem posed. He is strongly encouraged to explore further in the area of computing.

Language for Literary and Functional Purpose - Jeck is a sincere and cheerful student who takes pride in his work. However, he should seek help whenever in doubt. Do participate more actively in class discussions too!

Calculus I - Jeck is well above his peers in terms of his mathematical talent.

Polar Coordinates, Parametric and Vector Functions - Jeck is well-behaved and attentive in class. He does all his assignments and submits them punctually. He has shown great enthusiasm in his learning.

Foundational Physics II - Lim Jeck is a smart student whose strong Math foundation helps him a lot in Physics. He is capable of independent work of excellent quality. His potential in Physics should be treated equally as his Math.

Mentor Remarks : Conduct: Very Good. Jeck is a polite, cheerful and humble student who has done extremely well in the various Mathematics competitions, bringing much glory to the school. Despite his numerous achievements, he treats his peers humbly and adopts a serious attitude towards his studies, in pursuit of even better results. However, he should learn to speak up more in class.

Tomorrow is the last day of school, and holidays begins!

Random Drawing on Palm PDA

My sisters and I have created the following clip on our Tungsten palm PDA. There are a total of 1576 drawings that we have created (over many days). Some parts are not so clear as our camera shook a bit when we took the video.

Creative Thai Commercials

I think the Thai people must be one of the more creative people around. Their commercials are much more creative and funny as compared to those we see in Singapore.

Random Images from IMO 2009

We were given the contest problems in 2 languages (in our case, English & Chinese), 20 sheets of paper to do our work, 1 sheet of paper for asking a question to the jury, 3 coloured problem folders per day, and five coloured cards (see below, self-explanatory) which we could use anytime during the competition.


1 coloured folder to contain solution to 1 question. Total 2 white folders (to contain 3 coloured folders for each day), and 6 coloured folders for the 2-day competition.

Day 1 problems.

My solution to Question 1. Scored 7 marks for this.

My solution to Question 2. Scored 7 marks again.

Wrote something for Question 3, to score a miserable 1 mark.

Day 2 problems.

My solution to Question 4. Scored 3 marks for partial solution.

Could not solve Question 5 & 6. Got zero marks for them.

Total score: 18 marks.

New Vocabulary

I have learnt a few new English words. Usually I learn new vocabulary from watching cartoons, as I hate to read books.

I am gauche.
My younger sister can be morose at times.
My older sister guffaws a lot.
My mother dislikes anything that is gaudy.
My father is an autocrat and a tyrant.

Cows are stout, chickens are gangling.

Bad News and Good News

Bad news is ... the exams are around the corner.
28 & 29 Oct (Wed & Thu) - Reading Day
30 Oct (Fri) - Chinese P1 & P2, English P1
2 Nov (Mon) - Physics, English P2
3 Nov (Tue) - Chemistry, Maths - Polar Coordinates
4 Nov (Wed) - Maths - Calculus I

There is no exam for VB .Net Programming (elective) and Kitchen Chemistry (enrichment). For Programming, though there is no exam, this semester we have had 6 assignments, 2 written tests, 2 practical tests and 1 project. It is still my favourite! I will develop more games after my exams.

Good news is ... most of my modules this semester are non-study subjects so I do not have to memorise many facts :-)

Start of National Team Training

Training for the National Team starts today. I saw many familiar faces, from my school, from RI, RGS, HCI and ACS(I). There were 28 of us, the instructors were the usual ones like Prof Tay and Prof Wong from NUS Maths Dept and Mr Teo, but with two new x-men (a term to describe Singapore IMO alumni). After introducing ourselves to each other, we played some maths (so predictable right) games – solving questions in teams. I think my team did the worst amongst all the 4 teams, but at least our team was the funniest. It’s only 3 hours and the first day, so nothing much happened.

The actual weekly training will start next Saturday, from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm, at NUS Maths Dept. I think it will end sometime next May, just before the National Team Selection Test. The next 51th IMO will be held at Kazakhstan (somewhere in Russia), in the city of Astana, from 2 to 15 July 2010.

Australian Math Competition Prize Presentation

The Australian Mathematics Trust Annual Awards Presentation was held at the Novotel Clarke Quay Hotel this evening. There were 9 of us who won the Peter O'Halloran Award for Excellence for getting perfect score in the Australian Mathematics Competition, 7 for Junior and 2 for Intermediate.

My sister won a Prize Award for the Australian Mathematics Competition (Intermediate) and Perfect Score for Australian Intermediate Mathematical Olympiad (AIMO).

The food was not palatable, only plain donuts, samosas, chicken nuggets, cake, coke, plain water, coffee and tea were served. Unlike last year, cash cheque was not given for Prize awards, which means I did not earn any money this round. Instead, I got a gold medal and a book voucher, and my sister got 2 book vouchers. These are neither Popular nor Borders book vouchers, but we have to pick one Maths olympiad book from a list and fax it to the University of Canberra in Australia.