This is posted by LJ's mum
At primary level, the more prestigious local Maths and Science competitions/olympiads include:
- NMOS (National Mathematical Olympiad of Singapore) and SPSO (Singapore Primary Science Olympiad) for P5, organised by NUS High
- SMOPS/APMOPS (Singapore - Asia Pacific Mathematical Olympiad for Primary School) for P6, organised by HCI
- RIPMWC (RI Primary Mathematics World Contest) for P6, organised by RI
At secondary/JC level, there are many more Maths and Science competitions/olympiads available. These include: Singapore Mathematical Olympiad (SMO Junior/Senior/Open), American Maths Contest (AMC 10/12), Australian Maths Competition (AMC Westpac), Singapore Junior Physics Olympiad (SJPhO), Singapore Physics Olympiad (SPhO), Singapore Junior Chemistry Olympiad (SJChO), Singapore Chemistry Olympiad (SChO), Singapore Biology Olympiad (SBO), National Olympiad in Informatics (NOI) etc. The ultimate of the olympiads would be to represent Singapore in the following prestigious international Maths and Science olympiads for high school students (Singapore's medal tally in 2010 are given):
- International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) (4 Silver, 1 Bronze)
- International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) (1 Gold, 4 Silver)
- International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) (2 Gold, 2 Silver)
- International Biology Olympiad (IBO) (1 Gold, 3 Silver)
- International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) (1 Gold, 1 Silver, 2 Bronze)
The selection of Singapore representatives (only citizens and PRs are eligible) for the above competitions is through rigorous selection processes. Typically, high-potential students are selected from the local competitions (SMO, SChO, SPhO, SBO, NOI, etc.) and they will go through weekly training by NUS lecturers/professors/trainers and then sit for a series of selection tests, before the final national teams to represent Singapore are selected. The national teams then go through more intensive training sessions (could be daily, starting from June holidays up till international olympiads in early/mid July).
The International olympiads are usually held in July of each year (with the exception of IOI, which may be held in August). It is not impossible for a student to represent Singapore in more than 1 Olympiad. However, it is evident that with all the intensive trainings and the international olympiads being held closely together (in June/July), a student may have to make the difficult choice of giving up one olympiad for another. Or the student could try again, to gain a coveted place in the "dropped" olympiad's national team, in the following year.
I think if one is going to pursue the ultimate in Olympiads (i.e. represent Singapore in IMO/IPhO/IChO/IBO/IOI), one will need to put his/her heart and soul into it. One should probably be involved in not more than 2, or at most 3 types of national-level olympiads. If you get involved in too many, you could become "Jack of all trades, master of none". It is also not practical to be involved in too many, as the competitions, training sessions and selection tests are bound to clash with one another, not forgetting that in the midst you will have heavy school workload to juggle, so the balancing act is going to be extremely challenging.
For Lim Jeck, he is focussing more on IMO, but he is also involved in Physics Olympiad Training (school elective module) and NOI/IOI training. He is taking part in the Maths/Physics/Informatics olympiads. So far he has represented Singapore in IMO twice, in 2009 and 2010. Hopefully he has the chance to represent Singapore in IMO again in 2011 - 2013 (and clinches a Gold eventually), and also in IOI, in 2012 or 2013.
It is unbelievable. We have just won for ourselves another iPad (the one in the centre)! This time, it is won by Lim Min, who took part in the DSO Quiz which was open to current students of Raffles Institution (RI JC) during the career fair.
In preparation for the SIMO National Team Selection Test (NTST) on 30 Apr and 1 May (4.5 hrs each day, 9 am to 1.30 pm), Lim Jeck has been excused from lessons and CCA commitments this week (25 Apr to 1 May).
As stated in the letter, the arrangement is to allow students from the National Team to fully concentrate on a 5-day intensive training, to increase the chance of qualifying for the IMO National Team 2011. Alternative arrangements will be made for lessons missed.
The Direct School Admission – Secondary Exercise (DSA-Sec) for Primary 6 students has started. Lim Li has applied for the NUS High DSA. The selection test will be held on 25 June, which is about 2 months away. I do not think it is necessary to prepare for the selection test – it is hard to prepare anyway, since there are no past year questions for reference. Both Lim Jeck and Lim Min took the NUS High selection tests some 4 or 5 years ago, respectively. According to them, the Maths questions were easy (as they had been exposed to Maths Olympiad competitions like SMOPS, RI World Maths Contests) but the Science questions comprising Physics, Chemistry and Biology components were more challenging, though they could not remember what kind of questions were being asked.
While both Lim Min and Lim Jeck attempted two DSAs each during their times, Lim Li is going to try only NUS High. In my opinion, it is not advisable to try more than 3 DSAs. It may be emotionally draining for the kids as there will be a series of selection tests and camps (and possibly interviews too) - this could happen from June to August, which coincides with the all important preliminary exam and PSLE preparation period. I would think that students should only attempt DSA for schools of their first-choice (i.e. their dream school(s)), and not their second-choice or even third-choice schools. Why? There is a flip side to the DSA exercise – if you are successful in your second/third-choice school but not the first-choice school, are you going to accept the school? Once you accept the school, you will not be allowed to participate in the S1-posting exercise. What if your PSLE results turn out quite well, qualifying you for the first choice school? Yes, it may be possible to appeal to your dream school after the PSLE results are out. However, there is no guarantee that a place will be offered. Your dream school may request you to sit for tests, or call you up for an interview, and there may be a long agonizing wait for the appeal results (which could be soon after the appeal, or as late as end December, or even early January, after the school sorts out all the acceptances and rejections). There will be emotional upheavals while waiting for and receiving that important call.
Some top secondary schools will give priority to students from the MOE primary gifted education programme (GEP), and these students will apply under a GEP track. Mainstream students may apply under sports/art/music/performing arts, or academic track (math/science/english/mother tongue). For mainstream students, they have to prove that they are very outstanding in sports/art/music/etc., or way above their peers in the academic subject that they are applying. Some other schools like NUS High do not give preference to GEP students, but students who did very well in Maths and Science competitions (e.g. Platinum in SMOPS, Gold in SPSO) will have a higher chance of being selected. I have heard many parents lamenting that their above-average children who are non-GEP and do not have any special talent (in sports/art/academic area) do not stand a good chance in DSAs. I kind of agree with them. I think it is fine to try 1 or 2 DSAs, but don't take it to heart if the DSA is unsuccessful, and parents should encourage their child to focus on the PSLE and do well enough to qualify for his/her dream school.
I took part in the Cryptography Quiz jointly organised by DSO and Temasek Laboratories @ NUS, on 18 March. This afternoon was the prize presentation. Yay, I have won a 64G iPad with 3G. I think they should have given us iPad2, instead of iPad. I heard that the organiser had wanted to get iPad2 as prizes but unfortunately it has not been launched in Singapore yet. I already have a 16G iPad, but with this 64G iPad, we can download more games :) 
The picture above is self-explanatory. The approx. ratio of the number of black tiles to the number of white tiles is 1:2.
The Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament (HMMT) is an annual math tournament for high school students, held at MIT and at Harvard in alternate years. It is held in February and November of each year. With about 900 local participants, HMMT is one of the largest math contests in the United States. Six individual tests (each participant is to pick 2 out of 4 Subject Tests: Algebra, Geometry, Calculus, and Combinatorics) and two team events (the Team Round and the Guts Round) are the major events of the Tournament. 
This morning I took the Asian Pacific Maths Olympiad at NUS High. There were 5 questions, we were given 4 hrs. Question 3 is on Geometry. I took 1.5 hours to do the first 4 questions. For the next 2.5 hours I tried to solve question 5, but I think I only managed to solve it partially.
He also participates in an unofficial Olympiad Marathon initiated by a fellow forum user. Currently, he is ranked 1st, after some 14 rounds of questions.
We are currently the top in national and local for the Cut the Rope game in Cardboard, Fabric and Foil box leaderboard categories, with scores of 140240, 137120 and 132890 respectively.
From The Straits Times - Feng Tianwei, who rescued Singapore from quarter-final exit during the Asian Games 2010.
From My Paper - Monaco's Princess Stephanie was in Singapore to support her daughter, who participated in the inaugural YOG 2010.
