Min Jeck Li

2003

1999

SMO 2013 (Open Section) Answers

SMO 2013 Open Special Round Participants List

SMO 2013 (Open) Questions

SMO 2013 (Open Section) Answers

1. 12877
2. 1
3. 3
4. 20
5. 81
6. 2
7. 240
8. 135
9. 75
10. 6
11. 2
12. 5
13. 120
14. 150
15. 106
16. 32
17. 67
18. 3
19. 1
20. 1611
21. 10
22. 13
23. 76
24. 97344
25. 64

All answers are provided by Lim Jeck.

SMO (Open) Previous Years' Cut-off Points (Inclusive of Round 2 scores)
Updated: 2013 Gold (26), Silver (13), Bronze (10), HM (9), Top 30 (28)
2012 Gold (21), Silver (8), Bronze (6), HM (5), Round 2 (8)
2011 Gold (18), Silver (9), Bronze (6), HM (5), Round 2 (9)
2010 Gold (38), Silver (9), Bronze (6), HM (5)
2009 Gold (27-29), Silver (9), Bronze (6), HM (5)
2008 Gold (27), Silver (11), Bronze (10), HM (6)
2007 Gold (19-20), Silver (9), Bronze (6), HM (5)

IPhO 2013 Singapore Team

The following five students have been selected to represent Singapore at the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) 2013, to be held in Copenhagen Denmark from 7-15 July:

From NUS High: Sean Seet, Byorn Tan and Lim Jeck
From RI: Daniel Mark and Ashwin

The group will be having residential training at NIE, Nanyang Technological University, from 5-8 June and 24-29 June.

SMO 2013 (Senior Section) Answers

SMO 2013 Senior Special Round Participants List

SMO 2013 (Senior) Questions

SMO 2013 (Senior Section) Answers

1.  D
2.  D
3.  E
4.  A
5.  C
6.  E
7.  A
8.  C
9. E
10. D
11. 8000
12. 595
13. 6
14. 80
15. 10
16. 101
17. 10001
18. 31
19. 0
20. 36
21. 81
22. 287
23. 66
24. 343
25. 40
26. 181
27. 2040
28. 300
29. 500
30. 300
31. 5
32. 4800
33. 60024
34. 4
35. 81

Answers are provided by Lim Jeck.

SMO (Senior) Previous Years' Cut-off Points (Inclusive of Round 2 scores)
Updated: 2013 Gold (13), Silver (8), Bronze (6), HM (5), Top 30 (~26)
2012 Gold (24), Silver (11), Bronze (8), HM (7), Round 2 (11)
2011 Gold (21), Silver (15), Bronze (10), HM (9), Round 2 (~15), Top 30 (27)
2010 Gold (26), Silver (10), Bronze (7), HM (6)
2009 Gold (19-23), Silver (10), Bronze (7), HM (6)
2008 Gold (27-28), Silver (15), Bronze (10), HM (9)
2007 Gold (29-30), Silver (16), Bronze (12), HM (10)

SMO 2013 (Junior Section) Answers

SMO 2013 Junior Special Round Participants List

SMO 2013 Junior Questions and Solutions

SMO 2013 (Junior Section) Answers

1. D
2. B
3. A
4. B
5. D
6. B
7. D
8. C
9. D
10. D
11. 10000
12. 3
13. 1822
14. 108
15. 20
16. 60
17. 1041
18. 125
19. 6
20. 4
21. 8052
22. 10
23. 55
24. 19
25. 18
26. 48
27. 12
28. 208
29. 10571
30. 3
31. 75
32. 221
33. 62
34. 1648
35. 64

Credits to Clarence Chew and Lim Jeck, for providing and checking the answers, respectively.

SMO (Junior) Previous Years' Cut-off Points (Inclusive of Round 2 scores)
Updated: 2013 Gold (27), Silver (11), Bronze (10), HM (9), Top 30 (~50)
2012 Gold (17), Silver (8), Bronze (6), HM (5), Round 2 (8)
2011 Gold (12), Silver (9), Bronze (7), HM (6), Round 2 (11), Top 30 (~34)
2010 Gold (24), Silver (9), Bronze (8), HM (5)
2009 Gold (11), Silver (7), Bronze (6), HM (5)
2008 Gold (23), Silver (14), Bronze (11), HM (10)
2007 Gold (20), Silver (14), Bronze (11), HM (10)

NUS 2012/2013 Semester 2 Exam Results

Year 6 Semester 1 Progress Report

Lim Jeck's Year 6 Semester 1 results are as follows:

CS6101 Software Engineering A-
EL6103 Language in Society III B
PC6402 Calculus-based Mechanics II A+
PC6404 Calculus-based EMM II A+

Semestral Grade Point Average (GPA): 4.4
Cumulative Average Point (CAP): 4.5
Year 5 & 6 CAP: 4.7
Computing Studies Major CAP: 4.8
Physics Major CAP: 5.0; Honours CAP: 5.0
Mathematics Major CAP: 5.0; Honours CAP: 5.0
Chemistry Major CAP: 4.5

Year 2 Semester 1 Progress Report

Lim Li's Year 2 Semester 1 results are as follows:

AR1301 Art Enrichment -Distinction-
BL2104 Diversity of Life in the Micro-Kingdoms B+
CL2101 Chinese 2A A-
CM1106 Foundation Chemistry II -In progress-
DV2101 Design and Engineering -Excellent-
EL2106 Developing Language and Literary Skills III B+
GE2102 Fundamental Geography A
MA2112 Foundation Mathematics III A+
MA4202V Advanced Mathematical Olympiad Training IV A-
MU2101 Basic Musicianship A-
PC2110 Foundation Physics II -In progress-

Semestral Grade Point Average (GPA): 4.5 (out of 5)
Cumulative Average Point (CAP): 4.5 (out of 5)

IMO 2013 Singapore Team and others

Singapore Team participants

Singapore Team leaders and observers

Dong Ryul Kim from South Korea was 2nd in IMO 2012, with a score of 40 and losing 2 precious marks in the controversial Qn 4. Aim for a perfect score this year, Dong Ryul!

Bobby Shen from USA was 3rd last year, with a score of 39 (he lost 3 marks in the hardest problem, Qn 3). You should aim for a perfect score too, Bobby!

Farrell Eldrian Wu from Philippines is the youngest contestant this year. In 2012 he came in 1st in the Brilliant Challenge and had a perfect score in the Australian Math Competition Junior category. Way to go, Farrell!

APMO 2013 Results

Asian Pacific Mathematics Olympiad Full Results

You can see that Korea, Russia and USA are truly the Math Olympiad powerhouse, each with a total score of 350, meaning all their top 10 students including the those with Honourable Mention, get a perfect score of 35.  Singapore is ranked 7th (tie with Canada), with a total score of 257.

For APMO, the medal award rules are as follows: For a particular country the number of i) Gold awards ≤ 1, ii) Gold + Silver awards ≤ 3, and iii) Gold + Silver + Bronze awards ≤ 7.)

Singapore's Individual Results
Gold: Lim Jeck (NUS High)
Silver: Ling Yan Hao (NUS High), Yap Jit Wu (NUS High)
Bronze: David Lin (RI), Howe Choong Yin (NUS High), Teh Jiun Harn (RI), Sheldon Kieren Tan (RI)
Honourable Mention: Tan Pin Lin (NUS High), Zhang Wen (RI), Tan Siah Yong (RI)

Nipun Pitimanaaree - IMO Hall of Fame

18-year old Nipun Pitimanaaree from Thailand has won 3 Gold and 1 Silver in the last 4 IMO participation. He is taking part in IMO again this year.

It looks like after IMO 2013, he will share the honour of being 2nd (with 4 Gold and 1 Silver) in the IMO Hall of Fame, with Lisa Sauermann from Germany. All the best, Nipun!

Mathematical Medley Vol 38 No. 2

Saw the following from the Singapore Mathematical Society publications webpage,

and ordered a copy.

Report on the 53rd IMO, Singapore Team

Now I know why Lim Jeck had not brought home the IMO 2012 folders containing the questions and his solutions scripts.

Solution to Problem 3, the hardest problem in IMO 2012. Only 8 out of 548 participants could solve it completely.

3rd hardest problem. 86 participants could solve this problem completely. Seems like a short solution to me. 

Solution to Problem 6, the second hardest question. Only 10 participants solved it completely.

Solutions to Qn 1, 2 & 4 are not included here. Go buy the Mathematical Medley if you want to see the solutions to these questions. :D

Email from a friend

I received this email from a friend yesterday. Words cannot describe how touched I am by her email and how grateful I am to her, as she has shared my exact sentiments. Even if only 1 or 2 persons understand, it is good enough for us. Thanks J, if you are reading this and prefer me to remove this post, do let me know.

Hi Bee Yong,

Congrats to Lim Jeck for getting the gold medal for the Apho in Indonesia. He is truly talented in Maths, Physics and IT. And this has landed him in a happy dilemma now. Which to choose IMO or IPHO? 

My 2 cents worth is he should be allowed to go for BOTH.

Priority should go to IPHO because every Singaporean student has only 1 chance in their lifetime to participate in this competition and to forego it is such a waste. So Lim Jeck should attend the intensive training for Physics.

As for Maths, Lim Jeck is already a veteran (represented Singapore 4 times) and has undergone so many intensive trainings before. Therefore for this year Maths training he should be exempted. Even without training I believed that he can probably do as well as the other selected students representing Singapore. 

The selection team for the IMO should be flexible and not just stick to some policy without taking the full picture into consideration. Eg the recent XXX policy of favouring only their own students was such a farce because by sticking to their policy they did not select the best players to represent Singapore which is not correct.

In this case as defending champion, Lim Jeck should be accorded the privileges he deserved eg given a wild card direct entry without having to participate in any training at all.

Regards,

J

Afternote: On the evening of 15/5, SIMO informed me that Lim Jeck would be allowed to go for both IMO and IPhO (if he does qualify to be in the team after the selection test). He no longer has to make the tough decision of choosing only 1 international olympiad if he makes it into both national teams. :)

APhO 2013 Results

Results of the 14th Asian Physics Olympiad.

Top performing countries include: China (8 Gold), Taiwan (5 Gold), Thailand (4 Gold), Singapore (3 Gold), Russia (3 Gold), Indonesia (2 Gold) and Vietnam (2 Gold).

20 countries and about 150 students participated in the APhO 2013. A total of 27 gold medals, 16 silver medals, 19 bronze medals and 12 honorable mention awards are given out.

From left: Wei Heng, Sean, Byorn, Daryl, Ashwin, Daniel, Lim Jeck and Jonathan.

Singapore Team bagged 8 medals as follows:
Gold: Lim Jeck (NUSH) ranked #9
Gold: Daniel Mark (RI) ranked #13
Gold: Sean Seet (NUSH) ranked #25
Silver: Jonathan Ang (NUSH)
Silver: Byorn Tan (NUSH)
Bronze: Bay Wei Heng (HCI)
Bronze: Ashwin (RI)
Bronze: Daryl Pay (RI)

Full Results

As Lim Jeck was told he should focus on only 1 and not 2 International Olympiads, he would have to make a choice between IMO and IPhO after he returns from APhO. What a tough decision for him to make!

Off to Bogor, Indonesia

The Singapore APhO (Asian Physics Olympiad) Team has left for Bogor Indonesia this morning.

Programme of the 14th APhO

5 May - Arrival
6 May - Opening Ceremony, Excursion
7 May - Theoretical Exam
8 May - Excusion
9 May - Experimental Exam
10 May - Excursion
11 May - Science Quiz, lecture
12 May - Closing Ceremony, Farewell dinner
13 May - Departure

Singapore Team:

NTST 2013 Results

The Singapore IMO 2013 national team selection test (NTST) results are out. The following are the top 6: 

1. Lim Jeck (NUS High Year 6) - 5th time participating (2012: Gold & World 1st, 2011: Gold & World 2nd, 2010: Silver, 2009: Bronze)

2. Liu Yijia (RI Year 3) - 1st time participating 

3. Ling Yan Hao (NUS High Year 5) - 2nd time participating (2012: Silver)

4. Eugene Lee Hua Jun (RI Year 4) - 1st time participating

5. Tan Siah Yong (RI Year 4) - 1st time participating

6. David Lin Kewei (RI Year 4) - 1st time participating

The above 6 students will be representing Singapore in the 54th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), which will be hosted by Colombia, to be held in the city of Santa Marta 18 to 28 July 2013. 

NUS High Speech Day 2013

Local University Joint Acceptance Portal

Students who have applied to local universities can use the Joint Acceptance Portal to check if they are accepted by any university, and the course offered. They can use any of the application ids provided by the local universities. They have until 2 June to accept their choice of university/course.

Lim Min has been offered her first choices, from NTU, NUS and SMU.

Offer Letter from NUS

Data Science, Business Analytics

The new kid on the block - Data Science or Business Analytics.

NTU started the Mathematical Sciences (Business Analytics) under School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences two years ago. NUS has a new Business Analytics degree under School of Computing this year. SMU offers Master of IT in Business (Analytics) under School of Information Systems.

Data Science: The Numbers of Our Lives
By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER 
The New York Times
Published: April 11, 2013

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW calls data science “the sexiest job in the 21st century,” and by most accounts this hot new field promises to revolutionize industries from business to government, health care to academia.

The field has been spawned by the enormous amounts of data that modern technologies create — be it the online behavior of Facebook users, tissue samples of cancer patients, purchasing habits of grocery shoppers or crime statistics of cities. Data scientists are the magicians of the Big Data era. They crunch the data, use mathematical models to analyze it and create narratives or visualizations to explain it, then suggest how to use the information to make decisions.

In the last few years, dozens of programs under a variety of names have sprung up in response to the excitement about Big Data, not to mention the six-figure salaries for some recent graduates.

In the fall, Columbia will offer new master’s and certificate programs heavy on data. The University of San Francisco will soon graduate its charter class of students with a master’s in analytics. Other institutions teaching data science include New York University, Stanford, Northwestern, George Mason, Syracuse, University of California at Irvine and Indiana University.

Rachel Schutt, a senior research scientist at Johnson Research Labs, taught “Introduction to Data Science” last semester at Columbia (its first course with “data science” in the title). She described the data scientist this way: “a hybrid computer scientist software engineer statistician.” And added: “The best tend to be really curious people, thinkers who ask good questions and are O.K. dealing with unstructured situations and trying to find structure in them.”

Eurry Kim, a 30-year-old “wannabe data scientist,” is studying at Columbia for a master’s in quantitative methods in the social sciences and plans to use her degree for government service. She discovered the possibilities while working as a corporate tax analyst at the Internal Revenue Service. She might, for example, analyze tax return data to develop algorithms that flag fraudulent filings, or cull national security databases to spot suspicious activity.

Some of her classmates are hoping to apply their skills to e-commerce, where data about users’ browsing history is gold.

“This is a generation of kids that grew up with data science around them — Netflix telling them what movies they should watch, Amazon telling them what books they should read — so this is an academic interest with real-world applications,” said Chris Wiggins, a professor of applied mathematics at Columbia who is involved in its new Institute for Data Sciences and Engineering. “And,” he added, “they know it will make them employable.”

Universities can hardly turn out data scientists fast enough. To meet demand from employers, the United States will need to increase the number of graduates with skills handling large amounts of data by as much as 60 percent, according to a report by McKinsey Global Institute. There will be almost half a million jobs in five years, and a shortage of up to 190,000 qualified data scientists, plus a need for 1.5 million executives and support staff who have an understanding of data.

North Carolina State University introduced a master’s in analytics in 2007. All 84 of last year’s graduates in the field had job offers, according to Michael Rappa, who conceived and directs the university’s Institute for Advanced Analytics. The average salary was $89,100, and more than $100,000 for those with prior work experience.

“This has become relevant to every company,” said Michael Chui, a principal at McKinsey who has studied the field. “There’s a war for this type of talent.”

Because data science is so new, universities are scrambling to define it and develop curriculums. As an academic field, it cuts across disciplines, with courses in statistics, analytics, computer science and math, coupled with the specialty a student wants to analyze, from patterns in marine life to historical texts.

With the sheer volume, variety and speed of data today, as well as developing technologies, programs are more than a repackaging of existing courses. “Data science is emerging as an academic discipline, defined not by a mere amalgamation of interdisciplinary fields but as a body of knowledge, a set of professional practices, a professional organization and a set of ethical responsibilities,” said Christopher Starr, chairman of the computer science department at the College of Charleston, one of a few institutions offering data science at the undergraduate level.

Most master’s degree programs in data science require basic programming skills. They start with what Ms. Schutt describes as the “boring” part — scraping and cleaning raw data and “getting it into a nice table where you can actually analyze it.” Many use data sets provided by businesses or government, and pass back their results. Some host competitions to see which student can come up with the best solution to a company’s problem.

University of San Francisco students have used data from General Electric to predict how much energy windmills could create. At North Carolina State, with data from the Postal Service, students have analyzed response rates to junk mail to find ways to improve its effectiveness.

Studying a Web user’s data has privacy implications. Using data to decide someone’s eligibility for a line of credit or health insurance, or even recommending who they friend on Facebook, can affect their lives. “We’re building these models that have impact on human life,” Ms. Schutt said. “How can we do that carefully?” Ethics classes address these questions.

Finally, students have to learn to communicate their findings, visually and orally, and they need business know-how, perhaps to develop new products.

“That’s one of the challenges,” said Terence Parr, program director of the analytics and computer science programs at the University of San Francisco. “To be successful, you need to have a wide range of skills that doesn’t fit in one department.”

The question, said Bill Howe, who teaches data science at the University of Washington, is whether it is even possible to instill in a single person all the skills needed, from statistics to predictive modeling to business strategy. The university’s offerings range from a free online course on Coursera to a nine-month certificate program to a Ph.D. track in Big Data.

“It remains to be seen,” he said, “but we’re still of the mind that a curriculum that aims to train data scientists is feasible.” He added: “What employers want is someone who can do it all.”