2nd SEAMEO MATHEMATICS OLYMPIAD

Mr Manu Kapur (NJC, Team Leader), Mr James Quah (SRJC, Deputy Leader) Julius Poh (RJC), Joel Tay (ACS[I]), Jonathan Aow (RJC), Colin Tan (RI). 

SEAMO slide show

Individual Result 

Team Result

Excerpts from the Team Leader’s Report

The team returned to Singapore on 23 June 2001.

On the whole, the objectives of the SEAMO 2001 were comprehensively met. The Singapore team won 2 Gold medals, 1 Silver medal and 1 Bronze medal (the maximum number of medals and prizes as stipulated under the rules and regulations of the competition) and emerged Champions. In addition, new friendships, and hopefully lasting ones, were forged amongst the students as well as the team leaders. The interaction with representatives from the other South East Asian Nations was most enjoyable and meaningful. The organizers of the competition hope to organize the 3^rd SEAMEO MATHEMATICS OLYMPIAD in 2003.

Excerpts from the Participants' Report

It has been almost a week since the SEAMEO Maths Olympiad has ended, but memories of events that has occurred still keep coming back to me. The competition was a very meaningful one for me, it being the first time that I represented Singapore, and the first time I had the opportunity and privilege to wear that shiny red blazer.

The best part of the Olympiad, in my opinion, is not the actual tests itself, but the interactions with the other participants. The whole Olympiad has a very open atmosphere, teams were not hiding special mathematical weapons from each other, but were in fact sharing their tricks with each other. In fact, I remember clearly, our team was training with the Thailand team the morning of the short-answer test! That was the extent of our friendliness and warmness towards each other.

At a personal level, I think that this Olympiad has been a wonderful experience for me, both mathematically and socially. From the interaction with the talented participants, I have tried to learn from their ingenious and intuitive ideas and try to reproduce some of it. Also, the chance to make friends with the top mathematical brains from the ASEAN region is a rare opportunity to be cherished. In this short span of 5 days, strong bonds have been forged between people of different countries, languages and religions. It is really amazing.

Tan Weiyu, Colin
Raffles Institution

The atmosphere at the competition was very friendly. We swapped ideas and questions before the tests.

After the tests, we went out and played games together. There was also some emphasis on elegance in the actual competition itself, as the top award goes to the gold medallist with the best solutions. The competition was of a different format than we had trained for, with both short and long answer questions, and a team round where teamwork was of the utmost importance.

Overall it was a wonderful experience, and the prizes were certainly a pleasant surprise.

Julius Poh
Raffles Junior College

The competition was very friendly, not like what I expected it to be…

Future batches ought to be encouraged to train with other teams… We did and learnt quite a bit of the style of teaching and setting questions in other countries…

The atmosphere was really good… Especially after the competition, when all worries were practically over… A few of us were playing cards every night in the common room… Really, the only two things that surpass communication barriers are maths and playing cards…

Joel Tay
Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)

I must say that this overseas Olympiad has been a rather new experience for me. Unlike Julius and Joel, I have had no past experience going overseas for a competition. All in all, I am grateful for the opportunity that I have been bestowed with to represent my country and learn more about other countries.

I enjoyed the atmosphere of the competition very much – and here is where it doesn’t really deserve to be called a competition! From the start, everyone started to make friends with each other, to know each other better. No one displayed any competitive nature – in the informal math sessions that we had before the tests, different countries could be seen doing problems together, sharing different ideas and methods, indeed fostering math co-operation. We (the Singapore team) did several problems with the team from Thailand, and one of the leaders from another country solved a problem that we had trouble solving. I reckon that the friendship was further cemented by the numerous games that we played, including a game that involved the use of bottles and of course, bridge.

I enjoyed the programme – there was quite a bit of free time, especially after the competition days. I also enjoyed the tour too, discovering quite a bit about Penang, although the roads winding round the hills were, with the steep ravines, rather dangerous. But the tram ride up Penang hill was nice, and their malls are quite okay. In the end, I suppose, more than anything, that it was the friendly atmosphere that made the whole tour really fun.

It leaves me now to say that I have enjoyed the competition very much, and that it has been quite an experience, fruitful in many ways, and that I hope to make it for the IMO team next year, in the hope of another such experience.

Jonathan Aow
Raffles Junior College