How to participate in math contests in elementary schools
Introduction
Participating in a math contest allows students to improve their problem-solving skills and serves to generate interest in math among them. Annually, there are several math Olympiads that elementary school students can participate in and some of the most prominent ones are listed in this article.
The Asia Pacific Mathematical Olympiad for Primary Schools 2009 (APMOPS 2009) is organized annually between April and May by the Hwa Chong Institution-Aphelion Consortium. There are two rounds in this sixth grade math competition.
The first round of the competition is usually held in April and is held at the different hubs in the Asia-Pacific region. The competition held in Singapore is commonly known as the Singapore Mathematical Olympiad for Primary Schools (SMOPS).
Awards for SMOPS
Students compete for the following prizes in SMOPS.
1) Individual Top 10 Awards, awarded to the top 10 scorers.
2) 3 Team Honorable Mentions and 5 Individual Honorable Mentions.
3) Top 3 School Awards, given to the three schools with the highest combined scores of their top three students.
In addition, students ranked in the top 10% or top 200 entrants (whichever is less) will be invited to write the second round of the contest known as Asia-Pacific Mathematical Olympiad (APMOPS) 2009. This year’s contest was held on Saturday, May 30, 2009.
APMOPS 2009
During APMOPS, students have the opportunity to interact with other mathematically talented students from various countries. They also compete for the forty individual prizes that will be delivered on the afternoon of May 30, 2009.
APMOPS Contest Format
The APMOPS quiz challenges students to complete six questions in two hours.
Math tables and calculators are not allowed for the contest. Students have to show all the functioning of each question. Each question has 10 points and the total score is 60 points.
Singapore National Mathematical Olympiad (NMOS)
The NMOS is a competition organized by the NUS High School of Mathematics and Science. This contest is designed to stimulate students’ interest in mathematics. This competition usually takes place in the months of July through August and welcomes students in grades 5 and below to participate and challenge their mettle with other math athletes. Various prizes are awarded to students who managed to achieve quality scores in the competition. Typically, registration begins in May of each year.
American Mathematics Contest 8 (AMC 8)
The American Math Quiz 8 is the first in a series of math quizzes organized by the Mathematical Association of America and is administered by Maths Oasis Pte Ltd in Singapore. This international competition welcomes students interested in mathematics and enrolled in grades 8 or Secondary 2 and below to participate.
Students can challenge themselves with math that goes beyond what they normally encounter in school and can experience a wide range of topics available in middle school math. The multiple-choice format of this competition makes it easy for many students to try. Students must complete 25 questions in a forty minute period and there is no penalty for incorrect answers.
Annually, more than one hundred thousand students participate in the AMC 8 competition. Students with high scores in this competition can expect to challenge themselves in higher level competitions such as the AMC 10, AMC 12 or American Invitational Mathematics Examinations. These are the various math competitions and olympics that Singaporean students can participate in annually from primary school levels on up.