New Zealand Maths Olympiad Committee online

2012 IMO team selection announcement

Chris — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 03:34:09 +0000

The team to represent New Zealand at the 2012 International Mathematical Olympiad, 4–16 July in Mar del Plata, Argentina, will consist of

James Allen, Kristin Senior School
Natalia Chen, St Cuthbert’s College
Byung-Cheol Cho, Auckland Grammar School
George Han, Westlake Boys’ High School
Hao Jeng, Hillcrest High School
Arun Chockalingam Shanmuganathan, Auckland International College,

with

Ian Seong, Macleans College

as non-travelling reserve. Congratulations to all!

2012 Squad Assignment Two – Algebra

Chris — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 04:51:26 +0000

Here is the squad’s second assignment, on algebra, and the solutions to the combinatorics assignment. Have fun!

2012 Asia-Pacific Mathematical Olympiad – preliminary results

Chris — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 04:43:00 +0000

Last month the training squad sat the Asia-Pacific Mathematical Olympiad. The top New Zealand results are as follows:

George Han (Westlake Boys’ High School): 14
Arun Chockalingam Shanmuganathan (Auckland International College): 14
Hao Jeng (Hillcrest High School): 10
Byung-Cheol Cho (Auckland Grammar School): 10
James Allen (Kristin School): 9
Vincent Qi (Onslow College): 8
Natalia Chen (St Cuthbert’s College): 7

The results will be finalised and awards made following co-ordination in the organising country, Japan.

2012 Squad Assignment One – Combinatorics

Chris — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 03:30:56 +0000

This year’s team selection will again be based on three competitions (the BMO2, the AMO, and the APMO) and four assignments: one on each of the four Olympiad areas of algebra, combinatorics, geometry and number theory.

Here is the squad’s first assignment, on combinatorics. I’ll post the solutions in about a month, together with the second assignment, on algebra. Following our usual practice, you can get the solutions before then if you write to me with evidence that you’ve made a serious attempt.

Have fun!

–Chris

2012 Australian Mathematical Olympiad – New Zealand results

Chris — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 03:23:26 +0000

New Zealand now participates in the Australian Mathematical Olympiad, held in February each year. The results of the 2012 AMO were announced last week, and the training squad has done very well, netting a total of eleven awards: one gold, four silver and six bronze.

Our award winners were:

Gold

James Allen (Kristin School)

Silver

Byung-Cheol Cho (Auckland Grammar School)
Arun Chockalingam Shanmuganathan (Auckland International College)
George Han (Westlake Boys’ High School)
Hao Jeng (Hillcrest High School)

Bronze

Natalia Chen (St Cuthbert’s College)
Ian Seong (Macleans College)
Peter Huxford (Newlands College)
Jaehwan Kim (King’s College)
Boyd Siripornpitak (Auckland International College)
Vincent Qi (Onslow College)

Congratulations to all! The result of the AMO, together with the results of the BMO2 and the upcoming Asia-Pacific Mathematical Olympiad, will be used to decide the team of six to represent New Zealand at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Argentina in July.

2012 British Mathematical Olympiad, Round two – New Zealand results

Chris — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 03:36:55 +0000

The training squad took part in Round Two of the British Mathematical Olympiad in January. Our top five students (scores out of 40) were

James Allen, Kristin Senior School (20)
Byung-Cheol Cho, Auckland Grammar School (20)
Hao Jeng, Hillcrest High School (14)
Natalia Chen, St Cuthberts College (11)
Ian Seong, Macleans College (10).

Congratulations to all, especially to James, Byung-Cheol, Hao and Natalia, who appear in the leading scores table on the BMOC site, with James and Byung-Cheol tied for seventh place with five others.

Our thanks go to the BMOS and the UKMT for allowing us to take part.

2012 IMO Squad

Chris — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 03:45:30 +0000

New Zealand’s training squad for the 2012 International Mathematical Olympiad was announced last week, at the end of our week-long training camp at Grafton Hall, University of Auckland. The final team of six to travel to Mar del Plata, Argentina will be decided in April.

The squad members are:

James Allen, Kristin Senior School
Jerry Chen, Auckland International College
Natalia Chen, St Andrew’s College, and now St Cuthbert’s College
Byung-Cheol Cho, Auckland Grammar School
George Han, Westlake Boys’ High School
Peter Huxford, Newlands College
Hao Jeng, Hillcrest High School
Jaehwan Kim, King’s College
Vincent Qi, Onslow College
Ian Seong, Burnside High School, and now Macleans College
Arun Chockalingam Shanmuganathan, Auckland International College
Boyd Siripornpitak, Auckland International College.

The team will be accompanied by:

Dr Christopher Tuffley, Massey University (Leader)
Dr Peter Nelson, Victoria University of Wellington (Deputy Leader)
Stephen McConnachie, Middleton Grange School (Manager).

2012 British Mathematical Olympiad, Round one – New Zealand results

Chris — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 01:16:33 +0000

Twenty of the 24 students selected for the 2012 NZMOC January Camp took part in Round One of the British Mathematical Olympiad earlier this month. The following students scored 50 or more out of 60, and appear on the leading scores table at the BMOC site:

James Allen, Kristin School (60)
Arun Shanmuganathan, Auckland International College (59)
George Han, Westlake Boys’ High School (57).

Congratulations to all, and a big thanks to the BMOC for allowing us to take part.

Tom Yan: IMO 2011 the Netherlands

Chris — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 03:56:32 +0000

The countdown to this year’s IMO (International Mathematical Olympiad) began in Auckland. The team of six contestants as well as their leader, deputy and observer congregated in Grafton Hall for three days worth of training prior to departure from Auckland. Staying at Grafton Hall was a pleasant experience with comfy facilities and sumptuous meals. Of course, there were also the mathematical preparations consisting of various lectures and problem sessions. Nothing eventful transpired during these days.

After a spell of training at Grafton Hall, the team left for Auckland Airport and then for Amsterdam. The journey was rather cumbersome with the destination inconveniently located at roughly the other end of the world. We make several stops between our flights to satisfy Stephen’s craving for Burger King (and for our planes to refuel – but that’s beside the point). Finally, we arrive disorientated at Schiphol Airport where we were greeted by the Dutch leader Johan. While he arranged for us to travel to Texel – the place where the joint Dutch-NZ training will be held – we bid goodbye to Chris and remind him of our general distaste for weird combinatorics, which I’m sure he took full heed of. Then we proceed to travel for a long time on the metro to get to our ferry. Many of us note the picturesque views of cobbled streets dotted with neat, colourful houses. We also scan the rustic landscape, which is quite deceptive in its similarity to NZ – save for the occasional occurrence of a windmill. Eventually, we trudged onto the ferry taking us to Texel.

For the next few days, we trained with the Dutch team sitting through 2 mock tests and sampling some nice problems from the 2010 shortlist. We also take time to explore the local town, which looks like something from a fairy tale. But other than that, it’s not very interesting. The weather, might I add, is also not very interesting. Like the countryside, it too seemed to be mimicing the Auckland weather. It did not take a liking to us during our interview on the beach by the Dutch media. In having to avoid showing our frozen faces, the Dutch national TV allowed our feet instead to make a cameo appearance.

Novotel is where we were staying in the final build up to the IMO. It’s a very warm accommodation – made all the more cozy by the vehement outside weather. After meeting our guide Marlisa, the NZ contestants settled into their allocated rooms and were given neat packs loaded with goodies. We later meet up with other teams such as the Australian team. Generally there is a consensus that this year’s IMO was very well managed and the catering staff very helpful. Indeed, they had even arranged to have the opening ceremony only a brief stroll from our stay – which I’m sure caused no sleep loss or worry. There is also, however, a slight disappointment shared by some teams about the cuisine. The food given seems to have its lineage in Indian culture as opposed to Dutch – and so many teams have taken a liking to the stack of instant noodles present in the dining hall.

After the opening ceremony, the NZ team proceeded to make many photos- to use the Dutch saying – with other teams. Especially popular (as always) was the DPRK delegation. But soon the weather soured and loitering outside was deemed impractical. We hurriedly retreated back to the hotel – the contest is the next day.

Day One of the IMO this year was notorious for its inclusion of the windmill problem. The windmill problem was arguably one of the hardest problem 2s ever to grace the cover of the IMO. It was also one of the most loathed for many strong teams weren’t able to solve it at all. Many displeased contestants noted the disproportionate difficulty of problem 2 and 3 in that 3 was much easier than 2, and those who did make the right choice to skip 2 ended up scoring dramatically higher than those who valiantly carried on with faith in the jury to sort the problems in the right order of difficulty. After the exam, a French contestant condemned the windmill problem on the IMO ’11 Facebook page – he got a lot of likes. Also this year, the invigilators screened contestants with metal detectors before entrance into the hall. So I’d like to remind next year’s team to get rid of its habit of bring guns to a maths exam – at least before the IMO anyway.

Day Two bore fewer surprises save for the lack of easy to medium geometry. Indeed, this year the jury broke the lengthy decade long tradition of having an easy and a medium geometry problem on the exam. On the whole the NZ team fared very well with 2 silvers, 2 bronzes and 2 HMs – although the same could not be said of me. We again captured our 29th placing from last year. It must be mentioned that this year’s IMO helped to produce the most successful IMO contestant ever – Lisa Sauermann with her final mound of many golds, a silver and a perfect score. Also congratulations must go to Madelon from the Dutch team for gaining the highest score in her team for her silver medal.

The last leg of the IMO consisted of excursions and sightseeing opportunities. We must have our guide Marlisa to thank for her expertise in guiding us in and out of Amsterdam. Particularly notable were a 30k long bike ride through the Dutch countryside (under the auspice of good weather for once) and a fun walk through Amsterdam proper where we got a full taste of the many aromas and sights of the liberal city. After a well-organised closing ceremony, the team was ushered to a ‘beach’ in central Amsterdam where the farewell party took place. It was a delightful affair with ample hot food and drinks. Heaps of NZ souvenirs were handed out and we amassed a large pile of Mongolian currency. The weather again did not share the festive mood – but never mind because it was (mostly) warm.

The next day marked our final day in Amsterdam. We bid goodbye to our sprightly guide Marlisa with the presentation of our mascot – the Kiwi. Then back we came from the other side of the world loaded with memories and other stuff.

To finish, I’d like to thank the following people (or organisations) in no particular order: Chris, Ilya, Stephen, Royal Society of NZ, NZMOC, IMO ’11 ’10 ’08 organisation committee for making IMO so cool, Dr Michael Albert, Dr Arkadii Slinko and past volunteers for their invaluable time and efforts. Thank you.

IMO 2011: Final results

Chris — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 06:25:36 +0000

The medal cuts were set yesterday morning at bronze 16, silver 22, gold 28. These weren’t quite the numbers we had been hoping for…but they still give us a fantastic result of two silver, two bronze, and two honourable mentions. These are New Zealand’s seventh and eighth silver medals; all those without medals get honourable mention (a first^*); and we maintained the standing of 29th country which we acheived last year. Oh, and don’t forget that we’re only two points behind Australia, and have a higher top score!

The afternoon was spent in an excursion to the central city with our team guide Marlisa Hommel, wandering Amsterdam’s many cobbled streets and bridges, and taking a boat ride on its network of canals. The excursion finished in a dinner at the NEMO science centre. The closing ceremony is this afternoon, followed by a party, and then we all say farewell and begin our journeys home tomorrow. It has been a wonderful (and fantastically organised!) IMO.

Full results can be found on the official IMO site.

(*) Yes, I know this isn’t strictly correct, because of the empty set! But it’s still a first, with that one exception.