KiasuParents - Parenting in Singapore

My son is in P6 now and has been participating in various maths olympiads.

1) NMOS is P5. He scored Silver
2) SASMO in P5. Scored Merit
3) SMOPS in P6. Scored Bronze
4) RI Pri Maths World Contest. Nothing.
5) UNSM. He scored distinction

Question1. Are the competitions of similar difficulty? My son's results are all different for the various competitions. Does any maths expert have a view on the difficulty and difference between each?

Question 2. Which is more highly regarded for DSA applications? On the forum I see the most reference to SMOPS, followed by NMOS. Does anyone know.

Thanks

The math olympiads are different in levels of difficulty. The RI one is especially difficult to score in.

The one that most schools look out for at DSA is SMOPS. Scoring Platinum or Gold gets you a foot in through the door, but you'll still have to do well in interviews and/or GAT to secure a place, depending on the school.

NUS High obviously looks at how you performed in the NMOS. Those who scored gold in NMOS are invited to the DSA camp. I think camp fees are waived.

First it must be noted that these competitions vary in style and syllabus so the top scorers list are likely to differ.
Given the style, difficulty and time limit given and based on actual score I can safely conclude that ripmwc (1st rnd) is the hardest to score.
I can only guess that excellent performance at any of nmos, smops, ripmwc or even acsi mathlympics should carry the most weight to the respective school that organised it.
And if we are looking at difficulty in terms of questions and marks, then sasmo and unsw should be similar and easiest, nmos in between(for p5), and smops and ripmwc are definitely the hardest.

jtoh wrote:The math olympiads are different in levels of difficulty. The RI one is especially difficult to score in.

The one that most schools look out for at DSA is SMOPS. Scoring Platinum or Gold gets you a foot in through the door, but you'll still have to do well in interviews and/or GAT to secure a place, depending on the school.

NUS High obviously looks at how you performed in the NMOS. Those who scored gold in NMOS are invited to the DSA camp. I think camp fees are waived.

For NUSH, if you get a gold for NMOS or platinum for SMOPS or Distinction for RI world you will be invited to the camp and fees waived. You will more or less be given a confirmed place. All other medals will have to compete like the rest. I know a girl who had bronze in SMOPS and did not make it thru the first round selection test. She joined NUSH via the PSLE route when her score was 274. There are others who have no medals at all and were able to get places via DSA.

For HCI, Platinum or Gold or Silver in SMOPS gets you invited to DSA phase 1. From what I observe, Platinum will likely get you a place in the school. But gold or silver still need to do well in the other tests and interview. Like NUSH, some SMOPS gold and silver did not get places via DSA.

traineeks wrote:For NUSH, if you get a gold for NMOS or platinum for SMOPS or Distinction for RI world you will be invited to the camp and fees waived. You will more or less be given a confirmed place. All other medals will have to compete like the rest. I know a girl who had bronze in SMOPS and did not make it thru the first round selection test. She joined NUSH via the PSLE route when her score was 274. There are others who have no medals at all and were able to get places via DSA.

For HCI, Platinum or Gold or Silver in SMOPS gets you invited to DSA phase 1. From what I observe, Platinum will likely get you a place in the school. But gold or silver still need to do well in the other tests and interview. Like NUSH, some SMOPS gold and silver did not get places via DSA.

Interesting

How about those invited to Hong Kong's Po Leung Kuk World Math Contest ?

verykiasu2010 wrote:How about those invited to Hong Kong's Po Leung Kuk World Math Contest ?

I think RI would prefer them more?

By the way I think I can conclude that ri indeed value the participants who got into the second round of ripmwc. My student received a letter from ri that sounds like trying to get him to apply to ri.

CoffeeCat wrote:By the way I think I can conclude that ri indeed value the participants who got into the second round of ripmwc. My student received a letter from ri that sounds like trying to get him to apply to ri.

LOL....LOL....of course lah because they have the name list and address. They may do the same if they have the address of the SMOPS platinum name list and address as well....heard that HCI is doing the same for their platinum winners as well .......

anyone knows when will the result for NMOP 2010 be out?

tsh0202 wrote:anyone knows when will the result for NMOP 2010 be out?

what is NMOP 2010 ?

SMOPS 2010 and APMOPS 2010 were out in April and May respectively