Steve Receives Silver Award in SASMO 2015

Grade 5 student, Steve was recently awarded Silver in SASMO 2015 (Singapore and Asian Schools Math Olympiad). Steve’s love for math was the driving force. Having never been to a big international competition, he felt a little intimidated by the scale of the challenge, but his adventurous instinct and resolve prevailed.

Over the last 3 years, Steve has studied math systematically; however, he wasn’t familiar with math Olympiad puzzles, which were not in fact very different than his homework - full of tricks and irregular strategies.

His teacher, Ms. Mylene, saw Steve’s passion for math and encouraged him to solve more complex math problems in order to activate his analytical potential. She found ways to challenge his mathematical abilities, and had him solving some very challenging puzzles to stretch his thinking, and develop an understanding that there can be a number of ways to approach a problem that all lead to the correct solution. Steve’s parents were very supportive of his math adventure - with his dad training him on math Olympiad puzzles for an hour a day for a month before the big competition.

There was a reward for this commitment and perseverance - Steve ranked 471 out of the 2150 winning participants in the Grade 5 level at SASMO 2015, and received a Silver Award. The results of the competition pleasantly surprised Steve and he has reported that this experience has really boosted his self-confidence.

Congratulations Steve! We wish you success in your future pursuits in math.