mathematics
As we all know, if you want to apply for a ‘not so bad’ university abroad, one thing you ought to contain in your personal statement would be the contests or competitions you have been taken just to show how extrodinary and excellent you are. Up to now since I got in high school, I’ve taken 3 international contests, all about maths, including UKMT, AMC10/12, CEMC(Euclid) As you may notice, these 3 contests are from 3 different countries which are the UK, America and Canada respectively. Anyway, there are similarities, but also quite some differences. So, I ‘m going to share my experiences of each contests first. Then I’ll write about my understanding to all these 3 various contests.
UKMT
In October in 2020, which is last year, I took part in the very first academic contests in high school. Though it’s compulsory anyway, I still took it really seriously due to what it meant to me, to find out where I’m at among all the students worldwide.
To prepare the exam, most of us chose to do loads of pastpapers so that we could get familiar with the question types. If you ask me now if it’s useful, I would say that it’s the most reliable approach for most of international contests due to the fact that the main theme of problems won’t fluctuate too much.
The exam was taken online at the computer room in our school. While I was sitting at the computer, I literally couldn’t tell how nervous I was for my poor preparation.( I only did 3 sets of papers) As the everyone was settled, the exam officially began. I then tried my best to stay calm and get my mind straight and focused on the problems. At first, the questions were like a piece of cake to me, however, they got more and more complicated as I moved on. Technically, it was more time-consuming than difficult.
After one hour of struggling, I managed to finish 23 problems out of 25, but got quite confused about the last two. Anyway, as long as I know that I did my best, the final result won’t bother me that much.
Though I only got Gold at last while one of my friends got a even better award.( I forgot the name, but he was the only one who got that award throughout the whole grade.) I’m now planning to take it next year!
AMC10/12
I took the two AMC tests this year. Compared with UKMT, it was obviously much harder. Because of this, teachers in IB department specially introduced a small class for those who were to take the exams not only for IB students, but also students from Cambridge department. During the 2- months training,
I was kind of overwhelmed by the pressure of the test duo to the fact that I found myself lacking of maths thinking. Seeing others around me solving those problems like they were nothing, I couldn’t be more anxious. However, there was nothing I could do. I had to make sure I got the points for problems that were within my capability.
Same with UKMT, AMC exams were taken online at home using zoom. I, like most of my classmates, took both AMC10 and AMC12 of ascending hardness. At the beginning of the test, I already felt the hostility of the exam to me. All I thought about was to solve as much problems as I could. When it came to ones that I totally did not understand, guessing seemed to be the only option since I still got 20% of possibility to get the full mark.
However, you can all imagine how my result is like. Like all my classmates, I didn’t got the promotion to AIME exam. I do get a Merit for AMC10 anyway. So, that’s satisfying enough for me at the moment. Like UKMT, I’m now determined to get a higher score next year!!
CEMC （Euclid)
Just in this April, CEMC exam took place in our school. Like the two above, it’s also about mathematics. The difference is that it was off line which means we had to do it with real paper and pen. To me, I found it much more relaxing in this way for you can make drafts and do the calculating on the paper, according to my own habits.
In comparison, the first 7 problems were quite friendly. Like always, the last three were really tricky and hard to cope with. During the exam, all you can see and hear was students writing equations and the knock on the calculators.
When the paper was due, I felt like I did quite ok, I could get at least 7 right. However, since the exam was finished, all I can do is to wait for the result.
Analysis
After taking all 3 tests, I found that there are quite l lot differences.
First of all, is their different ‘nationalities’. UKMT is from the UK, AMC is from America and CEMC is from Canada. Moving on to the forms and marking schemes. All 3 exams are designed for students above grade 10. For UKMT, the exam lasts for 1 hour with 25 MCQs. As for AMC, it has exams for different levels. For instance, AMC10 is for students below grade 10 and AMC12 is for those below grade12. Moreover, the questions are also MCQs but with 1 more option to choose.( A B C D E) This sure reduces the chance for students like me who want to gain without pain. What’s more, it only lasts for 75 minutes which makes it even harder. Luckily, it’s unique marking system may make up for some of its hardness. Generally, if you get 1 question right, you get 6 points; if you don’t make any choice and leave it blanked, you’ll still get 1.5 points; If you get it wrong, you get 0 points. The total is 150. It seems that you may benefit a lot through this system, but if you think a little deeper, it’s a probability problem.
You’ll need to think twice whether you want to make the bet to guess. Lastly, for CEMC, its 10 problems in 150 minutes. However, those problems all need processes shown. It is certainly a better way to test your logical thinking and maths writing.
Despite all aspects that differ from each tests, there are certain similarities. As mentioned above, they all cater for students in about grade 10 since it’s questions are mainly divided into 4 sections: algebra, geometry, probability and number theories.
Since it’s a contest after all, there will be questions you can’t solve. So, don’t take it as a big deal if you don’t get a good result as you expected. Life is long, there’s always new knowledge coming to brain. Just keep working hard, read more books, practice more and get back to field next year!
EXCELSIOR