Dear Principal, Mathematics HOD and Person in Charge of Maths Olympiad

Singapore and Asian Schools Math Olympiad-2016

1 Sophia Road, #04-05 Peace Centre, Singapore 228149
Website:

Email:

Tel: (65) 6554 9638/ 9067 2766/ 9746 6181

~ International Recognition for Mathematical Achievements through Global Competitions

SASMO celebrates a DECADE in 2015

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Dear Principal and Maths HOD, 2ndMarch, 2016

I am the Chairman of the Advisory Council for SASMO (Singapore and Asian Schools Math Olympiad) and I am writing to invite your students to participate in the SASMO 2016 Contest, which will be held on16th, April 2016 (Saturday) in India.

You may have heard of the Cheryl’s birthday puzzle, which went viral on 11 Apr 2015, not only in Singapore or inour neighbouring countries, but as far as the US, Europe and even New Zealand.This puzzle appeared as one of the more difficult questions in the SASMO 2015 Contest held on 8 Apr 2015.

However, most of the SASMO Contest questions were not that difficult. Unlike most Math Olympiads which cater to the top 0.1% of the student population and many participants might feel discouraged by the high standards, SASMO Contests seek to stretch the top 40% of the student population by making the standards just high enough for them (see attached sample questions).

Unlike some Math Olympiads where each school can only send in a small team and there are only a few winners, schools can send inany number of studentsfrom each class/levelto take part in the SASMO Contests, which seek to encourage the students by giving awards (Gold, Silver, Bronze) to the top 40% of the participants in each class/level.

In order to stretch the participants, they should be trained. All participants will get a free SASMO 2015 Contest Book to help them prepare for the contest. Your school teacher-in-charge can also conduct training for the students.

Please see the attached letter from the Executive Director of our partner institution, International Society for Olympiad, in India, for the details. Further queries should be directed to him.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

DrJosephYeo B. W.

Chairman, SASMO Advisory Council

Singapore and Asian Schools Math Olympiad-2016

International Society for Olympiad, SCO-388,

Second Floor, Gurgaon (India), Hand Held: 0124-2573350,

1-Sophia Road, #04-05 Peace Centre, Singapore 228149, Website:

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Dear Principal and Maths HOD, 2nd March, 2016

SASMO is an International fame Mathematics Contest in which several Asian Countries take part which include Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia,Myanmar, Vietnam, Brunei, Hong Kong,China, Mongolia, Bulgaria, Kazahkstan and Uzbekistan. From this year International Society for Olympiad (ISFO) have been added as SASMO’s Indian partner.

We would like to invite your school to participate in the SASMO 2016 Contest. You can send in any number of students from each class/level to take part. Each class/level will have a different paper.The Contest will be held on 16th, April 2016 (Saturday) in Indiain your school for your own students.

Objectives of SASMO Contest

SASMO caters to the top 40% of the student population and it aims to arouse students’ interest in mathematical problem solving, and to develop mathematical intuition, reasoning, logical, creative and critical thinking. Your encouragement and recognition of the importance of the Olympiad objectives will help your students enjoy the Olympiad programme, which in turn will progressively enable them to become more efficient problem solvers.

Important Information’s:

14th April, 2016 (Thursday):Closing date for contest registration in India

15th April 2016 (Friday):School can downloadstudent contest packs (questions / answer entry sheets)

16 April 2016 (Saturday):SASMO 2016 Contest in India

18 April2016 (Monday):Last day for school to submit the completed papers to SASMO

9 May 2016 (Monday):Announcement of results to your school and on and

Free SASMO Contest Book

All participating students will also get a free SASMO 2015Contest Book for the class/level that they are taking part in. The teacher-in-charge will also get some free copies. The Contest Bookcontains the 2015 Contest questions andstrategiesto help them prepare for the SASMO 2015 Contest. The Contest Books will be given to the school along withthepurchase of registration forms. Students can also purchase more past years contest papers from

Registration Fee:

The entry fee is Rs. 1000/- per student in India for school sign-up. Students from each school will register as a group. Every participating school must have a total of at least 25 students, who can be from different classes/levels (class 2-appearing/passed to class 10-appearing/passed). The school will appoint a teacher-in-charge who will be responsible to liaise with ISFO, including submitting the registration forms, conducting of the contest and general administration. The closing date for the contest registration in India is 14thApril 2016 (Thursday).

If there are fewer than 25 students, they can sign up as private participants (entry fee of Rs. 1100/-) and they will take the contest at our SASMO Math Olympiad centres. Please inform them to contact us through email or phone directly.

Format of Contest

Section A: 15 Multiple Choice Questions (2 points for each correct answer; 0 point for each unanswered question; deduct 1 point for each wrong answer)

Section B:10 Non-routine Questions (4 points for each correct answer; no penalty for wrong answers)

Total: 85 points (to avoid negative scores, each student will begin with 15 points)

Awards

1. Topper of each class will get to participate in Level-2 contest in Singapore

2. Top 3 students of each class will get to participate in summer camp in Delhi to get trained by National and International Math Olympiad experts

3. Top 3 schools to get the trophy

4. Top 8 % of each class will get gold award certificates

5. Next 12% to get silver award certificates

6. Next 20 % to get bronze award certificates

7. Certificate of participation and International Rank to all

SASMO/ISFO reserves the rights to amend the rules when necessary without informing any party.

If you have further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us:

Phone: 0124-2573350, E-mail:

Yours Sincerely,

Sanjay K Singh

Executive Director

International Society for Olympiad (SASMO Partner - India)

Sample SASMO Contest Questions for Primary Schools (Class 2 to 6 appearing/passed)

There are some easier questions (to encourage students) and some more difficult questions (which is why students need to prepare themselves or go for training). Some of the questions are related to what they have learnt in their school maths, but require a bit of higher order thinking.

The diagram shows some cubes of the same size stacked at a corner of a room. How many cubes are there altogether? (Note: The floor is horizontal and the two walls are vertical. There are no gaps or holes behind the visible cubes.)

The Southeast Asian (SEA) Games is held once every two years, except in 1963 (i.e. it was held in 1961 and 1965, but not in 1963). Singapore hosted the 28th SEA Games in 2015. When was the first SEA Games held (although it was known as South East Asian Peninsula Games at that time)?

A bag contains some sweets that can be divided equally among 3, 4 or 6 children with no remainder. What is the smallest possible number of sweets in the bag?

The following bar graph shows the favourite colour of a class of 40 students (each student chooses exactly one colour). The tic marks on the vertical axis are equally spaced. How many students’ favourite colour is blue?

What is the largest number of parts that can be obtained from cutting a circle using 4 straight cuts? (Note: Do not count the parts outside the circle.)

A particular month has 5 Fridays. The first and the last day of the month are not Fridays. What day is the last day of the month?

A circle is inscribed in a square as shown in the diagram. The perimeter of the square is 32 cm. Find the area of the circle in terms of .

A bag of candy is shared between Amy and Ben in the ratio 5 : 3. After Amy gives of her share to Ben, Ben has 18 pieces of candy more than Amy. How many pieces of candy are there altogether?

In a chess tournament, each player has to play one game with every other player. Five players, Albert, Ben, Charles, Dennis and Ethan, took part in the tournament. So far, Albert has played 4 games, Ben has played 3 games, Charles has played 2 games and Dennis has played 1 game. How many games has Ethan played?

A drawer contains 40 coloured socks: 10 black, 14 blue and 16 white. Daniel takes some socks from the drawer without looking at the colours of the socks. What is the least number of socks he must take so that he has at least 2 socks of the same colour? [Hint: Consider the worst case scenario.]

Find the last digit of 320. [Hint: The last digit repeats.]

The police arrested four suspects who know one another. The suspects know which one of them has stolen the watch, but the police could not find the watch on any one of them.

Albert:I did not steal the watch.

Bernard:Albert is lying.

Cecilia:Bernard stole the watch.

Denise:Bernard is lying.

If only one of them is telling the truth, who stole the watch?

Sample SASMO Contest Questions for Secondary Schools (Class 7 to 10 appearing/passed)

Find the least value of n such that its LCM with 6 is 18.

A man walks for 5 metres in one direction, turns 45 to his right and walks for another 5 metres in that direction. Then he turns another 45 to his right and walks for another 5 metres in that direction. He continues walking in this pattern until he reaches his original starting point. Find the total distance that the man has walked.

What is the largest product that can be formed from using the digits 2, 3, 4 and 5, and one multiplication sign? You are only allowed to combine the digits to form two numbers, e.g. 2  345, but you are not allowed to use indices, e.g. 23 45 is not allowed.

There are two circles, each of radius 8 cm, lying on a plane and tangential to each other (i.e. the two circles just touch each other at one point). Find the number of circles of radius 16 cm lying on the same plane and tangential to the first two circles.

The following histogram shows the average amount of money spent by students in the school canteen every day.

Which one of the following statement is true?

(a)The median is $1.

(b)The students spent more money in the canteen during the middle of the day.

(c)If the school decided to increase the price of the food in the canteen, then the heights of the columns would get higher.

(d)The mode is 200 students.

(e)None of the above

Alice throws a ball into the air. The path of the ball can be modelled by the equation h = t 2 + 4t + 1, where t, in seconds, is the time from the moment the ball is thrown, and h, in metres, is the height of the ball above the ground. Find the difference in height between the ball at its highest point and at the point from which it is thrown.

There are n balls in a bag. Three of the balls are blue and the rest are red. The balls are identical except for the colour. Sam randomly takes out two balls from the bag. The probability that the two balls taken out are blue is . Find the value of n.

In a chess tournament, each player has to play one game with every other player. Seven players, Albert, Ben, Charles, Dennis, Ethan, Francis and George, took part in the tournament. So far, Albert has played 6 games, Ben has played 5 games, Charles has played 4 games, Dennis has played 3 games, Ethan has played 2 games and Francis has played 1 game. How many games has George played?

Find the last digit of 32015. [Hint: The last digit repeats.]

Given that n! = n (n 1)  (n 2)  …  3  2  1, find the remainder when

1! + 2! + 3! + … + 2015!

is divided by 8. [Hint: 4! Is divisible by 8]

Find the value of , where each is a Binomial coefficient.

[Hint: Let x = 1 in the Binomial expansion of (1 + x)8.]

The following is a conversation between Gabriel and Heather.

Gabriel:I thought of two distinct one-digit numbers. Can you guess the sum of these two numbers?

Heather:No. Can you give me a clue?

Gabriel:The last digit of the product of the two numbers is your house number.

Heather:Now I know the sum of the two numbers.

So what is the sum of the two numbers?