How to tackle Math Olympiad questions

Part 1
Math Olympiad papers can seem rather daunting, isnt it? And rightly so a well set Olympiad
question will test your fundamentals and analytical skills, and challenge your way of thinking.
Irrespective of the fact that most of the so-called Math Olympiads conducted by various
businesses in our country are nowhere near international standards, the questions in even those
are generally tougher than the ones you face generally in school tests or exams.
In solving these types of questions, you generally need to be able to think quickly on your feet
one factor that makes these questions harder is that the time available to you is limited. A second
factor is that you may have negative marking for wrong answer, so sometimes it would seem
better to leave the question rather than putting in an answer you are not sure about. To add to the
confusion, sometimes it is possible that more than one answer is correct.
So how do you tackle this. The first step is of course (to reiterate a point made in an
earlier article we wrote) is Dont Panic. Take a deep breath, relax, read the questions and do
your best.
In this article we talk about some general practices you should follow. In the next part of
this article, well talk about some specific mathematical techniques that could help you tackle
such exams better.
The first step is make sure all your resources are there with you pencils, erasers, spare paper for
computations (if allowed). It seems trivial, but these are things that you dont want to worry
about once the test starts. Now, start reading the paper. Theres no standards here different
people do it in
different ways. Some people start from a fixed location, typically the beginning of the paper, but
some folks even like to start at the end (the theory being that the examiners would have gotten
tired of finding tough questions, and would start putting easier questions towards the end of
course, no sensible examiner would set papers that way). Some other folks like to look for
questions in topics they are familiar in, and try those first. Whatever approach you are
comfortable with is fine.
The most important thing, and this is where a lot of people make their mistake read the
question completely and carefully. Spend as much time you need on this part. Any mistake you
make here will ensure you get the wrong answer.
Let me repeat this read the question carefully and completely. Find out what the question is
really all about. Take careful note of all the values and data provided in the quesion.
Then, and only then, should you start trying to find the answer.
And once you have solved it, or think you have check that your answer indeed is what the
question is asking for (If, for example, the question asked for speed of a car, and you have 121
seconds as your answer something has gone wrong)
Second, keep track of the time. Keep a general idea of how much time you have per question. It
need not be exact for example, if you have 2 hours and there are 50 questions, just think that
youll have about 2 minutes per question. Of course, you may do some questions faster, but keep
this general timeframe in mind per question. If you are completely confident of a question, you
could take a little more time (say 3 minutes) on it, but generally try not to spend more than the
computed time per question. In fact, ideally you should target leaving the last 10 minutes for a
quick revision.
Now, if you havent attempted all the questions when you find there are 10 or so minutes
left then its time to start picking and choosing from the remaining questions. Run through
them quickly to see which ones look easiest for you to solve. Then try those. The next tip is on
using your spare paper effectively. It can get very messy quickly, so you should mark off specific
areas for questions for which you need to use the spare paper for computation. You could use a
grid kind of structure if that helps but the aim is to use
it effectively and neatly. And make sure that for questions where you use it, copy all the values
correctly to the spare sheet. Double check it, and triple check. Do the same thing while copying
the
answer back.
In the next part of this series, well look at techniques specific to mathematics to help you do
better in Olympiads

Comments: 5
Leave a reply
March 26th, 2012 at 2:00 pm | Reply
#909
The use of technology (calculator to be specific), in my opinion, should be used as a tool to
engage students in the lessons that are being taught. I do not think the use of technology
necessary promotes mastery of concepts taught, in many cases I think it demonstrates the
students and teachers ability to learn and teach how to manipulate a calculator to choose the
best solution on a multiple-choice exam. This is evident in talking to two of our peers who
observe hundreds of students at our local community college who are unable to compute their
way through College Algebra and spend hours tutoring students who mastered a standardized
test but are unable to compute a given problem without a calculator.The other technologies
that are used in the classroom could be measured through project outcomes and graded based
on a rubric which highlights what skills are to be mastered and demonstrated through the use of
some type of technology.
The use of a calculator is good if the student already mastered the four fundamental
operationsprimary schools must see to it that the child had enough knowledge of the
basic operations before allowing him/her to use the calculatorthis is just my opinion
because I had seen some of my classmates who were so dependent on calculator that they
cannot work on small numbers without calculatorsI just pity them

How to tackle Math Olympiad questions 2
In the last article we talked about some general practices that will stand you in good stead while
taking part in the Maths Olympiad (or any exam/test in general). In this edition, well talk about
various additional techniques that could help you perform better in Math Olympiads.
Most of the time the questions in such competition are of the objective type question. This can make
things simpler for you (on the other hand, depending on the ingenuity of the question setter, it can also
make it harder for you). The way it makes it easier for you is in two ways
One is that you can easily check if the answer you compute is part of the options provided to
you
The second is that sometimes, just sometimes, you can do some amount of guessing to
eitherget the right answer, or narrow down your possibilities
For example, take the following question taken from http://www.edugain.com
Question: The number 11449 can represented by a 107 x 107 square grid. Out of the following numbers,
which number can not be represented on the square grid?
a. 14641 b. 90601
c. 9216 d. 16122
Here, you could work out the square root of all the numbers and try to figure out the answer, but a
quicker way may be to notice that a square number cannot end in 2. In addition, the question
reads which number, which implies there is only one choice that is true.
So the answer here is obviously d) 16122
Similarly, in a lot of these cases, you can eliminate at least one of the choices there can be many
variants that you could identify by just looking at the question. Ask yourself some mental questions like
Can the answer be an odd number? etc. Of course, each mental question you ask yourself will be
specific to that question.
Sometimes, a question can seem rather hard at a quick glance, but if you read it once more slowly, you
can probably see past the apparent complexity into a simple solution.
Consider the question (also taken from http://www.edugain.com)
Question: Archanas roll number is a two digit number. Her friend Balvinders roll number has the same
digits as Archanas roll number, but with digits interchanged. If they add their roll number, and divide the
sum by 11. Find the remainder of this division.

a. 1 b. 2
c. 0 d. Can not be determined without knowing the roll number
At first glance, it may seem really hard how can you know without really trying? Here you can use one
of two methods. One is not really what I would call mathematical, but if you are pressed for time, you
could easily use it for such question. And whats that technique?
Its simple all you do is try it out on a couple of example numbers. Imagine that Archanas roll number
is 61. Then Balvinders roll number would be 16. Add 61 and 16, and you get 77. The remainder when 77
is divided by 11 is 0.
However, you also need to know how to solve this directly (after all, you are here because you want to
learn mathematics).
The way to do that is to think of it as follows
Archanas number has two digits say they are ab where a and b could be any of 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 or
9.
You can represent it mathematically as
10a + b
Then Balvinders number would be ba mathematically you would say
10b + a
Add them up
10a + b + 10b + a = 11a + 11b = 11(a+b)

This is of course divisible by 11 leaving a remainder of 0.
Simple, and more satisfying to do it this way, isnt it?
So you should always keep in mind that no matter how hard the question looks, it is very likely that you
have already been taught the tricks to solving it. There may be a few questions that may use concepts
you havent been taught yet (to identify the really advanced students), but theres not much you can do
about that. For a majority of the questions though, you already know all the techniques you need to
solve them. Its just a question of identifying them and applying them.
You should also know your strengths and use them appropriately. For instance, you may be very good
with spatial questions and at visual data then go for the geometry or figure related questions first. If
numbers dance in your head, go for the arithmetic questions. Get them out of the way, and then move
on to the other sections.
One final note, that I mentioned in the previous article. Once youve found a solution, put it back in the
question and double check that your solution is indeed right.

Comments: 7
Leave a reply


Mapesu Clementin..
February 22nd, 2012 at 1:34 am | Reply
#836

i believe having read this article will help me a lot! I have been unsuccessful in all
olympiads tests that i wrote, i have always failed to go to round two. But tonight i,ve
learnt something and i hope and pray that i qualify to write this year because if i do, i,ll
surely go far. Thanks a lot for the help i,ll keep peeping for those awesome tips and
advices. You rock!




RM
April 17th, 2012 at 8:10 pm | Reply
#960

Great Article ..
It would be great to have these tips coming ..




risa
August 16th, 2012 at 6:27 am | Reply
#986

thank you article, now i could win the amc for sure!!!




anoushka puri
November 17th, 2012 at 7:51 pm | Reply
#1009

wonderful! help ful tips!




mohak singh
December 16th, 2013 at 10:09 am | Reply
#1153

I prefer that more questions should be there for practising otherwise its an amazing site
for me




ananya
March 6th, 2014 at 7:17 pm | Reply
#1172

Good trick and explanation




Pulkit
August 5th, 2014 at 10:25 pm | Reply
#1200

this is very nice