Vietnamese students succeed in Australian maths competition

Tuesday, 06/12/2016 19:35
(CPV) - Eleven Vietnamese school students have won top prizes at the Australian Mathematics Competition (AMC) and the Australia Intermediate Mathematics Olympiad (AIMO) held in Vietnam for the first time.

In congratulating the prize-winners at a special ceremony held at the Australian Embassy in Hanoi on December 6th, Mr Craig Chittick, Australian Ambassador to Vietnam, said “I congratulate these outstanding students on their high level of achievement in this world class competition. They have achieved much higher results than I did when I entered the competition as a young student”.

Photo: Binh Chau

The AMC is one of the world’s largest school-based mathematics competitions with more than 14 million entries from over 30 countries since its inaugural year in 1978. Vietnamese students achieved outstanding results with eight prize-winners, including one junior medallist and one perfect scorer. AMC year-7 medallist Nguyen Manh Quan was ranked 4th for year-7 worldwide and the ranked 7th in the Junior category.

This year was the first time the AMC was held in Vietnam, organised by Hanoi Star School, and attracting 1,234 students from 16 cities and provinces.

Separately, the first local sitting of the AIMO at Cau Giay elementary school in September had 467 entries. There were four prize winners (out of 41 prize-winners world-wide). Fifteen students received high distinction.

“The overall Vietnam performance was very strong and impressive given this was the first time Vietnamese students have entered the competition”, said Mike Clapper, AMT Executive Director.

For the Vietnamese participants, solving unfamiliar types of maths problems in English posed difficult but exciting challenges.

The competitions provide a different perspective on mathematics education to the way maths is generally taught in Vietnam, with a greater emphasis on critical thinking rather than pure mathematics skills.

This alternative approach aligns with the Government’s education reform priorities to radically renovate the teaching and learning methods. The competitions also encourage the study of STEM subjects in English - an important component of the 2020 Foreign Languages project.

Next year’s AMC will be held on July 27th and AIMO on September 12th./.

ATP

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