Re: Singapore and ASEAN Schools Maths Olympiads 2010(SASMO)                  

Dear Maths HOD and Person in Charge of Maths Olympiad,

Greetings and we hope you all have a great 2010.  SASMO has grown again and now, we have expanded into Malaysia with our partner Olympic Edu Sdn Bhd.  This year, together with our Indonesian partner, we expect over 3000 students to join our contest.

In view of the feedback given by teachers, we have decided to hold the contest this year in one sitting. It would be held on 28 April 2010 (Wednesday) from 2 to 4:30 pm.
 
This contest date in April would benefit the Primary 6 award winners in their application for Direct School Admission (DSA). The final results will be released by May 25, 2010.
 
To help you encourage more students from Primary 4 to 6 to join the Maths Olympiad, Henry Ong, our Executive Director of SASMO, can conduct a FREE assembly talk for your students any time from now till April 6, 2010.

Objective:

SASMO is devoted and dedicated to bringing a love for Mathematics to students.  Unlike most Maths Olympiad Competitions, SASMO caters not only to students in the top 5% but to the top 40% instead. It aims to arouse students’ interest and enthusiasm for mathematical problem solving, develop mathematical intuition, reasoning and logical thinking, as well as creative and critical thinking. In addition, this can help improve the students’ maths grades because they can apply problem-solving strategies learnt during the training to their daily school mathematics. 

HISTORY

Created in 1977 by the late Dr. George Lenchner, an internationally known Math educator, the Math Olympiads went public in the U.S. in 1979. Over 150,000 students from 5,000 teams worldwide participate in the Olympiads every year.

SASMO is an affiliate of Math Olympiads for Elementary and Middle Schools, USA (MOEMS, www.moems.org) and there are similar affiliates in Columbia, Iceland, Australia (APSMO), Philippines and India.  All of these groups take the same Contest.

SASMO award trophies, collar pins, medallions and certificates to the top 30% (both individual and team). In particular, your encouragement and recognition of the importance of the Olympiad goals will help your students enjoy the Olympiad program, which in turn will progressively enable them to become efficient problem solvers.

Contest:

The Contest will be held in your school and no traveling is required.  The entry fee is $18 per pupil for school sign-up, and $25 for private candidates. 

ABOUT Excel League Pte Ltd (Noble-Education) and “SASMO”
Excel League Pte Ltd is the largest distributor of educational games to schools. Excel League has been appointed by MOEMS, a non-profit organisation to set-up and run the ASEAN affiliate. Excel League has created the Singapore & Asean Schools Maths Olympiads (SASMO) to run competitions across Asean and developed a website, to run this programme.
Joseph Yeo, an NIE Maths Lecturer and teacher trainer has edited the Maths Olympiad–Contest Problems(Asean Edition) and included some new approaches to problem solving. 
Excel League also offers Maths Olympiad workshops for students and teachers at very competitive prices.  We have a systemic curriculum relevant for Mathematics Olympiad Competitions like those organized by NUS High (NMOS), Hwa Chong (SMOPS), ACSI (ACSI Mathlympics), SASMO and Chinese Math Olympiad into our curriculum. 

Contests and Workshop:

• Contest papers will be sent to your school 3 days before the contest date.  After the contest, we will collect the papers from your school.
•  This contest promotes mathematical reasoning, logical thinking, critical and creative thinking, and the love for mathematics. 
• No traveling is required for the students. The workshops are optional.  Our SASMO coaches will prepare your students to solve interesting problems individually and within their groups. The problem set includes challenging but not too difficult problems so as not to discourage novice problem solvers (see attached examples). Students will be introduced to higher-order thinking strategies and more advanced mathematical ideas to help them solve problems. They will experience the satisfaction, fun and thrill of discovery associated with creative problem solving.
• Students can purchase past years contest papers from www.noble-education.com or www.excelleague.com

FORMAT
Contests are taken in the participating school or at our SASMO Maths Olympiad Centres.

• The contest consists of 25 non-routine problems.
• Each student, working alone, scores 1 point for each correct answer. Thus, a student can score up to 25 points.
• Calculators are not permitted.
• When a problem introduces a more advanced concept, all necessary definitions are included.
• The detailed solution for each problem usually names the strategy required.
• Many solutions include follow-up problems and activities.
• After the contest, we will collect the score sheets for marking.

TEAMS

• Each team is made up of up to 20 students. Schools can have more than one team.
• Only teams from schools qualify for the team awards. The team score is the sum of the ten highest individual scores.

AWARDS :
i)   INDIVIDUAL

• Each participant receives a Certificate of Participation.
• The high scorer of each team receives a Top Scorer certificate.
• Each of the top 10% of all participants receives a bronze, silver or gold collar pin.
• Each student who achieves a perfect score of 25 points receives a Perfect Score Collar Pin.

ii)   TEAM :

• Each team in the top 10% of all teams receives a trophy.
• The grade level of a team is the highest grade level of any of its members.

If you have further query, please do not hesitate to contact us:
Stanle Wong – 64558760
Henry Ong    – 90672766,         email: excelleague@ymail.com
Don’t miss this chance to sign up by April 9, 2010 and join the many schools that are seeing marked student improvement in Maths interest and scores.

Thank you

Henry Ong
SASMO Executive Director