January/February 2023
Dear Parents/Guardians,
This is an invitation to two separate competitions – the AMC and the UKMT.
Here are the key details for the 2023 AMC 8:
Our Year 7, 8, and 9 students are invited to attend the 2023 American Mathematics Competition 8.
The AMC 8 is the official middle school Mathematics competition in the USA, sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). AMC 8 aims to build mathematical knowledge and problem-solving skills in middle school students, and consequently enhance their capacities in analytic thinking.
– Students in grade 8 or below (Year 9 or below) and under 14.5 years of age are eligible to participate.
– We will do online testing. This will use system classviva.org developed by HKUST.
– The registration fee is HK$75 per student.
– The competition is going to be held on Thursday 19th January 19th during school hours.
List of awards
– Certificate of Distinction: Achieved a perfect score on the AMC 8.
– Honor Roll of Distinction: Scored in the top 1% worldwide.
– Honor Roll: Scored in the top 1% ~ 5% worldwide.
– Certificate of Achievement: Awarded student in grade 6 or below who achieves a score of 15 or above.
More about the competition:
The AMC8 is a 25-question, 40-minute, multiple-choice examination in middle school Mathematics, designed to promote the development of problem-solving skills.
The material covered on the AMC 8 includes topics from a typical Year 7/8/9 Mathematics curriculum. Possible topics include but are not limited to: counting and probability, estimation, proportional reasoning, elementary geometry including the Pythagorean Theorem, spatial visualisation, everyday applications, and reading and interpreting graphs and tables.
Here is a link that will be useful to explore similar problems and past paper questions. https://artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php/AMC_8
Here are the key details for the 2023 UKMT:
– The UKMT Intermediate Mathematical Challenge online is a 60-minute, multiple-choice competition
– It is aimed at Years 9,10 and 11 students all over the world.
– This challenge will be held on Thursday 2nd February 2023 online, during school hours.
– The cost of this challenge will be absorbed by the Mathematics department.
More about the competition:
To recognise the highest performers in the Challenge, the UKMT awards the top-scoring 40% of participants Bronze, Silver and Gold certificates in the ratio of 3:2:1. In addition, UKMT invites around 1,500 of the very highest performers to take part in either the Cayley, Hamilton or Maclaurin Olympiad (depending on the school year) and around 8,000 to take part in either the Grey or Pink Kangaroo (depending on the school year).
If you wish to try past papers and prepare for the challenge, here is the link below.
https://www.ukmt.org.uk/competitions/solo/intermediate-mathematical-challenge/archive
Both challenges involve mathematical reasoning, precision of thought and fluency in using basic mathematical techniques to solve interesting problems. We also wish to make you aware that any potential good performances in these challenges are bound to look good in student portfolios towards future university/honour course applications.
If you are interested in your child entering either of these competitions, kindly register with and make the cash payment at our Secondary reception to Ms. Joey Lee by Monday 16th January 2023.
Best regards,
Amrith Prabhu
Teacher of Mathematics
Discovery Bay International School