----------------------------------- A.J Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:47 am Cmo ----------------------------------- Ok, the 41st Canadian Math Olympiad is fast approaching. How are people preparing for it? I am making this thread so that we can discuss the solutions after the contest itself (which is this Wednesday). As for me, I am just looking at past papers and hoping not to get a 0 :D Here are the topics that I think will be covered in this year's CMO: Inequalities Number Theory Recursion And some others that I am not too sure about.... Oh well, any nonzero score is a good score (personally, I think that anything solving 1 - 3 questions is good....although not easy) ----------------------------------- Foundation Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:50 am Re: Cmo ----------------------------------- The four categories of olympiads: Geometry Number Theory Algebra Combinatorics Please remember not to say anything, this includes posting your preferences about the questions, your feelings about it, and generally anything, until at least Thursday morning, as others around the country may be writing at different times. ----------------------------------- A.J Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:52 am Re: Cmo ----------------------------------- Thanks for the heads up. We can talk about it before the contest at least. So, how is Massey preparing, Foundation? Here, at WCI, all of us are kinda turning emo...we all are expecting a 0 (expect for Alex Song, of course). I hope to get a score higher than 10, but that's me hoping...how did you do last year? ----------------------------------- bugzpodder Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:06 am RE:Cmo ----------------------------------- Is Massey still pwning at CMO? Actually scratch that, I don't remember anyone from Massey getting in Group I ever... ----------------------------------- A.J Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:27 am Re: Cmo ----------------------------------- Is Massey still pwning at CMO? Actually scratch that, I don't remember anyone from Massey getting in Group I ever... Well, they aren't pwning, but they are getting good scores. We are hoping for a couple in group 2...out of the 7 that made it from our school, watch nobody (except, once again, for Alex Song) make it past the last group...but I am hoping for all of us to make it to the 2nd group... ----------------------------------- Analysis Mode Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:50 pm Re: Cmo ----------------------------------- There's Jon Schneider from UTS, who's been to the IMO for the past two years. ----------------------------------- SJ Tue Mar 24, 2009 7:42 pm RE:Cmo ----------------------------------- hmm.. I have never heard of CMO.. I don't think my school offers it :( ----------------------------------- bbi5291 Tue Mar 24, 2009 7:53 pm Re: Cmo ----------------------------------- SJ: It's not an open contest. The COMC is open, and a small number (I don't know it exactly, perhaps 50-100) of the highest scorers are invited to the CMO, Canadian Mathematical Olympiad, which is used to determine the Canadian IMO (International Mathematical Olympiad) team. That's why it might seem that your school doesn't offer it. @Analysis Mode: What's your point? ----------------------------------- A.J Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:01 pm RE:Cmo ----------------------------------- Brian, are you writing the CMO? How many from Woburn made it? Waterloo CI has 6, and Massey has 2. ----------------------------------- bbi5291 Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:27 pm Re: Cmo ----------------------------------- 2 from Woburn are writing it, Hanson and I. I am not nearly as good at math as I am at CS. I suspect it's basically about practice - unlike with CS, nobody ever pushed me to my limit in math, so I didn't get enough contest practice. Hanson doesn't really prepare for math contests either. We both got in on the repechage, and I too will be glad for any nonzero score >.< As a matter of fact, students at Woburn seem to be unique in being much better at CS than at math. I am almost scared by how good you guys are. ----------------------------------- A.J Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:58 pm RE:Cmo ----------------------------------- Only 2 of the people who made it this year out of the 6 have actually written CMO before. I am hoping to solve 2 questions, although that won't be the case, seeing how last year's was easy (hinting that this year's will be far from easy). Good luck to you guys, I am pretty sure that you guys will do well. ----------------------------------- SJ Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:14 pm RE:Cmo ----------------------------------- yes. good luck to you all! this sounds so intense! ----------------------------------- bbi5291 Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:16 pm Re: Cmo ----------------------------------- A.J., you are overestimating me, much as I overestimated Jon Schneider's coding ability from his impressive results at the math olympiad, I suspect. The fact that you could call last year's CMO "easy" means that you are much better than I am. (I did read the solutions - they didn't seem THAT hard - still my record is not particularly glorious for math contests.) ----------------------------------- A.J Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:44 pm RE:Cmo ----------------------------------- You underestimate yourself Brian. Hoxever, Jon is quite the coder, apparently. ----------------------------------- bbi5291 Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:54 pm Re: Cmo ----------------------------------- Yes, I didn't mean to call him a mediocre coder or anything of that sort. He has quite an impressive rating on TopCoder, for instance, it was higher than mine for quite a while (and who knows, that trend might have continued were it not for the fact that he hasn't been doing TC lately). The point is that he's not as good at CS as he is at math, and I'm not as good at math as I am at CS. Do I underestimate myself? It really depends on expectations. Schneider is somewhat likely to make it to the IOI this year, in my opinion; he already has a silver at IMO. Robin Cheng came 7th in the CMO last year, so I expect him to make it to the IMO this year. If I make the assumption that I am at least as smart as they are, then I must be falling far short of expectations (my strongest subject is chemistry, which isn't intellectual enough compared to math.) However, if my only goal was to get some scholarships and be accepted to Waterloo, then I would be inclined to agree with you; clearly I would be underestimating myself in this case. ----------------------------------- Foundation Wed Mar 25, 2009 11:35 am Re: RE:Cmo ----------------------------------- Brian, are you writing the CMO? How many from Woburn made it? Waterloo CI has 6, and Massey has 2. The top 50 qualify from COMC. The next 200 write the Repecharge to qualify for the other 50 spots. Hm...since I'm in Massey, I think I would know better. We have 5 who wrote the CMO. 3 of us qualified from COMC, 2 from Repecharge. 4 of us wrote the CMO last year. Just to clarify. ----------------------------------- A.J Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:56 pm RE:Cmo ----------------------------------- Oh, sry Peter. I forgot to count you, Frank and Ann. I only counted the people who made Repechage. ----------------------------------- bugzpodder Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:34 pm RE:Cmo ----------------------------------- Mr. White still in charge of contests at Massey? or is he retired? ----------------------------------- Foundation Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:20 pm Re: RE:Cmo ----------------------------------- Oh, sry Peter. I forgot to count you, Frank and Ann. I only counted the people who made Repechage. You mean qualified for CMO from Repechage, right? We had around 6 make Repechage. It's fine. Mr. White still in charge of contests at Massey? or is he retired? Hey Jack, how's it going? Mr. White is still here and his programs are still running fine. Our compsci program is getting stronger and stronger now. Mr. Mac is doing a wonderful job. You probably don't know me, but you knew Andy, right? ----------------------------------- A.J Thu Mar 26, 2009 9:39 pm RE:Cmo ----------------------------------- So, how did people do? WCI did pretty well. How did others do? ----------------------------------- bbi5291 Thu Mar 26, 2009 9:43 pm Re: Cmo ----------------------------------- I only solved the first question. (NOW do you get how bad I am at math?) ----------------------------------- Foundation Thu Mar 26, 2009 10:04 pm Re: Cmo ----------------------------------- I only solved the first question. (NOW do you get how bad I am at math?) It's okay, Brian. Making CMO is hard enough. Only around 100 write it. :) ----------------------------------- Alexmula Thu Mar 26, 2009 10:12 pm RE:Cmo ----------------------------------- how do they determine which ppl write this olympiad contest ----------------------------------- CodeMonkey2000 Thu Mar 26, 2009 10:23 pm RE:Cmo ----------------------------------- You have to do very well in the Canadian Open math contest. ----------------------------------- A.J Thu Mar 26, 2009 10:30 pm Re: Cmo ----------------------------------- So Peter, how did you guys do? Don't worry Brian, I thought I solved questions 1 -> 3, but when I came out of the contest, I found out that I only got #1 perfectly (i.e. The n# of 2*n grids with no stranded black squares is 2(3^n) - (2^n) or something like that, I forget). My #3 was on the right track, but wrong eventually. My #2 was not completed on the official papers, but rather my rough notes on separate blank paper :wall: So, maybe 10, maybe 8, I don't know... ----------------------------------- Foundation Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:29 am Re: RE:Cmo ----------------------------------- how do they determine which ppl write this olympiad contest Your answer, already in this thread just a few posts above. Qualification for CMO: The top 50 qualify from COMC. The next 200 write the Repecharge to qualify for the other 50 spots. So Peter, how did you guys do? I think we did what we could, but it all depends on the actual difficulty of the contest this year. ----------------------------------- Alexmula Fri Mar 27, 2009 12:38 pm RE:Cmo ----------------------------------- sry i meant what kind of score you need to have like 60+/80? and do they do this with the euclid as well? (if you do "well" you get invited to write another contest? ----------------------------------- Foundation Fri Mar 27, 2009 5:22 pm Re: RE:Cmo ----------------------------------- sry i meant what kind of score you need to have like 60+/80? and do they do this with the euclid as well? (if you do "well" you get invited to write another contest? Ah. I misunderstood, it's no problem. Usually it takes above 70 to qualify straight from COMC, but these past years have been a bit easier, so it's low 70s that are needed out of 80. Well...the CMO 2009 is already over before Euclid, so they can't invite you for that, and there are not other contests that follow up from the CEMC. :P ----------------------------------- A.J Fri Mar 27, 2009 6:41 pm RE:Cmo ----------------------------------- Peter, by how well did you do, I meant how many did you solve. I realise that you probably did all that you could do :D ----------------------------------- Foundation Sat Mar 28, 2009 12:25 pm Re: RE:Cmo ----------------------------------- Peter, by how well did you do, I meant how many did you solve. I realise that you probably did all that you could do :D I would not know for how many my solution would be correct, as the official ones have not come out and official marking will be different. I answered all 5 and was unable to complete the proof for 4. ----------------------------------- bugzpodder Mon Mar 30, 2009 10:25 am Re: RE:Cmo ----------------------------------- Hey Jack, how's it going? Mr. White is still here and his programs are still running fine. Our compsci program is getting stronger and stronger now. Mr. Mac is doing a wonderful job. You probably don't know me, but you knew Andy, right? Yeah, Andy kicks my ass in contests now