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How to Enter Mathematics Competitions in Elementary Schools

Introduction
Participating in a math competition allows students to improve their problem-solving skills and serves to generate an interest in mathematics among them. Annually, there are several Math Olympiads that elementary school students can participate in and some of the prominent ones are listed in this article.

The Asia Pacific Mathematical Olympiad for Primary Schools 2009 (APMOPS 2009) is organized annually between April and May by the Hwa Chong Institution-Aphelion Consortium. There are two rounds in this math competition for sixth graders.

The first round of the competition is usually held in April and is held at the different centers in the Asia-Pacific region. The competition held in Singapore is commonly known as the Singapore Mathematical Olympiad for Primary Schools (SMOPS).

Awards for SMOPS
Students compete for the following prizes at SMOPS.

1) Individual Top 10 Awards, given to the top 10 scorers.
2) 3 Team Honorable Mentions and 5 Individual Honorable Mentions.
3) Top 3 Schools Awards, given to the three schools with the highest combined score of their top three students.

In addition, students ranked in the top 10% or top 200 entrants (whichever is lower) will be invited to write the second round of the contest known as the Asia-Pacific Mathematical Olympiad (APMOPS) 2009. This year’s contest was held on Saturday May 30, 2009.

APMOPS 2009
During APMOPS, students have the opportunity to interact with other mathematically talented students from various countries. They also compete for the forty individual prizes that will be awarded on the afternoon of May 30, 2009.

APMOPS Contest Format
The APMOPS quiz challenges students to complete six questions in two hours.
Math tables and calculators are not allowed for the contest. Students have to show all the operation of each question. Each question has 10 points and the total score is 60 points.

National Mathematical Olympiad of Singapore (NMOS)
The NMOS is a competition organized by the NUS Secondary School of Mathematics and Science. This contest is designed to stimulate students’ interest in mathematics. This competition is usually held in the months of July through August and welcomes students in grades 5 and below to participate and challenge their mettle with other math athletes. Various prizes are awarded to students who managed to achieve quality scores in the competition. Registration typically begins in May of each year.

American Mathematical Competition 8 (AMC 8)
The American Maths 8 Contest is the first in a series of maths competitions organized by the Mathematical Association of America and is administered by Maths Oasis Pte Ltd in Singapore. This international competition welcomes students interested in mathematics and enrolled in grades 8 or Secondary 2 and below to participate.

Students can challenge themselves with math that goes beyond what they normally encounter in school and can experience a wide range of topics available in Middle School Math. The multiple choice format of this competition means that many students can give it a try. Students must complete 25 questions in a forty minute period and there is no penalty for incorrect answers.

Annually, over one hundred thousand students participate in the AMC 8 contest. Students with high scores in this contest can expect to challenge themselves in higher level contests such as the AMC 10, AMC 12 or the American Invitational Mathematics Examinations. These are the various math competitions and olympics that Singaporean students can participate in annually from primary school levels onwards.

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