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UKMT thread-2019/20

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Original post by casabonita
oo how did u do it in ?

How did you do in it?
Original post by ThunderBeard
How did you do in it?

got a gold in the IMC (can't remember the mark) but been told that the SMC is a lot harder so i'm not too sure what to except:s-smilie: aiming for a gold this time but if not maybe next year :smile: what about u?
Reply 42
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Hk18768
9
Original post by casabonita
oo how did u do it in ?

I think i did ok.
I got about 89/135. However i could have done a much better job in it if I just practised a little bit more.
Reply 43
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Hk18768
9
Original post by Hk18768
I think i did ok.
I got about 89/135. However i could have done a much better job in it if I just practised a little bit more.

Also a lot of people especially teachers say that SMC is much harder than IMC just because usually sudents do that after Y11.
Although SMC is more logic based than IMC, I wouldn`t say that SMC is harder than IMC. This is because in SMC problems are not usually the ones that you can solve in mind, the only way of solving them is often doing a short working out on paper and sometimes it helps you to spot staff especially in geometry problems.
Original post by Hk18768
Also a lot of people especially teachers say that SMC is much harder than IMC just because usually sudents do that after Y11.
Although SMC is more logic based than IMC, I wouldn`t say that SMC is harder than IMC. This is because in SMC problems are not usually the ones that you can solve in mind, the only way of solving them is often doing a short working out on paper and sometimes it helps you to spot staff especially in geometry problems.

I like the SMC since the JMC and IMC have those weird logic puzzles, which I'm so bad at and imo shouldn't be in those challenges, like this weird shadow puzzle in the IMC paper from 2006 or 2007. I just did that paper and couldn't solve 3 problems from the earlier set due to those several problems being quite weird for IMC. Another was some coin problem from the same paper, which I also hated. Luckily, in the SMC there isn't any of them. I hope none of these come up.
Reply 45
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Hk18768
9
How many marks are planning to get in SMC.
Original post by Hk18768
How many marks are planning to get in SMC.

I'm hoping to get to qualify for BMO1: which is roughly 105+ marks.

I did it last year, when i was in year 11 as well but messed up.

Aiming to get into BMO2 this year - does anyone have experience? I'm finding the jump from BMO1 questions (which I can answer a lot of including q5 and 6) to BMO2 questions very hard.
Reply 47
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Hk18768
9
Original post by jacastudent
I'm hoping to get to qualify for BMO1: which is roughly 105+ marks.

I did it last year, when i was in year 11 as well but messed up.

Aiming to get into BMO2 this year - does anyone have experience? I'm finding the jump from BMO1 questions (which I can answer a lot of including q5 and 6) to BMO2 questions very hard.

I wouldn`t say that BMO2 questions are way harder than BMO1 questions as the only difference is that in BMO2 they want you to know how to proof staff seriously. For example( how to proof that the sequence of numbers cannot have more than one limit ).
This hard to learn but I wouldn`t say that this is impossible.
Original post by Hk18768
I wouldn`t say that BMO2 questions are way harder than BMO1 questions as the only difference is that in BMO2 they want you to know how to proof staff seriously. For example( how to proof that the sequence of numbers cannot have more than one limit ).
This hard to learn but I wouldn`t say that this is impossible.


I just tried some bmo2 managed to solve a q1 (2009) in 10 min (it was easier than most) but couldn’t do any others. I’m going to try and spend an hour a day practicing though.

I found the jan 2001 bmo1 very easy - I could solve all 5 in about 2 hours. If you have time could you have a look and see how hard you find it? Or anyone else who has experience with olympiads.
Reply 49
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Hk18768
9
Original post by jacastudent
I just tried some bmo2 managed to solve a q1 (2009) in 10 min (it was easier than most) but couldn’t do any others. I’m going to try and spend an hour a day practicing though.

I found the jan 2001 bmo1 very easy - I could solve all 5 in about 2 hours. If you have time could you have a look and see how hard you find it? Or anyone else who has experience with olympiads.

I looked at the problems and they were quite easy. However the hardest part was to write your solutions very carefully. Even though you solved them you might not get full marks if you don`t do your reasoning correctly.
Original post by Hk18768
I looked at the problems and they were quite easy. However the hardest part was to write your solutions very carefully. Even though you solved them you might not get full marks if you don`t do your reasoning correctly.

I think I should be probably be fine when writing proofs as I’ve had quite a lot of practice doing that in past olympiads.

What are you aiming for this year?
Original post by anonymous685
I like the SMC since the JMC and IMC have those weird logic puzzles, which I'm so bad at and imo shouldn't be in those challenges, like this weird shadow puzzle in the IMC paper from 2006 or 2007. I just did that paper and couldn't solve 3 problems from the earlier set due to those several problems being quite weird for IMC. Another was some coin problem from the same paper, which I also hated. Luckily, in the SMC there isn't any of them. I hope none of these come up.

Top tip: for the problems where it is like people telling the truth always draw up a table if you don’t know how to answer it.
Reply 52
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Hk18768
9
Original post by jacastudent
I think I should be probably be fine when writing proofs as I’ve had quite a lot of practice doing that in past olympiads.

What are you aiming for this year?


Which one SMC or BMO1
In SMC I am aiming for about 110-120.
Reply 53
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Hk18768
9
Original post by jacastudent
Top tip: for the problems where it is like people telling the truth always draw up a table if you don’t know how to answer it.

In SMC it is probably the most frequent question. Usually the table will be about 16 (2^4) rows long.
Original post by Hk18768
In SMC it is probably the most frequent question. Usually the table will be about 16 (2^4) rows long.

Yep.

Other useful things are difference of two squares and Pythagorean triples
Original post by Hk18768
Which one SMC or BMO1
In SMC I am aiming for about 110-120.

What about in bmo1? I’m aiming for above 30
Reply 56
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Hk18768
9
Original post by jacastudent
What about in bmo1? I’m aiming for above 30

Do you know if it is important to prove that you found all of solutions even though the question doesn`t ask you for it.
Original post by casabonita
got a gold in the IMC (can't remember the mark) but been told that the SMC is a lot harder so i'm not too sure what to except:s-smilie: aiming for a gold this time but if not maybe next year :smile: what about u?


Same, but i didn’t get Olympiad. Do you want to do Maths at Uni?
Original post by Hk18768
Do you know if it is important to prove that you found all of solutions even though the question doesn`t ask you for it.

Yes. In the year 10 intermediate olympiad I lost a mark on question 1, to get 9 on that question, because I did this.
Original post by jacastudent
Yes. In the year 10 intermediate olympiad I lost a mark on question 1, to get 9 on that question, because I did this.

Hi, I'm doing the SMC too. I'm in year 9 and am aiming for smk as can solve 22-25 on imc and 17-20 on smc. Is it weird that sometimes I can't solve cayley problems? Like maybe 1 (or in rare cases even 2) on cayley papers? I'm planning on going through the problem solvers handbook as I have gone throuhg the intermediate challenge up to 2007 before the smc and doing around 5 past smcs.
(edited 4 years ago)

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