Saigon Mathematics Competition

The Saigon Mathematics Competition  is a regular event held in a different school each year. This year's competition was held at ABC International School in Phu My Hung on October 6th. There were around 100 participants from a dozen schools and it took place on a Saturday morning. BIS was represented by 8 sixth form students. The competition lasted for 4 hours and consisted of 4 rounds: 1 individual and 3 team activities: Pass It Back, Crosswords and Dragon Run.

The Final activity, Dragon Run, was particularly exciting and we had to run around the auditorium to get the questions, go back quickly to our desks to answer them and finally rush again to the front to submit our answers. Jonathan from my math class was so overeager that he couldn't stop jumping after the run and forgot a few answers! Still BIS won the prize for best overall result.

I had already participated in the Saigon Senior Math Competition 3 years ago and had enjoyed the experience so much that I volunteered for this year's competition. I found that the facilities and the level of preparation were not as adequate this time. I hope that next year's organizers will take a bit more time to plan the activities.

Still it was a great experience but as I am graduating this year, this was the last time that I had the chance to participate. Many members of this year's team told me that they were looking forward to next year. We really hope to see many new faces join us on that occasion or at least come to support and cheer for their school!

Yong Whi Kim

"Both teams performed really well and did the school proud. Congratulations to BIS 1 ( Jae Ho Han, Won Jung Park, James Lee and Jung Minh Kang) for winning the competition and to BIS 2 ( Hieu Nguyen, Jonathon Low, Minh Chau Nguyen and Yong Whi Kim) who did extremely well to finish 3rd overall. As it was my first experience of the SMC, I was overwhelmed by the level of enthusiasm shown by all the participants.  Next stop is the Intermediate competition on 24th November hosted by AIS. Come on BIS, you have a lot to live up to!

Ben Sillitoe

Mathematics Teacher