Maths Comps vs. VCE Maths

[TrueTears]

From experience I can personally say VCE maths is hardly related to competition maths, both are totally different fields.

Competition maths has much more funner stuff than VCE though: Combinatorics, Algebra, Number theory, Geometry.

Yeah olympiad maths is MUCH more interesting than VCE. And funner to do, like the AIMO, AMOC Senior Contest and AMO.  Combinatorics, Algebra, Number theory, Geometry are awesome As opposed to VCE maths where you just plug formulas in, not enough thinking or problem solving, we should integrate Geometry into the VCE syllabus!!!

and IMO/Putnam

[TrueTears]

haha nice, well personally i've skipped almost every geometry question I've met, they don't interest me much

[EvangelionZeta]

Just a few cases of people who went to the IMO and did VCE.

Elveyprice, Andrew (2009 Gold Medalist, 37/42, Rank 10th)
Mathematics - Specialist Mathematics: 43
Liang, Alfred (2009 Bronze Medalist, 17/42, Rank 220th)
Mathematics - Mathematical Methods (CAS): 45
Chong, Aaron (2009 Silver Medalist, 30/42, Rank 54th)
Mathematics - Specialist Mathematics: 49
Ma, Dana (2009 Honorable Mention, 11/42, Rank 314th)
Mathematics - Mathematical Methods: 50 (Completed in 2008)

As you can see, the brightest of them all *only* got a 43 whilst the one who did the worst of them all (worst is better than most in comparison) got a 50.

Lol, Dana was sick when she did the second day paper, but she's actually pretty good. Whoa, how on earth did Andrew EP get a 43? Which year did he do Specialist Maths in?

lol, EP got 38 in Methods apparently (heard second hand).  Further evidence VCE Maths=/=Competition Maths.  =) 

Poor Dana.  She wanted a Bronze.  =(

[TrueTears]

haha nice, well personally i've skipped almost every geometry question I've met, they don't interest me much

Geometry's interesting but it's soooooo HARD. I'd be much better at olympiads if I was better at geometry (and number theory) - geometry always screws me up Do you know any good geometry books? I've only got Geometry Revisited, which is very good.

yup geometry revised is what i planned to read but i never did LOL

i read more number theory xD

[/0]

Hmmm I wonder if someone solved the Riemann Hypothesis and found a quick way to factor composites, would it be better to get the Millenium Prize of $1,000,000 or crack bank encryptions and become a billionaire.
Could be a good plot for a movie.

[kendraaaaa]

Last year on the Westpac comp thing I managed to guess a short answer question (it was 0013). That gave me a Distinction, I got a certificate and everything infront of my year level and it was freakin' hilarious. Hahaha, in the same week I got a Methods SAC back with a lovely D on it.

[TrueTears]

Elementary number theory by gareth

Art and Craft of problem solving number theory chapter

Venkov's number theory book

for more advanced reading: zuckerman's introduction to number theory

[TrueTears]

There are 2 kinds of art of problem solving, one by zeitz and another by artofproblemsolving.com the forum. I used the one by Zeitz- very very good!

nah during vce i didn't have much time to study maths outside the vce material which was a real shame, but since vce ended i have been reading heaps and discussing heaps xD

[TrueTears]

also i love combinatorics (generating functions yay!) you should read some books on them too since they fit in well with combinatorial number theory

[TrueTears]

Yah, you should also check out "Complex A-Z" (complex numbers are very powerful sometimes!) "winning solutions", "Maths olympiad treasures" and "Principles of mathematical analysis"

Also you can try AoPS book volume 2, the first volume is kind of a introductory book, I'm sure you won't need it

[TrueTears]

complex numbers - more so for algebra, helps for geometry too

i haven't used graph theory much personally.

[appianway]

Just thought I'd add that VCE results don't seem to correspond for students selected in the science olympiads.

The only team that's been notified so far is biology - one of the students selected had an amazing score in VCE biology, the other had mid-low 40s. Can't comment on the relationship between VCE and physics/chemistry selection, as that hasn't been released yet.

Perhaps VCE just doesn't have any relevance to anything...

[Over9000]

i thought this was about vce MATHS not vce biology... or science...

[crappy]

LOL it's actually about Olympiad/Comp maths vs. VCE Maths.

Olympiad > VCE.

ohhhh another fanboy

cool story bro

[TrueTears]

ok.