Sparking An Interest In Maths With SEAMO India...

Maths could easily be conferred as 'The Most Interesting Yet Frightful Subject' for a majority of students across the globe. Most students detest the subject owing to a variety of reasons.

It is also a reality in India that most brain drain happens because there is a dearth of resources and right opportunities or the means to utilize those opportunities in our country.

SEAMO, short for South East Asian Mathematical Olympiad, after having discovered minds with a mathematical bent in across twelve nations of South East Asia, namely Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Jakarta, Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, and Timor-Leste has now stepped foot in the Indian academic arena, with the mission to dispel the fear factor associated with Mathematics as a subject whilst providing a platform to creative and brilliant minds by the means of a friendly competition.

SEAMO was conceptualized by Terry Chew, is managed by noted mathematicians and experts of Terry Chew Institute of Mathematical Olympiad (TCIMO), headquartered in Singapore. Established in 1991, TCIMO has been engaged in path-breaking research in designing mathematical questions to assess a child's inherent and problem-solving skills. It encourages all categories of students to think about the solution approach to a problem.

SEAMO India is going to debut in the country on 6 August 2017, registrations for which close on July 31, 2017 and is an objective test (with no negative marking) comprising 24 questions (eight each spanning three levels - Easy, Moderate, Difficult) spanning across a two-hour time frame, aiming to promote excellence among students of Class V-XII across fifty-five cities and in more than hundred test centres. The registration fee for students wishing to participate in SEAMO India is INR 1150 for Class V-VIII and INR 1350 for Class IX-XII. Sample question papers are available on SEAMO's Indian chapter's website.

Apart from encouraging analytical thinking, by presenting a platform which assesses the logical thinking and problem-solving approach of a student by compelling them to think deeply, SEAMO also enhances the "High Order Thinking" ability of a child and recommends a learning style by the means of a personalized report.

There are multiple advantages for a student who decides to appear for SEAMO in the following manner.

• Early exposure to an International Olympiad (especially for Class V – IX) helps to nurture the mental faculty and thinking ability of the students, which ultimately boosts their confidence.

• Relative evaluation, wherein students will be able to benchmark their performance with respect to other participants, by the means of National Rank (amongst students of fifty-five cities) and International Rank (amongst students of twelve countries). 

• Performance Analysis Report based on performance in SEAMO will be a unique take away such that each student identifies their own weaknesses; improves upon them, and has an urge to perform better in the successive conduction of the competitive exam. 

• SEAMO enables the charting out of a career path suitable for a child, taking into consideration, possible career options available, though not directly but by giving an insight into the skill base of a child. 

• SEAMO encourages all categories of students to experience, assess their skill base and benchmark their performance, whereas most of the other Olympiads follow a filtration process wherein only the best students progress to the subsequent stages and others are required to exit. 

As opposed to other countries where SEAMO is being conducted in November each year, for India, it is exceptionally being conducted in August, thus SEAMO India results will be declared on 25 August 2017 along with All India Rank and personalized report for each participant, while the International Rank will be declared sometime in December 2017, once SEAMO publishes the results of all other Asian countries.

While there are participation certificates for all students, the Rewards associated with SEAMO are detailed as follows.

• Gold Plated Medal & Certificate: Top 0.025% of students 
• Silver Plated Medal & Certificate: Next 1% of students 
• Bronze Plated Medal & Certificate: Next 2% of students

All in all, SEAMO comes across as an appreciable platform for young minds to nurture their mental faculty, sharpen their problem-solving, logical, and analytical skills and enhance a positive competitive spirit.