MATHS
Olympiads in themselves are extremely fun, but they are also pretty competitive. Most olympiads are conducted on a state-wide or a country-wide scale, which means that the competition level is difficult.
In school exams, you just have to try to perform better than those students who are in your class. But, in an olympiad, you have to try to perform better than the students in your entire state or even country, it seems quite frightening. The hunger to score well in an olympiad is felt by everyone, after all, who doesn’t enjoy performing well and enjoying all the praises that come along with it?
But when the competition is so high, performing well seems impossible. Well, it is not impossible, scoring well in an olympiad is quite possible, all you have to do is keep a few points in mind and you are set to become your state’s next olympiad topper!
So here are a few tips that will surely prove to be helpful to you in clearing and acing your next olympiad.
Dive deep into the syllabus
If you want to clear your olympiad like a star, then don’t just look at the syllabus and review the topics, dive as deep as you can into them. What is meant here is that you need to take each topic or heading and you need to assess yourself on it.
Don’t make the mistake of assuming that you will just need to practice one or two questions and you will be done with a topic, olympiad questions have a greater level of difficulty than your school exams. The only way to deal with these questions is by knowing every single thing that is to be known about the topics and to practice by attempting higher difficulty level questions. A bonus step would be to practice the ‘Higher order thinking questions – HOTS’.
Learn ‘mental maths’
During an olympiad, time is of the essence, you need to be quick or you will have trouble finishing on time. The good thing about these olympiads is that you don’t need to attempt the full question methodically on paper, you just have to calculate the answer using any method that you prefer and then just mark it on the sheet.
But, this could work against you too, if you are not quick in your calculations then you will lose time by solving everything on paper. Hence, you need to be able to do the calculations quickly and mentally. The one solution for this is to learn and practice ‘mental maths’, ‘mental maths’ is an easy way of solving mathematical questions mentally without the use of pen or paper. It requires a little bit of practice, but once you are comfortable with it, you can work wonders in your olympiad and save a lot of your precious time.
Practice using sample papers
To clear your olympiad, you must practice a lot. The best way to practice for an olympiad is by attempting to solve sample papers or past year papers. While practicing for your maths olympiad you can find IMO sample papers for class 10 and try to solve them.
Solving sample papers and past year papers provides you with a realistic idea of how the exam is going to be, you can figure out the difficulty level, the marking scheme, and also how the marks are distributed between different topics.
It is by far the best way to make sure that you are fully prepared for a test. So you must try to find and solve as many question papers as possible. To make this into a fun activity, you can also solve these papers along with your friends and have a little bit of friendly and healthy competition.
Be careful during the exam
Your most important job is to be mindful and careful while attempting the olympiad, you must not get distracted during the test, as it will lead to a loss of time and eventually a loss of marks. You need to be extremely attentive while attempting the olympiad, be careful of the rules of filling the information sheet and the OMR circles, as one little mistake can cost you a lot of your time.
You must read all the given instructions and make sure that you follow them properly. Remember to carry ballpoint pens and pencils to the exam hall. Do not waste time by being stuck on a difficult question, rather, try to attempt the easier questions first and then come back to the difficult questions later. Be careful that you do not miss any questions. Make sure that you fill the information sheet neatly and with all your correct information, as it is an important piece of paper during the olympiad.
Keep a check of the clock and divide your time properly in a way that you get the chance to attempt every question properly. Do not get distracted by your friends or your classmates and try to keep your eyes on your work.
Recheck your answer sheet
Another important reason to stay within the time limit is so that you can get enough time to recheck all your answers in the end. You should not just go through the answers to the questions but also through the sheet on which you filled out your details and information. After you have attempted every question, take the time to re-evaluate your answers, if you have enough time you can also solve some difficult questions all over again to make sure that you solved them correctly. OMR sheets are tricky, so make sure that you have only filled one circle for an answer and that you have filled the circle that you meant to mark, as marking an answer wrongly can lead to a loss of marks. Do the same for your details to avoid any confusion.
If you are sure to follow these tips, clearing your maths olympiad will become extremely easy and you might even be able to secure the position of the topper!
