Playground to nurture passion for Mathematics

In the past 5 years, the Singapore and Asian Math Olympiad (SASMO) held in Nha Trang City has attracted the attention of students who love Mathematics. The competition has created an intellectual playground, helping students nurture their passion for this subject.

Nurturing a passion for Mathematics

SASMO is one of the prestigious international math competitions, attracting tens of thousands of students from many countries to participate each year. In Nha Trang City, the competition has been organized by Kien Gia Math Center (Nha Trang City) in coordination with other units since 2020. The results of the national excellent student competition and the provincial excellent secondary school student competition in the 2024-2025 school year have recognized outstanding faces who participated in SASMO such as: Doan Duc Minh - 12th grade Math student, Le Quy Don High School for the Gifted (Nha Trang City), first prize in Math in the national excellent student competition, won a silver medal in the SASMO competition in 2020; Nguyen Van Hoang Bach - first prize in Math in the provincial excellent secondary school student competition and Vu Minh Chau - second prize in Math in the provincial excellent secondary school student competition, both grade 9 students of Thai Nguyen Secondary School (Nha Trang City) and won a silver medal in SASMO in 2024; Vo Truong Gia Bao - 9th grade student of Nguyen Hien Secondary School (Nha Trang City), second prize in Math in the provincial-level Secondary School Excellent Student Competition, won the SASMO encouragement prize in 2024...

Candidates taking the SASMO exam in 2025.

Doan Duc Minh shared: “SASMO is one of the first math competitions in English that I have participated in, which gave me experience in solving advanced math problems. The exam requires writing in English, so I also learned a lot of English terms to be able to read foreign documents, thereby studying math more deeply and helping me achieve higher achievements in the future.”

Helps develop thinking and problem solving skills

In 2025, the SASMO exam will have 66,000 candidates from 8,163 schools in 42 countries and territories participating, of which Vietnam has a total of 5,800 candidates from 10 provinces and cities across the country. At the Nha Trang Exam Council organized by Kien Gia Math Center in collaboration with the University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Ho Chi Minh City National University on April 6, there were 85 candidates from grades 2 to 10, mainly from schools in the province. Each grade level has a separate exam, including 25 Math questions at the high-level of thinking (bilingual in English and Vietnamese), including 15 multiple-choice questions and 10 fill-in-the-blank questions. According to the results just announced by the Organizing Committee, the whole province has 41 prize-winning contestants, accounting for 48.2% of the total number of contestants, including 15 gold medals, 13 silver medals, 11 bronze medals, and 2 consolation prizes.

Vo Kim Long - Grade 7 student at Vo Thi Sau Secondary School (Nha Trang City), a candidate who won the gold medal twice in the SASMO exam (2024 and 2025) and ranked 2nd in grade 7 on the international rankings of the SASMO exam 2025 shared: “I participated in the exam with the desire to explore and challenge myself; at the same time, interact and learn with good students who love Mathematics. The SASMO exam requires high thinking, interesting, rich and creative questions, helping me practice logical thinking, analysis and problem solving - important skills not only in Mathematics but also in life. I am very happy to see Vietnam's name in the top rankings of this exam. Organizing the exam in Nha Trang City is convenient for me and my friends to participate. I hope that in the near future, this exam and other international Math exams will be deployed and developed more strongly".

According to Ms. Lam Uyen Thy - Director of Kien Gia Math Center, the candidates have undergone an intensive training process lasting about 4 months before the exam to practice logical thinking and problem solving skills. This is also an important stepping stone for them when participating in higher level exams. The medals they have achieved not only demonstrate their abilities, but also motivate and encourage them to continue pursuing their passion for Mathematics. In the near future, the center will research and organize a number of other international Math competitions to create a playground for students to express themselves and learn and improve their knowledge.

H.NGAN

Source: https://baokhanhhoa.vn/xa-hoi/giao-duc/202505/san-choi-nuoi-duong-dam-me-toanhoc-aa807b0/