Mathematical Olympiads: Email of 2019-05-01

[AMO/TT] Tournament of the Towns O Level on Saturday 4 May

As usual for the TT exams, I have booked two Saturdays 12-6pm in or near BLT (Blakers Lecture Theatre) at UWA. They will be held on:

O Level Paper: Saturday 4 May 12n-6pm in WLT at UWA
A Level Paper: Saturday 11 May 12n-6pm in BLT at UWA

The O Level paper is actually in Weatherburn Lecture Theatre, but I've left the directions the same, since if you are standing outside Blakers Lecture Theatre and do an about face, you will be staring at Weatherburn LT, and if you look at the directions for Blakers LT, I tell you how to find BLT after finding Weatherburn. So simply ignore part of those instructions!

Now, the O Level paper is a 4 hour paper: so choose the slot that's convenient for you within the time between 12n and 6pm. I was asked about "registration" ... essentially, when you turn up, you are "registered". Nate will actually be running things on Saturday. He will have a spreadsheet with all possible attendees. So point out who you are on the sheet when you arrive. He will write your name on the board, along with your start time and add 4 hours for the finish time. So you need to start between 12 and 2pm.

The A Level paper is a 5 hour paper: choose the slot that's convenient for you within the time between 12n and 6pm, i.e. you need to start between 12n and 1pm (less choice of time for this one).

For the new students the TT will be a bit of a shock. Just remember: persistence, patience, self-belief are key ... just keep trying new ideas until you find an 'in' and then keep working at it, until you have a solution. Try to get at least one question completely out. You tend to get more for a complete question than for partially worked solutions to questions. It's best to start with the first question, and only abandon the question if you've spent an hour on it, and gotten nowhere.

We'll discuss the O paper in the following week ... and hopefully that will help you feel better about it, before you have a go at the A paper.

Follow the link for directions to Blakers LT.