The olympiads, as we generally call them, the IMO exam, are the competitive exams that are conducted for the students from Classes 1 to 12 and these are exams that are conducted on a national and also international level. These exams have the aim of encouraging the students to have a better understanding of the mathematics domain and strive to be the best by scoring the maximum. The olympiads also dictate a strategy and discipline to be adhered to, in a way, by keeping the standard of the exam at the highest compared to the other disciplines of competitive exams.
These exams not only test the student’s prowess in the mathematics domain but also substantially improve the student’s confidence level by way of placing the student amongst the national and international talents in this domain. This is crucial, as the olympiads are not just made for the exams themselves but they play a strong role in any of the future board exams that a student will have to face in the path of his academics or a career pathway. Now that we have seen an introduction to the IMO exam, we shall now move on to covering the tips and tricks to compete at the Class 9 IMO exam.
Mocks:-
As the famous proverb goes, Practice maketh a man perfect. We need tons and tons of practice when it comes to the class 9 IMO exam. Fret not, as this is going to form the foundation for the crucial board exams coming up in the year ahead and also the fundamentals learned for these exams will come in handy in the future, it is worthwhile to shell out the time to ace the concepts first and then jump to the mock questions. These mock questions, although give the student the limitation of solving the sums about the chapters mostly, they are crucial for time management during the exam. This brings us to the next point of bringing all the mock questions from all the chapters together into a single attempt at a sample paper.
IMO Sample Paper 1 Class 9:-
The sample papers are quite different from the mock questions that are given specifically marking them to the individual chapters. Let us look at it this way: The mock questions like IMO Class 9 Previous Year Paper 2012 make you an expert for the individual chapters, one chapter at a time, and give you a great understanding of the chapters themselves and good time management in solving the sums on individual chapters when sums are taken up one after the other. The sample question papers, on the other hand, give you an edge over the other students in handling sums from all the chapters put together at the same time, in terms of time management and efficiency in calculations.
Focusing on the important parts:-
The sample papers and the mock tests give the student a feel of the original exam as the sample papers are formatted in the same way a real examination would be conducted. Taking these tests in a real-time simulation of an exam hall would make this much more valuable. As for the knowledge part, this will let the student clearly understand what needs to be put focus on and what needs to be played down for the preparation part. The student will clearly understand the weightage of the concepts and the significance of focussing on the important chapters so that there is more time for revising for the actual exam and that the said revision is done on the most important concepts and not wasted on chapters with less weightage. So, this fact stresses the importance of a periodic approach to the sample papers in an interspersed manner and not at one go at the end of the preparation, right before the exams.
Calculation skills:-
Imagine a student trying to get the calculations right for a probability sum and is stuck at how to calculate the percentages for a probability that is in question. Imagine that he is trying to calculate a complex 21% of the given number. If he is going to take the conventional route of solving this problem, he is stuck with the basic addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division in a way and is going to fill in the rough sheet and he is going to spend minutes getting down this calculation. Now, let us look at another student who has aced Vedic mathematics especially for the calculation of this percentage. Now, what he would do for this is that he would look at the 10% of the given number, double it to get 20% number and divide the 10% by 10 to get the 1%, and add this to the already calculated 20%. To be exact, his mind would go, what is the 10% for the given number, which is essentially the given number, divided by 10, then quickly double it and get the one-tenth of it and add the same to get the answer.
This calculation is far easier and quicker than the conventional method and this would enable the student to obtain valuable minutes/seconds during the exam. Now, it is the duty of the student to ace the Vedic maths tips and tricks to have an edge over the crowd and to maintain the cool during the exam and not lose it over hurrying up with some pretty simple mathematical calculation for a probability sum.
An extended Syllabus:-
The school syllabus, although very elaborate in its coverage of the concepts and the sums, is nevertheless smaller than that of the ones covered in Sample papers 1 for class 9. This is indeed a fact that is often hidden and not known by many students and some of the teachers as well. The fact that the olympiad examinations go beyond what has been laid out for the class 9 syllabus is a lesser-known fact but this gives the student the leverage over the ones not going for the olympiads by way of getting the concepts to be used for the board examinations in advance.
Happy Solving. Good luck.
