On 28^th, March, 2012,  a contest named “Mathematics Exchange”  was successfully held by class 8C at the great lobby of building C in order to celebrate the 81^st anniversary of the Union’s establishment (26.03.2012). As Amsers, secondary graders had extremely exciting and attractive contests, showing that their talents are no less than highschool graders.

An extraordinary and dynamic performance was the beginning which dramatically heated the atmosphere up before the contests.

2 MCs of the show

After the atmosphere had been heated up, 5 teams from 5 classes of grade 8 starting the race, together with the advice from Mr.Tran Phuong excellently finished the contest with incredible breakthroughs.

Round 1, “Who’s the faster”, took place thrillingly. 10 questions were assigned with 15 seconds for each. Any team with the answer had to quickly snatch the organizing committee’s flag to gain the right to answer. Whichever team that grasped the flag before the committee’s signal would be disqualified instantly. Each team was awarded 10 points for a right answer. This round required players not only intelligence, acuteness but also speed and ingenuity to wrest the flag against the intense competitions of other teams. And team 2, thanks to the leadership of  Cao Hai Nam – 8B, fulfilled both those requirements and outstandingly answered 3 consecutive questions correctly, earning 30 points as well as the temporary lead. Unfortunately, team 4 didn’t earn any points, perhaps due to lack of speed and a little luck. However, by no means did they lose their volition! Round 1 also witnessed a lot of exciting surprises and humorous situations. At question number 6, the Organizing Committee brought on a really difficult English question, which made the 5 teams feel hard to find out the answer and eventually, give their turn to the audience reluctantly. A student from class 6D, with his own logical ability and diverse English skills, answered this question amazingly and got a present from the Organizing Committee with the respect and great applause of 8 graders.

Round 2 “Giving Strength” took place no less drastically than the first because after this round, two teams with the lowest scores would be dismissed. Each team was given 5 questions and 10 minutes to think. The answers of the preceding questions were prerequesite data for the next questions. After 10 minutes, every correct answer was given 10 points. Team 1 confidently handed in their answers while the given 10 minutes weren’t over. Having finished round 2, team 3 and 5 both had 50 points, which made the Organizing Committee raise an extra question. Finally, team 5 with the leadership of Ta Ha Nguyen –, coming first in Maths contest of Grade 8, answered correctly the question and received 10 extra points. It was a pity to say goodbye to team 3, however, that was what a competition was called: there were winners and losers, and team 3 had tried their best. After round 2, 3 teams made it to round 3 were team 1 – 60 points, team 2 – 70 points and team 5 – 60 points.

Round 3 gave 5 English – Math questions and 5 minutes to each team; 20 points for every correct answer. This was the hardest round for the students for it did not only test their logic but also their English skills. Still eminently, team 2 remained leader with 2 correct answers and earned 40 points; team 5 earned 20 points and team 1 didn’t earn any.

However, round 4 “Figuring out the unknows” was literally the crucial round. There were 5 questions with 60 seconds for each. With each correct answer, both teams got 20 points with a code. And once they got enough 5 codes, both teams had to connect them and gave out the final answer of the competition. And after 4 questions, team 5 had successfully connected the data, gave out the final underlying unknown of the whole program – Professor Ngo Bao Chau.

Ngo Bao Chau (born on June, 28^th 1972 in Hanoi) is the eminent mathematician, best known for proving the Fundamental lemma for automorphic forms proposed by Robert Langlands and Diana Shelstad. He is the first Vietnamese to receive the Fields Medal.

Ultimately, the final result was team 2 and 5 with the same scores and they both got the first prize of the show. Team 1 got the second prize.

All 5 teams had brought the audiences many surprises of their abilities. It’s proud to call them “the next generation of Amsers” – undoubtedly they won’t be any less outstanding than the elders. This was a really great playground for little Amsers from class 8C. In the future, hopefully, there will be more and more such playgrounds for Amsers.

Correspondent: Duy Anh ( S 11-14)

Translator: Hoang Hai Anh ( A2 11-14)