In today’s competitive world of education where more and more children are getting amazon scores in exams (90% and above so to say), Olympiad has become a buzz word so common that if your child does not participate in any Olympiad then they may feel left behind. In this article, let us today explore and discuss some key facts and aspects of this amazing buzzword “Maths Olympiads”.
An Olympiad can be defined as a competitive exam in any stream (like sports, academics) that focuses on advanced level questions from within the defined curriculum and additionally probe the child’ ability in various key areas like:
All these skills together form a secret to crack any examination at any level. An Olympiad exam may be held at State, National or International level and may be conducted by different types of organizations including privately-owned and state-owned.
Now specifically in the world of Mathematics, some of the most common Olympiads (but not restricted to) are as follows:
The main purpose of the olympiads is to prepare the child for advanced topics of Mathematics with ample amount of practice so that he gains efficiency and strong hold on concept, speed as well as accuracy. Let us look at some of the key benefits below:
Olympiads help the child to gain Higher Confidence and Expertise since the advanced level of the same topics are covered in much more detail.
Well there is no best age to start preparing for Olympiads. If your child has a strong foundation and has a passion to dig deeper into the subject then you can really get the Olympiad preparation started at any age. Children at a young age naturally have a more flexible and adaptive mind which enables them to adjust themselves to competition and develop the ability to handle pressure in a much better and managed way. Ergo the sooner the better 🙂
Is the Olympiad really a must-have for your child?
Unfortunately, the answer is not a straightforward Yes or No. While we strongly recommend Olympiads for every child, we also need to understand the pre-requisite, which is that the child must be having a good hold on the curriculum he is learning in the school. The Olympiad is always a level ahead of the school curriculum, for example, if your child is in 5th grade the Olympiads targeted for 5th grade typically covers the topics of 6th grade.
So just in case your child is lagging a bit behind in school curriculum for any reason, then your first focus should be to ensure that he catches up on that so that he has a very strong foundation. And only post that should he start preparing for Olympiads. Otherwise, the Olympiad preparation may also backfire, and he may lose his confidence further. Thus the answer to this question really depends upon the fact whether a child has a solid foundation w.r.t. ongoing school curriculum.
Olympiads are an excellent way of improving oneself in the subject while getting an exposure to various different challenges. As children take part in Olympiads while giving their best efforts, they feel an urge themselves to keep attempting various different Olympiads, and this makes them proactive and self-driven. So yes, if the prerequisites are met then every child should aim to excel in Olympiads. This enablement is the best gift a parent can give to his child.
At MathCruise we always follow the methodology of assessment based learning, which means that we identify the right course for each child based on his aspirations, interest areas and strengths. So even if the parents may approach us for joining the Olympiad course, we may end up recommending the child to join our school curriculum course if his foundation skills are not strong enough, or Abacus if he specifically need support in arithmetic calculations. If you join Mathcruise family, we guarantee trust and a strong foundation in Maths.
Get more insights into Olympiads-related questions by visiting our web page here
Our chief trainer has also shared her thoughts on some of the frequently asked questions around the Olympiads, visit our page here for details and go to the FAQ section.
