Read on for what Singaporeans always
want, the “model answer”
The Internet
has been in a frenzy the past few days over a mind-boggling math question
supposedly meant for Primary 5 students that’s gone viral and stumped the
world.
The
reactions over the question regarding “Cheryl’s Birthday” have been flying fast
and furious, with some going as far as to condemn our Singapore education
system as being too tough on young kids, and adding fuel to the fire behind a
recent New Paper article about parents
hiring tutors to do their children’s homework.
Even the international news media have caught wind of it,
with The
Guardian, The
Daily Mail and The Independent all publishing stories on the
baffling math problem. It’s even got a new hashtag #cherylsbirthday generated on twitter, it’s the top
trending article on US site Buzzfeed
.
We’d like to call it Singapore’s answer to the white and
gold dress phenomenon.
Well, for
those of you still pulling your hair out, fret no more, it’s been found out
that the offending math question is actually from a Singapore and Asian Schools
Math Olympiad (SASMO) contest aimed at sifting out the best among Sec 3 and Sec
4 math students from Singapore and other parts of the world.
In short,
only the best of the best 15 and 16-year-old mathletes are meant to solve this
puzzle. So for those
who have been spreading online vitriol against our local education system or
taking naughty digs like how “Albert” and “Bernard” should dump their friend
“Cheryl”, well, maybe you should have done a little “homework” before getting
all upset.
And if
you’re 16 and below and managed to derive the correct answer, maybe it’s time
to add some kind of self-congratulatory hashtag or meme on Facebook.
Below is a
clarification from the Executive Director of SASMO, Henry Ong, sent to local
community news site, Mothership.sg, that clears up online misconceptions on if
the question in question was actually meant for 11-year-olds:
“To whom it may
concern, We would appreciate if you could post this reply to clarify the
“supposedly P5 viral question” that appeared on your website.
We think it is important to clarify so that Singapore
parents will not worry unnecessarily. The supposedly P5 question that went
viral on the Internet on Apr 12, 2015 is actually a question from the Sec 3 and
from the Sec 4 SASMO (Singapore and Asian Schools Math Olympiad) contests held
on Apr 8, 2015 (see photo below).
Being Q24 out of 25 questions, this is a difficult
question meant to sift out the better students. SASMO contests target the top
40% of the student population and the standards of most questions are just high
enough to stretch the students.
Questions that test on logical reasoning are common
questions in Math Olympiads. This year, about 28 000 students from Singapore,
Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand,
China (including Hong Kong and Macau), Bulgaria, Uzbekistan, Mongolia and UK
took part in the contests.
We are
pleased that this question has generated so much interest and ‘solutions’ on
the Internet. For more information, please visit http://sasmo.sg or http://mathsolympiads.org.”
And the “model
answer” for all you math geeks, also taken from Mothership.sg:
Of course,
what we’re wondering now is why a primary 5 student, supposedly the niece of a
friend of Singapore TV talk show presenter Kenneth Kong, was given such a
difficult question to grapple with in the first place?
Seems to us
that it’s parents and not the education system that’re getting too tough on our
kids these days.
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